Jane Cornish Smith's 2-day Cold Wax Portrait Workshop

In-person with Jane Cornish Smith here or Zoom from home / studio
No previous experience with cold wax is required for this workshop

Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27, 2022
10:00 am to 4:00 pm each day

The In-Person cost is $475
The Zoom cost is $375.00
(supply and registration info below)

Explore the endless possibilities of abstracted portrait painting with cold wax! Whether in-person or via Zoom, take a thought-provoking immersion into the use of luminous cold wax with oil paint, mineral spirits, mixed media, mark-making materials, brushes, scrapers, and imagination. Proportion, composition, color, and contrast will be addressed, along with an exploration of visual elements such as line, shape, texture, mass, dimension, and depth. This versatile medium yields rich and emotive surfaces. Develop your own personal expressive creations! All experience levels welcome.

This 2-day format (description below) has proven to be especially valuable in introducing various techniques and layering, bringing work to greater potential! 

Pics from our Cold Wax Portrait workshops with Jane Cornish Smith.

Additionally, Jane will be providing several videos and PDFs to participants in preparation for the workshop and for future reference.

Please enjoy the video - Jane speaks to us about the workshop: 

Day One:

• Introductions and demo on taping paper, setting up media. Any questions throughout the workshop are welcome!
• Participants tape their Arches Oil Paper and organize space.
• Brief discussion on the characteristics of cold wax medium and substrates.
• Slide show on portrait artists that work with cold wax and other media, looking at individual approaches concerning shape, color, value, line, texture, pattern, contrast, composition, and emotion.
• Demo: staining paper, reviewing value scale and face proportions, outlining photocopies, and transferring photocopied head shots, if desired.
• Participants begin portraits. One-on-one instruction and feedback.
• Break for lunch
• Demo on mixing a color palette with CWM and oil paint, making initial layers on new works. Step by step process on building a portrait.
• Participants create layers, one-on-one instruction, and feedback.

Day Two:

• Demo on adding layers with CWM and oil paint, mineral spirits, particulates, pigment sticks, alcohol inks, and other media; additive and subtractive techniques.
• Participants continue with subsequent layers, one-on-one instruction, and feedback. Some students may like to work on unfinished pieces from prior workshops as well.
• Break for lunch
• Participants continue to work on paintings, one-on-one instruction, and feedback.
• Sharing of one-of-a-kind abstracted artworks! Group discussion, critique, final questions and answers.

Supplies for In-person participants:

Provided:

• Arches Oil Paper, 5 pieces
• Gamblin Cold Wax Medium
• Bowl scraper You can also substitute 2" x 3” or 1" x 2” etc. pieces of cardboard or mat board or use a palette knife.
• One Brayer: Inovart or Speedball
• Various mark-making tools
• Natural bristle brushes you may have, various sizes. Here’s a link for Utrecht natural bristle brush set.
• Freezer paper for palette
• Odorless mineral spirits
• Charcoal and pencils
• Alcohol Inks
• PanPastels
• R&F Pigment Sticks. If you’d like to purchase additional, The Bonny Studio and Encaustic Center carry R&F pigment sticks at a 20% discount here.
• Thin papers for collaging, such as newspaper, tissue paper, etc.
• Newsprint paper
• Nitrile gloves - to protect hands from absorbing oil paint and mineral spirits, and for easy clean up.
• Paper towels
• Please Bring:
  Two photocopies each of four different images, for a total of eight 8.5 x 11-inch printouts of your favorite photographic head shots or selfies with good contrast of values (lights and darks). Have the head fill up most of the paper (not too distant or small, and it’s easier if the perspective is not coming from above or below, rather a straight-on shot.) Doesn’t have to be a super professional image, most important consideration is to have a good range of lights, darks, and shadows. Scroll down for an example.
• Oil paint - this can be a variety of your favorite colors but be sure to at least have basic yellow, blue, red, and plenty of white. Any color can be mixed from the three primaries! To get a variety of cool, warm, opaque, and transparent colors, I usually use Cadmium Yellow Light, Indian Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red Medium, Alizarin Crimson, Mars Black, Titanium White. Any brand will do.
• Natural bristle brushes, variety of sizes.
• Palette knife- any medium metal diamond shaped type
• Tape - blue or green, one 1” roll
• Optional- A smock or apron - CWM can get messy
• Optional- Sketchbook or paper for taking notes.

