Difference Between Oil vs Encaustic Paintings
Oil painting is the long lasting painting, that creates using oil paints, a piant consists of color pigments and oil binders like seed oil, walnut oil, linseed oil, safflower oil etc.
Oil paint was invented long ago. Oil paints were first used in Asia as early as the 7th century AD. The oldest known oil paintings are
Buddhist murals created almost at 650 AD. The paintings are created by walnut and poppy seed oils. The paintings are located in cave-like rooms carved from the cliffs of
Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan. Later it was used by most famous artists like
Vincent Van Gogh,
Leonardo da Vinci,
Pablo Picasso.
On the other hand, Encaustic painting or hot wax painting, is also an oil based painting, but it is created by utilizing a heated encaustic media or hot wax to which colored pigments have been added.
In ancient Greek and Roman painting, encaustic painting was a popular technique. The word "encaustic" comes from the Greek word "enkaustikos," which meaning "to heat or burn." The
Roman scholar
Pliny the Elder explained the wax encaustic painting technique in his first-century book Natural History. The
Egyptian Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits, painted between 100 - 300 AD, are the oldest Encaustic panel paintings still in existence.
Jasper Johns,
Pausias and
Benjamin Calau are the name of some famous artists that uses the art medium for their artworks.
The oil paint is made by mixing color pigments with drying oils like poppy seed oil, walnut oil, linseed oil, safflower oil etc. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried oil paint film.
On the contrary, The most basic encaustic media can be made by blending colors with waxes like beeswax and damar resin, as well as other ingredients. Dried powdered pigments can be used for pigmentation, while some artists prefer to use colored wax, inks, oil paints, or other forms of pigmentation.
Oil paint allows the artist to achieve a broad range of opacity and intensity in their work. It lets you to layer multiple colors and blend them together to produce a stunning piece of artwork. Moreover, due to the slow-drying quality of the oil paint, an artist can develop a painting gradually and can make changes or corrections easily. For being oil based paint, the oil paint is water resistant and waterproof, and oil paintings are fragile art pieces that are quickly damaged by light, heat, humidity, dust, and other pollutants.
But, The encaustic paint has the consistency of translucent clay. When it's hot, it may be applied like liquid paint, but when it cools, it solidifies, allowing you to cut, carve, stamp, or even sculpt it, giving the painting a 3D effect. Because they are based on oil or wax, encaustic paint and its products are entirely waterproof. Despite being formed by melting on heat, it can withstand sunlight. Additionally, even if it is in the sun all day, it does not fade, although it is recommended to keep the painting in normal temperature.
Oil paint is suitable for apply on wood and metal because to its hard wearing characteristics and brilliant hues, and provides a very glossy and appealing effect to the paintings. It has lately been employed in paint-on-glass animation due to its delayed drying qualities. It's some qualities are resembles to the encaustic painting, but it dries very slowly as compared to the encaustic painting.
In opposition, The Encaustic paint has the consistency of translucent clay. When it's hot, it may be applied like liquid paint, but when it cools, it solidifies, allowing you to cut, carve, stamp, or even sculpt it, giving the painting a 3D effect. Although Encaustic wax has many of the same characteristics as oil paint, it dries much faster, therefore the colors don't bleed into one another.
Oil paints mix readily, allowing for subtle color changes as well as the creation of many light and shadow elements. Oil paintings can be thinned using turpentine or other thinning chemicals, allowing painters to layer their work.
Oil colors used by professional artists are created and designed to resist chemical reactions from exposure to water, ultraviolet light and oxidization.
Instead, In the encaustic technique, hot wax is applied in layer to laminated wood panels to produce opaque or translucent results. Encaustic paintings has many advantages, but there are some disadvantages also. For example, the Encaustic painting needs a heat lamp or heat gun to fuse and bind the medium. Along this, Encaustic paintings should be kept strictly on normal temperature, should avoid direct sunlight, also routinely buffed the paintings within 6 - 12 months using soft lint free clothes like pantyhose.
Despite the fact that some oil paints are non-toxic, it is not advisable to apply them directly to the skin because some of the pigments could be poisonous. The oil paint could irritate your skin if it gets on it. Almost all types of oil paints are not vegan friendly because they use oil as the pigment binder and some of those binders have animal origins.
Yet, The most of encaustic paintings are totally safe to use because they are formed of color pigments and wax as a binder. Additionally, the acrylic wax used in encaustic paint to bind the pigments makes it suitable for vegans. Beeswax, for example, is an animal-extracted wax, so it cannot be utilised in vegan products. So the wax used to hold the pigment together is a factor.