It did not turn out as I had hoped. I had an end product in mind and that was my first mistake. I am a sculptor and an acrylic painter and have been doing both for over the last 40 years. See images of my work on http://www.flickr.com/photos/annawagnerott/. So, I thought that I could just take an idea, my water plant series, and reproduce this series in encaustic. What a big mistake I made. What a struggle with the wax. Acrylic paint is so fluid and one can easily overlay one colour over the other colour. But, I have to remind myself that I have painted for so long and have never worked with this wax medium. I have to keep reminding myself that my acrylic paintings were awful when I started them. So, this will be a learning curve and I have to just go with the flow. What I am after, I think, is a smooth coat of wax over another smooth coat. My first attempt was so messy, waxy and lumpy. I added oil paint as a wash over the surface and more layers of wax. No way was the wax going to perform for me in the way that I wanted. So, here is my first attempt at the process.
Another issue is the size. My paintings are large and I am working on a 7″ X10″ surface. The wax is contained in that small space. The encaustic iron will be used next and will see how that works. I think the trick is to just use a few thin layers of wax that I build up on top of each other and not use so many layers. The other option is to use a light handling of the brush, heat gun and iron. I think I am pressing down too hard. Will just keep at it.