Seahorses 2

People like Seahorses. They are such delicate looking animals. In fact to me they look so fragile, I am surprised they survive. So here is a second encaustic rendition of them. This time the seahorses were stamped onto the piece of glossy card using Stazon black ink. You have to use a solvent based ink because hot wax will make water based ink run to give a muddy mess. However, for the solvent ink you do have to let it dry thoroughly or else that will run as well. Once it was dry the wax was applied over the top. You have to be careful with your choice of wax for this as some colours are very opaque while some are a lot more transparent. Also you have to use a lot of clear wax to ensure that you can see the stamped impression beneath. Once the watery background was in place, the seaweeds in the foreground and the overhanging rocks at the top were added.