Waxed Wooden Tag Art

I came across some wooden tags in my stash and decided to paint a girl on one of them  and then coat it in beeswax.  I sketched her in with a graphite pencil, painted her with watercolors and outlined with a Pitt pen.  I used a gel pen for the whites of her eyes and in her hair.

After stamping on some script text at the top of the tag,  I still felt it needed something more.  I added some little jewelry pieces that I had saved from a broken earring to a string and tied it to the tag.

Here she is after a few coats of beeswax.  It really deepened the colors. I’m not sure if I like it better with or without the wax.  If I do another,  I’ll make her eyes a lot lighter now that I can see how much they darken up with the wax.  I do like how the wax seems to soften the shading around her forehead and under her eyes making it look more blended.

It was hard to get a good image showing the texture created by the wax.  You can see it a little better at the top of this image.

Happy Friday and may you all have a great weekend!

Wax on Watercolor

Here are 2 of the latest pieces I created using watercolors and wax on 6 x 6″ wood panels.

I started out by painting an 11 x 14  sheet of watercolor paper with washes of yellow golds, purples and pinks.  After I determined what sections of the painting I wanted to use, I cut out two pieces of the painting about a quarter inch larger than the panels.

I used PVA glue to adhere the pieces to the panels and used a brayer to smooth out the paper.  I stacked books on top and let dry overnight.  Once the glue was dry, I trimmed off the excess paper using a craft knife.   I felt that the paintings  looked a bit washed out so I enhanced the color a little by smudging in some metallic Gelatos in purple and gold to a few places on the painting.

Next I heated the panels with my heat gun and then brushed on a layer of wax, fused and then repeated.  I smoothed out the wax with a little mini iron but there are still some nice little ripples and texture that I love to see when light hits the wax.  While the wax was still slightly warm, I sprinkled on some gold mica flakes and lightly pressed them into the wax.  Once the wax completely cooled, I used the side of my hand to buff.  This gave them a good shine and when the light hits them just right, it looks like glass.

Before I added the wax and mica flakes to the two pieces, I decided to do a practice run with the wax and mica flakes.  I had never used the flakes before and wasn’t sure if I wanted them on the paintings.  I had a piece of masonite with mixed media paper adhered to it ready to use as a practice piece.  I quickly painted on some watercolor paints in the same colors used for the panel paintings.   I enhanced with the Gelatos and then added the wax and flakes.  I was really happy with how the practice piece came out!  I’m thinking about putting it in a floating frame.  I love it when you can just let go without any expectations and you end up with something you really like.