Encaustic is drawing with wax crayons melted on the surface of a hot iron. Such a simple device will help create amazing pictures to learn interesting needlework.
What is encaustic?
This art involves the creation of paintings using molten wax of various colors. Such works are still found in excavations. Ancient Greece. Early Christian paintings still retain their bright colors.
All you need to work is:
- paper;
- iron;
- wax pencil.
Wax painting: necessary equipment and materials for encaustics
Anything can be depicted. If you are an aspiring artist, then you will be able to do abstract paintings. If you have experience in creating canvases, then you can depict clear landscapes.
The main material that is required in the work is artistic wax with colored pigments. It is sold in specialized art stores. If it is not possible to purchase such wax, then use crayons for drawing and wax pencils. They can be purchased at the stationery store.
You will also need:
- glossy thick cardboard;
- soft cloth for polishing;
- lining on the desktop so that it remains clean during work.
If this is not possible, then use an ordinary household iron, but it should be small in size, have a sole without holes and a temperature controller.
You will need toilet paper and napkins or a rag, with these materials you need to clean the sole of the iron in order to change the color of the wax to a new one.
If you have a hair dryer that can adjust the temperature, then you can use it. Then use wax pencils as materials.
If encaustics becomes your permanent hobby or even a source of income, then you will need to buy a special heating rod called causaria. It will help to depict small details and ornate patterns.
Encaustic for beginners
For those who have just decided to master this interesting technique, it will be useful to know what tricks you can use when working, these are:
- smoothing;
- edge work;
- impression;
- nose work.
When the material acquires such a consistency, it will be necessary to run the iron over the surface of the paper, but without pressing hard on it so as not to burn it. A trace of the desired shape should remain on the sheet.
Working with an edge allows you to create various stripes. This technique is used to draw grass, flowers. First you need to proceed in the same way as in the case when you applied the impression in the smoothing technique. Now put an iron on this pattern with an edge to get a strip of the desired length. Remove excess wax with a soft cloth.
In order to make veins in the drawing using the encaustic technique, you need to apply paint to the paper base, and then put the sole of the iron on it for a few seconds. At the same time, it should lie like a glove, they should not fidget.
To create small details of the picture, you need to dip the tip of the iron in melted wax, and then attach it to the canvas in the right place.
Encaustic - master class with photo
Now that you have learned the basics of this art, it's time to move on to practical lesson. It will be easy for beginners.
Take:
- wax pencils;
- white sheet of thick cardboard;
- glue;
- hair dryer with adjustable temperature.
Pencils should be the same size, if any of them are longer, cut them from the side opposite the rod to equalize with others.
Spread the upper part of the sheet with glue, attach the wax blanks here tightly to each other with the tip down. When the glue dries, bring the hair dryer to the tips wax pencils by turning it on at the highest power. In this case, the workpieces will begin to melt, and the wax will gradually flow down.
If you need strict vertical lines, then hold the sheet of cardboard in the usual position. If you want to achieve interesting special effects, then rotate it from side to side.
If you are satisfied with the result, then put the work on a horizontal surface and wait for your masterpiece to harden.
Such an art object will decorate a home or become an unusual gift on the New Year or for another holiday.
The next master class will allow you to create a beautiful abstract painting.
To implement the plan, you will need:
- thick paper;
- a small iron without holes on the sole;
- wax pencils;
- paper that can cover the work surface.
Now bring the iron to the paper sheet and start moving it horizontally in one direction and the other. Try to keep the colored stripes as little as possible to intersect each other and mix with each other.
As you understand, the principle of smoothing was applied. Now you need to use the print method. To do this, press the iron against the surface to leave uneven prints on it. You can make a few more prints on each to achieve an interesting effect.
Wait for the encaustic painting to cool slightly and after about a minute polish its surface with a soft cloth.
Inexperienced viewers are unlikely to understand what you have made of this work beautiful and very effective. After you practice on simple patterns, you can move on to more complex ones.
Encaustic - a master class for experienced
If you have everything necessary tools, then the work should not seem too complicated even for craftsmen with little experience. Here's what you'll need:
- hob;
- iron;
- paper;
- foam rubber;
- the cloth.
To draw a landscape, take a blue wax crayon or pencil and start shading it at the top of the sheet. Since the cardboard base will be heated, this will not be difficult to do.
