Page 13 - Wax & Words

NOTE:

This part is where you’ll spend most of your time and discover most of your new
techniques and design skills. You’ll be making stacks of black paper with light marks and
white paper with dark marks, learning about contrast and wax-friendly media on paper.

I think you’ll especially like the way white tempera paint works on both black and white
paper, and, indeed, for lots of other mixed-media projects. I feel as if I’ve just scratched
the surface with tempera since it can be used under wax, over images, and as an all-round
veiling tool. You can write and stamp over it after it has dried, and the surface is much like
that of gouache, rather soft and velvety.

When you start working with tempera paint, you’ll find that there is a huge difference
in opacity, particularly with white. That’s why I recommend RAS Tempera paint because it
is one of the most opaque that I tried. On the other hand, you may like a more translucent
white tempera for veiling. Experimenting is half the fun, and tempera is cheap! You can also
use more than one coat and build up layers.

I’ve suggested that you start with black construction paper, but there are other black
drawing papers that you can try. Canson papers makes a wonderful black paper called XL
Black, but I find that it’s a little heavy to work with.

I often incorporate small subtle images with my words and marks, and I’ve made three
sheets of images that won’t compete with your calligraphic marks. You can download them
here on my website and print them off on plain printer paper, which works beautifully with
beeswax.

Check the materials list on page 6 to see what you need to get started - you won’t need to
get out the wax until you’ve completed half a dozen black and white pages to use as collage
material. Ready, set go!!

Wax & Words 13