Encaustic is as versatile as any painting medium, and has a range of textural and colour advantages that make it an excellent alternative to oil painting in many different situations. Capable of being polished to a high gloss, it can be modelled, sculpted, and combined in mixed-media works with collage . Most important, it cools almost immediately, with minimum drying time, yet it can always be reworked.  Beeswax is impermeable,  that is it will not oxidize as oil painting do over time  it will not deteriorate, or darken or turn yellow, moreover encaustic paintings need not be protected under glass. Encaustics are also environmentally safer, as they emit no toxic fumes, and do not require the use of solvents. Their sole disadvantage is their need to be kept in a molten state, although modern tools have made this a relatively trivial task.

The encaustic paint or medium is extremely easy to make. To make the encaustic medium you only need two materials: beeswax and damar resin. If you want to colour it, you also need powder pigments (or oil tubes). Encaustic paint does not need to be varnished, it does not need neither dryers nor modifiers, it does not require any type of additive since encaustic paint is eternally preserved in solid form and needs nothing but heat to become fluid again. It is an incredibly old pictorial technique that is being rediscovered but about which there is still little information about.

 Painting with encaustic  three materials are used: beeswax, damar resin and pigments. First, you will need pure beeswax.  It is preferable to use an unbleached yellow purified wax than an adulterated beeswax. Second, you will need damar resin (not to be confused with damar varnish) of the best quality that comes in large crystals. Lastly, you will need fine-art pigments, only fine-art pigments that do not degrade and / or emit toxic vapours with heat should be used be used.

In addition, you will need a support for encaustic paint that is both absorbent and rigid, usually used panels with gesso. Gesso is nothing but a mixture of plaster and binder, the main property of a plaster is to have a good adherence to the support and good adhesion to the paint. The blend may also include pigments, usually titanium white, but, in principle, any pigment or colorant in the proper proportion could be used. The gesso for encaustic should be more absorbent than the one used for oil painting or for acrylic paint. Rabbit skin glue is an alternative for a ground 

 Filtered beeswax remains yellowish mainly due to the carotenes contained in the propolis. To get rid of this colour, wax was traditionally exposed to the sun in very thin sheets for several days. Today, the most common whitening technique is chemical bleaching. Chemical bleaching changes the structure of the wax becoming more brittle as the chains of carbon molecules are shortened.