I haven't done many encaustic paintings and haven't tried one for a long time. I love painting waves and felt like using encaustics for this one. It was challenging to try to give a sense of movement and get the wax to move in the right direction. I used a heat gun to fuse each layer which doesn't give a great deal of control because it heats a much larger area than is sometimes needed. I had fun with this and would really like to give more time to this medium and build my skills. I love the look of encaustics and I certainly can't paint too tightly with this medium. I think I will get a torch so that I can have more control for fusing but that open flame freaks me out. I do work outside and have an extinguisher handy but I'm such a klutz and if anyone can cause a problem with an open flame, it would be me.
I think my favorite part of completing an encaustic painting is polishing it. I love the gleam and the look of richness when it is polished. It looks like a glazed tile. The only bad thing is that it tends to lose that sheen and needs to be re-polished periodically. It's no big deal though. All it takes is a soft cloth or the palm of your hand (with no rings on).
