Cold Wax Art Medium

Cold wax medium is used in every style of painting from realism to pure abstraction.

Cold wax art medium.

I applied the cold wax over the collage and did quite a bit of scratching into the wax paint. You apply it to the surface with a palette knife or old credit card. Cold wax medium has such distinct characteristics when mixed with oil paint that this type of painting has its own name. Gamblin cold wax medium is made up of natural beeswax odorless mineral spirits and alkyd resin.

Cold wax medium is a dense paste it is excellent in creating a variety of textures within a painting. The medium is liberating for artists as new and innovative approaches are discovered pretty much every time you work in the studio. Cold wax medium is a mixture of wax in a solvent. As a comparison encaustic works use heat to melt and fuse wax.

When mixed with solvent beeswax becomes soft enough to paint with without the need for the application of heat. For oil paint only 1 part wax beeswax purified beeswax or microcrystalline wax 1 part linseed oil 2 parts solvent i use taltine. Gamblin s cold wax medium is a soft paste formulated to make oil colors thicker and more matte. It has a short characteristic and gives a clean break off of the brush or knife retaining the sharp peaks of impasto.

Cold wax medium is a paste that is combined with oil paint. This is another example of using molding paste and collage on a piece of illustration board. Many artists combine it with oil paint. And just as with encaustics it s best to only use cold wax on rigid supports rather than stretched canvas in order to avoid flexing and cracking.

Cold wax speeds up drying time of oil paint and increases the paint s workability. Though i am demonstrating in the cold wax medium the concepts of powerful design and personal color can be applied to any 2d medium. See what cold wax art is all about with art making sometimes it is just best to say nothing and watch it all unfold. Some brands have added resins in it.

A low odour solvent that can be easily found at any art supply store but you can also use any solvent such as mineral spirits or even rectified turpentine. It s soft enough that it s easy to mix into oil paints with a palette knife. It is a semi solid paste and requires no heat to apply or fuse layers. It can also be used as a final varnish over a dry painting.

Molding paste is a product you can buy at an art store. Cold wax medium is wax that has been combined with a solvent such as turpentine or alkyd resin. By adding a resin for strength you create a cold wax painting medium. Cold wax gives the oil paint a creamy texture that can be spread on a painting like butter.