Mountains are drawn next. To do this, put a brown chalk on the sole of the iron, turn the tool over, heat it.
Then place the flat iron on the surface of the sheet, depict the peaks and the mountain system, using some encaustic techniques.
If you need to shade the paint, use a piece of cloth or a sponge for this. To make mountains surrounded by greenery, depict it with a chalk of this color. Draw other elements of the picture, after which you can frame it.
Wax painting technique on paper
Encaustic technique allows you to get very beautiful landscapes. You will be convinced of this now. See what wonderful paintings the craftswomen create.
For work you will need:
- an iron for encaustics or a regular travel iron of a small size without holes;
- glossy cardboard, thick photo paper for printers on which photographs are printed is suitable;
- colored crayons;
- napkins;
- soft cloth.
When they become soft, you can use them, but without waiting until the wax begins to flow down from the surface of the iron.
Apply melted wax to glossy cardboard, swipe from left to right. At the same time, make a small semicircle with an iron.
Carefully, so as not to burn yourself, wipe off the wax from the surface of the iron with napkins and put crayons of a different color here. When they melt, place the iron on the right side of the sheet and swipe to the left, then to reverse side and again to the left.
Now you need to remove this wax from the iron with a napkin and melt brown on it. Make the so-called otlips with the prepared solution. In this case, you need to apply the iron to the paper and quickly lift it. They do this several times.
It remains to mark the small details. For this, the methods listed above are used. Run the edge and then the tip of the iron over the drawing to depict a bush.
Look how beautiful it turned out. Since the picture is made with wax paints, it will sparkle charmingly.
The encaustic technique is also good because you can come up with a plot for a picture right on the go. By making several movements with the iron, placing the wax in a random order, you may find that you have painted something that was not intended before.
The craftswoman from the next master class depicted the bird in this way on her masterpiece. But first things first.
First she took:
- heat-resistant glossy cardboard;
- German and Russian wax crayons;
- iron;
- towel;
- napkin.
Now you need to put white and blue crayons on a warm iron, start drawing with them.
Turn a sheet of cardboard and cover it with wax using an iron on the other side. Now you need to draw clouds with the edges of the iron.
If necessary, occasionally wipe the sole of your instrument with a tissue. But if you use the same colors, then you don't have to.
Looking closer, the craftswoman saw that a bird appeared on the canvas, however, a little strange. It was decided to finish her feathers with the tip of an iron.
You can make adjustments using a toothpick or a pointed wooden skewer. With it, you remove the excess, draw something, clean something.
Now you need to make prints to depict grass, bushes. To do this, put green and brown chalk on the iron, apply them to the desired part of the picture.
Tree crowns are depicted as follows. Put a little brown or green wax on the tip of the iron and draw this detail of the picture with this part of the tool.
Using the impression technique, draw leaves on the trunk and branches, and apply adjustments with a skewer.
The heroine did not like the first bird, so she painted a tree crown in this place. But then I decided to draw a seagull white color. To do this, scratch the outline of the bird with the tip of a wooden stick. Dip it in melted wax and paint on the details.
It remains to polish the masterpiece with a soft napkin and you can hang a picture or give it as a gift for any holiday.
How to draw with an iron - technique for beginners
The next master class will allow you to create a picture in red and yellow tones with dark patches.
Even those who think they can't draw can draw it. To do this, they only need:
- A5 glossy cardboard;
- wax children's crayons;
- iron without holes on the sole with a thermostat, which is designed for dry ironing.
The temperature of the iron should be as low as possible, so set the thermostat to the wool or silk ironing position. Arrange the crayons on the sole of this tool so that the yellow is at the bottom, the orange is below it, the red is even lower, then comes the dark pink and burgundy.
Paint the bright sky with this colored rainbow using the smoothing technique. To do this, simply move the iron over the surface of the paper as if you were ironing from right to left and vice versa.
Wipe off excess wax on the warm surface of the iron with a napkin and place crayons of a different color here. Which can be seen in the next photo.
You also need to iron the sheet horizontally with back and forth movements. This way you will make the main background.
To draw with an iron further, you need to dissolve the black chalk on its tip. Use this part of the working surface of the iron, making an impression on paper with its tip.
Next, using this technique, make prints at the bottom of the sheet and create fabulous vegetation.
