No more on this one.

That's it on this one. I am taking a break from the studio and going on a 3 days trip to Puebla, and surroundings.

After all the weeks of work putting together the online classes, the portrait was a nice break, but painting a toddler skin was tricky for me. An older adult is much more interesting.

oil portrait - still not finished

It's getting close to being finished. It still need work on the arms. Whole thing looks flat. One more day. I am getting bored with this effort and want to get back to encaustic and some vigorous painting

another day of portrait painting

I am starting to remember why I moved from oil to encaustic. It was because I was getting too picky with my figurative oils. I see that I am doing it again. Hopefully one more day of work on this portrait and I can get back to creating work that is more imaginative and free.

Tomorrow I finish the arms, dress and hands and add a daisy.

Link to my online advanced techniqe classes

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4167

portrait 3rd day

I am out of practice with portraiture and I feel there is not enough contrast in the face but I need to move on.
I will change the arm position and lighten the background and see how that looks.

Painting in oil?

I have been working for weeks on the preparation and posting of my online classes. Filming the videos was nothing compared to the challenges I have had to get them accessable for downloading. Each video took about 2 hours to upload to Vimeo, and there are 11 classes. So, while waiting for that to process, I started an oil painting of a child that is a commission. The parents, at first, wanted the portrait in encasutic, but I felt that is needed to be much softer and convinced them that oil would be better. It is interesting to pick up oil paint, after so many years of just using encaustic. I haven't done a portrait of a child in at least 19 years.

2 days of work so far- with lots of interruptions

New Blog for the Online encaustic classes.

The videos are finished! All that I am waiting for now is the connection to PayPal. There have been a few technical glitches, but they should be cleared up very soon. In the meantime, please check out my new blog that is just for the workshops:
http://ezshwanwindingencausticworkshopvideos.blogspot.com

I also have a new email address just for questions and comments about the classes:
encasuticworkshops@gmail.com

layering with encasutic and hot pen

I have finished 12 video classes including this one. I will have them available online soon.

molding with encaustic and heavy textures

ink drawing on board with encaustic flowers

 These are examples of 2 more classes.

Heavy texture created with water

transfers on encaustic and shellac burn

In this class, I show you how to use transfers, oil glazes, "special" shellac burn and India ink.

I think I have all the classes filmed. Now on to the editing.


1. Hot pen drawing over luminous layers

2. Oil stained board and smooth encaustic surface

3. Creative Stenciling

4. Building layers, scraping and carving

5. Collage

6. Incising lines and drawing on rice paper

7. Transfers and shellac burn

8. Combing oil paint and encaustic

9. Creating heavy, rock-like textures

10  Encaustic on paper

11. Sculpting in encasutic 

Combining oil paint and encausic

I just realized that I have 11 encaustic classes planned.

I am getting close to finishing the videos of the demos and then on to the editing and finally posting the classes.

1. Hot pen drawing over luminous layers

2. Oil stained board and smooth encaustic surface

3. Creative Stenciling

4. Building layers, scraping and carving

5. Collage

6. Incising lines and drawing on rice paper

7. Transfers and shellac burn

8. Combing oil paint and encaustic

9. Creating heavy, rock-like textures

10  Encaustic on paper

11. Sculpting in encasutic

encaustic incised lines, rice paper drawing and more

The fifth online class will cover cutting clean lines, incising lines and adding rice paper with ink drawing to the painting.

Layering and scraping encasutic

The 4th online class will cover building layers of colors, scraping and cutting into the surface to reveal the underlying colors.

Encasutic collage and beyond

The third encaustic class I am preparing is collage. Hopefully you will want to take your collage to the next level, considering balance, contrast and composition.
Here are a couple of examples of what we will be doing.

oil stain and encaustic

Here are some examples of starting the painting with the oil stain that I will be showing you with my second online class - when I sort out all the technical challenges. This oil stain under encaustic gives a soft, rich back ground for adding details, collage, stenciling and more.

scraping and building colored texture and collaged dry leves.

without additions

A wall in my studio with paintings that started with oil stained board under encaustic

Stenciling over encasutic

texture added with hot pen and oil glazes

Creative Stenciling in encaustic

The 3rd online class with be how to create encaustic stenciling without making it look stiff and artificial.

Soft stenciling over oil stained,  encaustic covered board, with oil glaze.