What is the best type of support for encaustic paintings?
I’ve noticed that in Europe a lot of amateur painters use special card. However, by far the most archival support is wood, because it is inflexible and highly absorbent. Again, you are taking measures to ensure that the paint remains firmly in place. Paper is flexible. When it bends, the wax can pop off. Canvas, due to its extreme flexibility, is definitely out, unless you mix a lot of oil paint with your hot wax. Some oil painters use a medium which contains cold wax and a solvent. This is perfectly all right, but creates quite a different effect. I sometimes begin an encaustic painting on wood by covering the support with high quality, absorbent printmaking (Rives BFK) or watercolor paper. If you use an acrylic medium as your glue, be sure that none of it penetrates the paper, or you will end up with a non-absorbent polymer film. • How can you reduce the opacity of encaustic paints? That’s an easy one – by adding more clear medium. Encaustic medium is a mixture of pure beeswax and da