To wax further, use the sides of the iron. Place it on edge against the applied background to make vertical lines, such as grass.
After you have made an impression with black wax, you will have a certain pattern left on the tip of the iron. Do not wipe off this coating, make prints further, you will get an effective result.
Such an encaustic is also suitable for beginners, as it does not require special skills.
Now draw with the tip of the iron, for this you need to pick up a little wax with the nose of the iron and drive it in the drawing, creating black flowers and leaves here.
See how to wax birds. To do this, put a dot on the desired part of the picture with the tip of the iron. Then with ribs draw two wings for each bird.
The final chord is polishing the image with a soft cloth. It will turn out radiant and shiny.
When you practice on such works, you will be able to create masterpieces with smaller features in this technique.
To reproduce such an apricot blossom or sakura branch, take:
- black cardboard;
- white marker;
- wax crayons;
- iron;
- soft cloth.
Hold the iron in right hand, and in the left take a green crayon. Place the tip against the iron so that the wax melts slightly.
If you are better with your left hand, then hold the tool and crayon in the way that is convenient for you.
Start filling one half of the sheet first, moving the iron up and down. Do not tear it off the cardboard so that you get a continuous layer. Now fill in the second half of the sheet in the same way.
Take a pink chalk, melt it on the tip of an iron and start recreating a pink petal.
In the same way, complete all the elements of the flower. Those petals that are closer to the viewer need to be filled in last to create volume.
Apply to the tip of the iron brown paint and make a branch. Form stamens from yellow and brown.
To make the flower look more realistic, you need to lightly scratch with a special tool from the core to the beginning of the petals. To do this, you can use a pointed wooden stick.
With the same tool, you can scratch the wax where it is not needed to make the contours of the petals and flowers more even.
If the elements of the picture are already frozen, you can put the canvas on a heating surface so that the wax softens slightly and removes excess or draw veins on the sheets. After the final polishing of the painting with a soft cloth, you can proudly admire the result of the work.
Yes, if you try, then the iron will become a tool of a talented artist.
The presented works are more capable of adults, and even warm irons should not be given to small children for work. Therefore, get acquainted with the variety of this technique, which kids are happy to do.
Encaustic technique for children
Invite the children to do encaustic in the style of pointillism. The following master class will help you master this needlework yourself and teach it to children.
Draw on a sheet of paper with a simple pencil outlines of the future masterpiece. For example, this is a rooster.
So that you can draw it, we suggest attaching a sheet of paper to the template presented and simply redrawing it.
Since encaustics still involves heating the wax, so be with your child during class. Place the candle in a suitable container, light it. Have the child hold the crayon over the candle flame until a drop forms. After that, it must be quickly transferred to a certain area of the picture.
The work requires patience, accuracy, but the result will be amazing. Such a three-dimensional picture will become the pride of parents for their child.
If the children are very young, then you do not need to show them the method of creating a picture with a burning candle, but rather teach them how to create masterpieces using the pointillism technique using the cold method that is safe for them.
Winter drawings will come in handy now. To make them, give the children:
- sheets of black cardboard;
- cotton buds;
- paints.
Adults or older children can use white wax crayons and heat them up to create works, thus mastering the art of encaustic.
To consolidate the material studied, watch the video that will help beginners and older children to master drawing with hot wax even better.
If you have already practiced enough, then try to create a picturesque landscape with the author of the following video.
With the help of beautiful candles, you can create a romantic atmosphere or simply decorate the interior. The modern market presents many options for candles of different sizes, colors and aromas. But why spend money on something that you can easily do at home? After all, almost everyone has ordinary paraffin candles.
Today we will tell you how to turn an ordinary candle into a work of art. This is a very exciting activity, and there is something magical in it. You can safely involve children and other family members to create a colorful miracle.
Multicolored candles
You will need
- paraffin candle
- paper cups
- glass cup
- colored wax crayons
- wick
- a small piece of glass or metal
- favorite essential oils
Progress
Prepare the wick. Usually it is sold with a ready-made base, but if you don’t want to buy, then do it yourself. Place a small piece of paraffin in a paper cup and melt in the microwave (if you don't have a microwave, just hold the paraffin in a water bath). Make a small hole in a piece of glass or metal and pull the wick through it. Place the resulting structure in a glass beaker and fill it with prepared paraffin. 
