Encaustic Portrait: J Mitchell Bailey

I just finished this little encaustic, oil and graphite portrait.

(Jesse) Mitchell Bailey, 1918-1945

10" x 10" Encaustic, Oil and Graphite on Board

Detail of Mitchell's face.

This was a very difficult portrait to paint because:

#1 My reference material was poor

#2 The finished head is extremely small (1.75 inches high)

#3 I used encaustic paints and since I'm a beginner in this medium, my skill level is not up to snuff - yet.

Now, in the "DO AS I SAY BUT NOT AS I DO" Department....

I agreed to this job for no good reason.

It came with awful photo references (as you can see from the faded 70+ year old snapshots below). But merely because I had a beloved aunt named Jessie Mitchell I grabbed the job...go figure.

I was totally prepared to not have the client like it - but I wanted to paint it anyhow.

Mitchell died tragically at the age of 27. He had a strong, angular and exceptionally handsome face. He had been an oarsman at Yale and stayed in shape.

In my research I found an old magazine cover with a 1908 Leyendecker illustration of a Harvard Oarsman and leaned heavily on that as a basic body model. (So noted on the back of the painting.)

Per usual, I made his head too small so he would appear more "commanding and in charge." Read more about why I mess with reality both here and here.

Here is the entire painting without the frame (pictured above). You can see that I followed the Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White Rule.

The overall "softness" of this portrait is characteristic of the way I am currently using my encaustic paint.

Some Nerdy Technical Details:

For starters, I've cranked up the heat on my encaustics and am working at 250-275 degrees F these days. Maybe hotter if I dare...

I did a little graphite drawing of that face (backwards) on tracing paper (I made-up shadows & added an ear) and transferred that, thus destroying the paper and embedding just the graphite into the first layers of encaustic.

Then I used a brush with powdered graphite to finish that face drawing in wax before I sealed it with clear medium. The face was too small to paint with a brush accurately but using a soft graphite pencil made it easy.

Above is an extreme blown up detail and hopefully you can see that the grey of the graphite represents the cool halftone. Of course, any student of mine knows that halftones are always cool, eh?

Hence my use of a graphite pencil to embed this drawing.

What I love about encaustic paint is that it is such an "immediate" medium. For example, if you hesitate a wee bit too long, the melted pigmented wax on the brush will harden and that brush will will stick to the surface and make an awful mess. Naturally I speak from painful personal experience. :o)

The rest of the painting is my usual layered mix of encaustic and oils.

I am only beginning to explore what this unique encaustic medium offers.

"Engrave It!" of Keene, NH supplied (they ship) the 1/2" high brass nameplate for the frame because I simply couldn't handle lettering that small in this medium.

Encaustic Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Grand Mother

12" x 12" Encaustic and oil on board

Commissioned Portrait

I just finished this little portrait (it is only the second portrait I have done in encaustic paint). I really love working in this medium because is so "immediate" compared to the way I usually work in oils.

For those of you who have never seen this process, here's how I began this portrait:

I gessoed a 12" x12" cradled (so it won't warp) birch plywood board. I used "Holy Grail Gesso." Do NOT use "regular" gesso - the encaustic paint won't "grab" onto the surface.

Holy Grail can come in different colors (if you order enough). I get mine from Evans Encaustics.

I use cadmium orange under very dark colors (like black). It adds "life and luminosity" where it is allowed to peek through.

I establish my main design values with a mixture of raw umber + white Holy Grail Gesso in different values.

On top of the Holy Grail Gesso, you can see my pencil drawing marks - the encaustic layer will cover them.

In this very first stage - the composition has to "work."

This is the first layer of encaustic paint. I was trying to establish the general value and color of the finished areas.

Of these two considerations, value is always the most important.

Despite that I may not account for all the colors in an underpainting I always begin with the intention and plan to include some representation of red, yellow, blue, black and white in every painting.

I always do my drawings on acetate so I can see through it. I used this drawing to transfer portions of the drawing for the Holy Grail layer and am reusing it to bet the details on the encaustic layer.

I will use and reuse this acetate drawing to keep checking throughout the construction of this painting to be sure that I keep the sitter's likeness.

To transfer my drawing to the encaustic layer, I use a sheet of tracing paper much like a piece of old-fashioned carbon paper.

Long ago I rubbed a white pastel into the surface of this tracing paper. I have a stack of sheets of different colors that I use.

Although this tracing sheet gets ratty looking with age, it works to transfer drawings to just about every surface for oil painting, encaustic, watercolor, etc.

Sorry I don't have more pictures of each stage but I layered oil and encaustic...until it was "finished."

I think that showing the early stages is far more important to this particular process.

I also like a "fancy" frame - just like the ones I put on my traditional oil paintings.