Enkaustikos has thirteen beautiful metallic encaustic paints to choose from.

To make it easier to compare, we have painted a swatch of each color on white paper and on a dark blue paper.  This will also give you a hint of the individual characteristics of each color and how they vary depending on what they are painted onto.

Fig. 1

Our four metallic paints in the Antique Pearl series are soft and muted with a tarnished effect and a hint of shimmer. Golden Bronze Metallic is a soft metallic, too, just a little lighter and warmer than the Antique Gold Pearl.

Opal Aquamarine and Opal Calypso Green both have an interference property, meaning that they look one color in mass tone, but have a different color undertone. Opal Aquamarine has a violet undertone and Opal Calypso Green has a gold metallic undertone. So, as the reflection bounces back, you will see these beautiful dual variations especially obvious on a darker background.

Warm Pearl is just that, the color and luster of a warm pearl.

Our five paints in the Super Metallic Series are vibrant and bright, with a freshly polished appeal.

The metallic paints will be more subtle on lighter tones of paper and when applied over other lighter encaustic paints. This is especially true for both of the Opals and Warm Pearl. However, the darker the paper or encaustic paint is as a back ground color the more vivid the metallic aspects will show up. You can easily see this in the images and knowing this will help you in your process.

Fig. 2

You can mix the metallic paints together to come up with your own special mixes. For instance, try Super Russet Pearl and Super Gold mixed together for a Pink Gold or Antique Silver with Golden Bronze for a warmer silver. To create added sheen mix in a little XD Wax Medium, and as always our paints are heavily pigmented so adding any of our Wax Mediums to extend will increase transparency and in the case of the metallic paints will actually help them give off a little more sparkle.

If you want to mix the metallic paints with our other encaustic paints, you will be fine as long as you stay with the transparent colors. This will give you a glint of metallic effect. You will have mixed results with the semi-transparent paint colors, and this will depend on how much of the metallic paint you add. You can expect very poor results with the opaque colors, as by their very nature they cover very well, therefore the metallic qualities will be lost.

The metallic paints lend themselves naturally to embellishments on mixed media projects, cards, and final touches on paintings. One of our favorite ways of working with the metallic paints is in printmaking, especially as the final lift. They really add a nice aspect to an encaustic print and depending on your preference can be quite understated or very eye catching. We hope you will give them a try.