Digital BW, The Print

Antonis, Carl,

Thanks Antonis for the applicator suggestions. Actually I'm now
starting to use a brush for the second coat. Using a brush in the
first coat may damage the fragile print surface.

> The varnish I used is "Liquitex Gloss Varnish", which is a water 
> based acrylic for flexible surfaces. I had some left from my 
> experiments last year so I tried it again using your procedure (15% 
> dist. water added for dilution, two thin coats).  The dilution
seemed
> to take care of the bubbles (after drying) but when applying it was 
> still very foamy - almost like rolling on soap suds.

Yes, this I also found to be true. I have done this enough time now to
know for certain that the foam will finally disappear.

> The print was on H Photo Rag (300 gsm) and after treatment and
drying
>  the paper texture was accentuated and not smooth at all.  It looks 
> almost like a very coarse pearl or pebbled finish paper when viewed 
> at an angle to the light source and the reflections are somewhat 
> distracting.  Perhaps some addition of matte medium to reduce the 
> sheen would help.  A pad applicator or brush as Antonis suggested 
> might also reduce the foaming problem.

I did also think of using a pad applicator which I have used for some
house painting. You'd still get the foam using a brush but as we have
seen the foam will disappear once the print is dry - within 15
minutes.   I have in front of me now two prints with one having a
second matte coat and sure enough the surface texture is much more
pleasing.

At this point my thinking is the first glossy coat using a roller
followed by a second matte coat (glossy medium + 15% matte medium)
applied by brush. I may increase the amount of matte medium in the
second coat for further reduction of sheen.

This may turn out to be the easiest way to coat a (matte) print.

> I've tried the rod application procedure before with hydrocote and 
> although this does give a very smooth finish I found it very 
> difficult to get consistent results.

I was toying with the idea of making a wooden apparatus to help with
the rod application but never followed through with it.

--nick