Supplies to have on hand for workshop: (order asap as deliveries are slower these days): 

• Arches Oil Paper, one 9 x 12” pad containing 12 sheets (will use 5 pieces), available here
• Newsprint paper, Newsprint 12 sheets 12 x 18”, or you can use pieces of newspaper
• Bowl Scraper You can also substitute 2 x 3” 1 x 2” etc pieces of cardboard or mat board or use a palette knife.
• One Brayer: here's the Inovart link or Speedball brayer here
• Various mark-making tools for Incising, texturizing, stenciling, and scraping: you can use various ceramic tools, or toothpicks, bamboo skewers, palette knife, paper clips, scrunched up wax paper or plastic wrap, bubble wrap— anything goes! Ceramic tools: here
• Natural bristle brushes you may have, various sizes. 
• Palette knife - any medium metal diamond shaped type, here’s a link for mixing color and applying medium. 
• Wax paper or freezer paper from the grocery store that you can tape to a table to mix paint.
• Odorless mineral spirits or odorless Turpentine and a jar. Gamsol is great or Mona Lisa
• Cold wax medium: 16 ounces of cold wax medium, Gamblin or Dorlands.
• Charcoal and pencil- any type
• Oil paint - this can be a variety of your favorite colors but be sure to at least have basic yellow, blue, red, and plenty of white. Any color can be mixed from the three primaries! To get a variety of cool, warm, opaque, and transparent colors, I usually use Cadmium Yellow Light, Indian Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red Medium, Alizarin Crimson, Mars Black, Titanium White. Any brand will do.
• Glass jar for mineral spirits
• Paper towels - one roll
• Tape - blue or green, one 1” roll
• Have two photocopies each of four different images, for a total of eight 8.5 x 11-inch printouts of your favorite photographic head shots or selfies with good contrast of values (lights and darks). Have the head fill up most of the paper (not too distant or small, and it’s easier if the perspective is not coming from above or below, rather a straight-on shot.) Doesn’t have to be a super professional image, most important consideration is to have a good range of lights, darks, and shadows. Scroll down for an example.
• Optional- Sketchbook or paper for taking notes. and making thumbnail sketches.
• Optional- Alcohol Inks: Jane's favorites: Adirondack rust/stonewash/pitch black. As a substitute, you can use oil paint and mineral spirits mixed together.
• Optional - PanPastels - your choice of colors, but here’s a link for metallics or dry pastels, other possibilities are charcoal powder, marble powder, ash, fine dirt, paprika, etc.
• Optional- R&F Pigment Sticks, your choice of colors, but here’s a small set. Also The Bonny Studio and Encaustic Center carry R&F pigment sticks at a 20% discount.
• Optional- thin papers for collaging, such as newspaper, tissue paper, etc.
• Optional- A smock or apron - CWM can get messy
• Optional- Gloves- nitrile or latex to protect hands from absorbing oil paint and mineral spirits, and for easy clean up.

Payment and Registration info:

The cost of the workshop is $475.00 for In-Person and $375 for home Zoomers

Scroll to the bottom of the page and pay via PayPal / credit card button by choosing the In-person or Zoom option.

Cancellation policy:

$100.00 of your payment is non-refundable and non-transferable.
In the event of cancellation after the workshop is paid in full: $265.00 will be refunded to Home Zoomers if someone from the waiting list is able to attend and $365.00 will be refunded to In-Person participants if someone from the waiting list is able to attend. By paying for this workshop, you agree to this policy.

Zoomers: You will be receiving a link to your workshop. You may like to work from a laptop or desktop for a larger screen but phone is fine too.

Payment Options:

▪via Zelle to bonny@bonnyleibowitz.com

▪via PayPal below

▪By check to The Encaustic Center, 580 W Arapaho Rd. #271, Richardson, TX, 75080

▪By credit card; call Bonny at 214-405-5993

▪By cash at The Bonny Studio or The Encaustic Center, please call or email Bonny to schedule a time: bonny@theencausticcenter.com or 214-405-5993