Cut the crayons of the desired color into small pieces. 
Place paraffin wax and chopped crayons in paper cups. Melt everything in the microwave. Thoroughly mix the contents of the glasses until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Add essential oil. Pour the mass of the desired color into a glass with a wick. You can tilt the container to get the desired shape. 
Wait until the first color hardens, and pour the mass of the other color. Do this with each color until you get a full-sized candle. You can make each layer with a different flavor. 
If you add essential oils to the mixture, before new year holidays try making candles with the smell of Christmas trees and tangerines. You can also decorate a glass cup with coffee beans, shells or beads, most importantly - not plastic ones.
In this way you can make a variety of candles. The whole process will take quite a bit of time, and the result will please you and your loved ones very much. 
Paints, felt-tip pens, pencils, pastels, wax crayons - such a variety of materials that our children use for creativity. Each of them has its own properties and features inherent in this particular material.
Today I would like to talk about how you can use wax crayons and what you can do with them unusual.
Surely every mother has come across the fact that the remains of painted crayons are lying around the house. It is already inconvenient to use them, but it is a pity to throw them away. How to give these crayons new life?
Take a silicone mold, crumble the rest of the crayons into it. You can scatter in shades, or you can make a mix of different colors.
Put the mold in the oven at 180 degrees.
The crayons will melt in about 10 minutes, then take them out. If you notice that the melted crayon has separated into two layers (a transparent layer has formed on top), or air bubbles have formed in it, just stir the contents, for example, with a toothpick and leave to cool.
When the crayons are frozen, remove them from the mold and you can draw!
Such crayons can even be made specifically for small children, it will be more convenient for them to hold small things of this shape than long thin ones, and even those that constantly break from falls.
While we were melting the crayons, the idea came to my mind that you can also draw with melted crayons! If you do not wait for them to harden. Since my crayons were in a form with many cells, we got such a mixture, but if we take, say, cupcake molds and melt the crayons there, then when the contents are poured out, the colors will not mix and it will be possible to draw real drawings, and not abstraction. For example, flowers, where the petals are made of drops, and the stalk will certainly take on a bizarre shape. In addition to the fact that the process itself is interesting, the result will also be unusual, because the drawing will turn out to be voluminous.
It’s also interesting to make pictures like this by melting the crayons with a hair dryer.
Glue the crayons on a sheet of paper, let the glue dry.
Then take a hair dryer and, turning it on to the hottest setting, blow on the crayons, holding the sheet of crayons almost vertically. My advice is to blow into the middle, or even the top of the crayon, rather than the very tip. The chalk will begin to thaw and will flow in straight lines. If you blow on the tip of the chalk, then the molten wax will scatter into different sides due to strong airflow. In fact, that's exactly what we did.
After the smudges dried, we peeled off the crayons and began to fantasize. We got a holiday with gifts and colorful balloons!
Then I accidentally damaged an incompletely dried blot of melted chalk and a notch formed in it, and then the idea came to my mind that wax crayons are easy to use as a background on which you can scratch out something interesting.
And a little later, I remembered that my friend told me how she and her brother made engravings in childhood. They took a candle, rubbed a sheet of paper with it, poured ink on top, let it dry and scratched out a drawing with a needle.
Instead of a candle, I took wax crayons, and covered them with black gouache on top. When the gouache dried, we enjoyed this technique to our heart's content, using an ordinary toothpick for drawing. A little later it turned out that I did not invent the wheel and this technique is called scratching.
Crayons - soft material so they blend nicely. Cut out different shapes from paper and lay them out on a blank sheet of paper.
Holding the shape superimposed on top with your finger so that it does not move out, circle the outline with crayons.
Then with your finger, blend the line in the direction from the center.
This is such a fun result.
And finally, how to decorate a house with wax crayons. Are you planning children's holiday and you think about how to decorate the room? Invite your child to take part in decorating the most direct.
To do this, you will need wax paper, a sharpener and wax crayons. Cut paper flags of any shape, cut so that they fold in half, like a postcard.
Sharpen the crayons, fill in one half of the flag with shavings, cover with the second half and iron the flag through plain paper with an iron. Then fasten the flags on a thick thread or braid, and you will get a wonderful homemade garland!
Happy holiday to you!
