Own your creativity and have a blast doing it by learning to create art with encaustic, the ancient process of painting with molten pigmented beeswax.  For years, Lissa Rankin taught encaustic workshops, but her students were always so distracted writing down tips for various techniques that they forgot to paint. The seed of the idea for this book began to sprout when Lissa told her students she would write down everything they needed to know so they could be freed up to create art.  By teaching both beginning and advanced encaustic technique, Lissa hopes to help artists move beyond the challenges of mastering the encaustic medium so that they can focus on what really matters- the joy of creativity and the messages they wish to spread with their art.

About Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide To Creating Fine Art With Wax

Participating Artists Working With Encaustic

Lissa believes that we all expand collectively by sharing knowledge, even the kind of knowledge artist may consider proprietary. Here, in the spirit of education, trust, and sharing, professional artists skilled in encaustic spill the beans and share their secrets.  Artists who have contributed art and/or techniques include Natalie Abrams, Tracey Adams, Jhina Alvarado, Rifka Angel, Ed Angell, Nancy Azara, Eve Marie Bergren, Kim Bernard, Pamela Blum, Miles Conrad, Danielle Correia, Kris Cox, Michael David, Kristy Deetz, Christel Dillbohner, Betsy Eby, Jeri Eisenberg, Carlos Estrada-Vega, Monique Feil, Bill Fisher, Kevin Frank, Lorrie Fredette, Anna Gagne, Lorraine Glessner, Eileen Goldenberg, Ruth Gooch, Reni Gower, Gail Gregg, Dusty Griffith, Valerie Hammond, Christy Hengst, Cari Hernandez, Howard Hersh, Robin Hill, Heather Hutchison, Jasper Johns, Katsy Johnson, Sierra Jolie, Barbara Kerwin, Matt Klein, Martin Kline, Kandy Lozano, Mari Marks, Alexandre Masino, Chris McCauley, Timothy McDowell, James Meyer, Shawna Moore, Laura Moriarty, Sylvia Netzer, Gay Patterson, Mark Perlman, Fawn Potash, Richard Purdy, Debra Ramsay, Lissa Rankin, Mark Rediske, Chris Reilly, Paula Roland, Jeff Schaller, Andrea Schwartz-Feit, Donna Sharrett, Adele Shaw, Thea Schrack, Michelle Stuart, Rodney Thompson, Theodora Varnay Jones, Tina Vietmeier, Elise Wagner, Daniella Woolf, Hiro Yokose, and Karl Zerbe.

Buy Your Copy of Encaustic Art Now

Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art With Wax was published August 10, 2010 by Watson Guptill, a subsidiary of Random House. The book is available for order on Amazon. Click here to order.

Yes, Something’s Missing from Page 182

I know. I know. I swear it’s not my fault. The publisher made an error in printing and Jeff Schaller’s beautiful painting got superimposed over a few lines of text, cutting out some of the description of how he uses silkscreening with encaustic. Jeff has forgiven me, so I hope you will too. Once we sell out the first print run, this error will be rectified in the second printing, but until then, count yourself among the lucky. You’ve got a collector’s edition! 

Here’s what you missed:

To create Jaclyn, Jeff Schaller silk-screened directly onto the wax surface. When silk-screening directly onto wax, Schaller recommends that you place a coat of wax on the wood panel and then fuse it with the heat gun. To ensure that the surface is perfectly smooth, he fills in any small air holes with wax and then uses a single-edge razor blade to smooth the surface.  He warns that, if it is not smooth, the silk screen will glide over the “divots” and the image will not come out properly. When the smooth wax surface has cooled, he pulls the water-based inks through the screen and onto the wax and allows the silk-screened image to dry. Then he paints a coat of clear medium over the image to encase it, and, finally, he heats it very carefully with a heat gun, taking care not to blow out the silk-screened image.