It's been a long time since I've created an encaustic with alcohol inks, but I was inspired recently to take them out and play with them again.  It is fascinating to watch the way the inks interact with each other.  The alcohol gives so much movement, creating a look within your painting that you don't have much control over.  You simply have to watch the way everything settles, and try to add or take away little bits at a time.

In this Encaustic map painting I've combined two maps of Raleigh.  The first is a map from July 1797- "Plan of the City of Raleigh with all the improvements & all the Numbers july 1th, 1797".  This is a plan for Raleigh's downtown.  I printed it and used gel medium to adhere it to the wood board.  Once I added a few layers of wax, I used a clay tool to make lines in the wax over the block squares, then filled them with burnt sienna oil paint.