Children are often fond of drawing and try everything: pencils, felt-tip pens, crayons. The remaining pieces can be thrown away, or, knowing how to melt wax crayons, you can give them a second “life” and the opportunity to still serve art. Children can create real paintings from melted wax crayons: these are shavings and crumbs, for the preparation of which you can use the very remains or fragments of wax crayons. It is enough to follow the instructions. To melt the crayons, you first need to grind them. To do this, you can use a clerical knife, which cuts the wax crayon. The pieces should be small in size - no more than 1 cm. Then they will melt evenly, there will be no grains left. And one more important point: it is necessary to lay out the crayons according to the main colors. Otherwise, you can get a lot of dirty brown.
The second step is the organization of a water bath to melt the wax crayons. To do this, the saucepan is filled with one third of water, placed on the stove. On top of it is a metal bowl in which the chalk will melt. So, one by one, color by color, you can dissolve several pencils and pour them into a pre-prepared form. If there is no desire to mess with the "water bath", you can use the oven. Heat it to maximum temperature and put a silicone mold filled with wax crayons. Five minutes of heating will melt all the pieces. But it must be borne in mind that crayons should be poured into each container with a slide: as a result, figures of normal thickness will be obtained. If you can't use an oven, you can use a microwave. To do this, a form filled with crushed crayons must be put in the oven for two minutes. Periodically, every half a minute, you should mix the mass.
Whatever melting method is chosen, it is necessary to monitor the melting process, being careful not to overheat. When the material is ready, completely melted and stirred, the mold is carefully removed from the oven and set to cool. The quality of the recycled raw materials will not change: the children will calmly continue drawing with melted wax crayons. In addition, there is another way to use the leftover wax crayons: drawing pictures from melted wax crayons. For this, the remains or fragments of pencils that need to be crushed are also used. Many simply rub the pieces on a grater. But you can also use a pencil sharpener: scroll through large pieces in it, and rub the rest on a grater. So, they get a small crumb, which is later used for drawing. They draw with crayons not only traditionally, on paper sheets, but also on fabric or knitwear.
To draw with melted crayons, you need to sketch the drawing with a simple pencil, and then cover the drawing with cooked crumbs. It can be individual colors or a mixture of colored crumbs. It all depends on the imagination of the author of the drawing. Then a sheet of parchment is laid on top and ironed with a heated iron. Wax crayons melt, spread and turn into a fantasy pattern. You can also paint an old T-shirt. To do this, you will need another sheet of cardboard, which is placed inside the T-shirt so that the paint does not soak onto the back of the product. The front part is sprinkled with wax crayons in the form of patterns, covered with paper and ironed with a hot iron. Wax soaks into knitwear and makes it colorful. Thus, you can engage in creativity with children: this has a beneficial effect not only on development, but also strengthens the relationship between them and their parents.
Wax crayons are loved by all children. Do you remember how convenient and interesting it was to paint everything with them? I still love this indescribable feeling of contact between wax pencil and paper ...
But you can not only draw with wax crayons - the range of their use is quite wide. For example, an unusual color is prepared on the basis of crayons. It's amazing how much you can come up with if you free your imagination from the usual framework! These colored candles- the fruits of a vivid imagination ... Just admire!
Colored chalk candle
- First, take a box of colored crayons.
- Choose your favorite colors that harmonize with each other.
- As a candlestick, you can use a glass glass. A candle needs a wick!
- Glue the wick to the glass, preferably right in the middle.
- Place the remaining wax from old candles in a plastic cup. Warm up the wax in the microwave.
- Cut the wax crayons into pieces and add them to the melted wax.
- Place the candlestick at an angle so that it is convenient to pour melted wax into it.
- Melt the crayons with wax thoroughly in the microwave, pour the liquid mass into the candlestick. Let it dry for 20 minutes.
- Now turn the glass to the other side and pour another colored layer of wax into the candle holder. Also let it cool down.
- Gently pour the last layer on top, let the candle dry well.
- Brilliant result!
In this video, you can peep all the subtleties of making colored candles from wax crayons.
By adding a few drops of essential oil to liquid wax, you can create a fragrant candle! make candles from crayons you can with your child, because it's so easy. And most importantly, you can achieve your favorite colors by mixing melted crayons of different shades. Make a unique candle, just right for you