Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., SKID Photography 
<skid@b...> wrote:
> We tried waxing one of our images with 'Butchers Wax' (the 
amber kind...


I've also tried waxing prints with some kind of "block of wax", I 
think it was beeswax, that I got from this multiple-piercing 
salesman girl at our local art supply house.

I don't really know what to say about it -- there was something 
about the coarseness of the grain of the ESFA that made the wax 
go onto the paper in this pretty inconsistent manner, which to 
me, was nice. I went over the wax with some oil medium that 
was tinted with a very slight amount of oil pigment (brown). The 
inconsistent pattern was interesting, as they say. I'm not sure 
interesting-good, or interesting-bad. I think you'd just have to play 
around with it A LOT, or have someone there who was 
experienced in oil painting technique.

I'd just hold the block of wax in my hand -- think gigantic bar of 
soap -- and rub the side of the block onto the surface of the 
paper. You could build it up as thick as you'd want. But, like 
someone else said, too much and it really began to kill the 
blacks -- turned into too much of a milky look.

I honestly don't think I even scratched the surface in all that. I 
think it was just overtaking the studio, with half-dry prints lying 
around everywhere, and the smell of oil/terpentine, etc. It does 
NOT make you the most popular person in the building when 
you're doing all this. 

But I do think there's much more that can be explored. Hopefully 
Robert M will come to the scene pretty soon with his product. And 
hopefully it won't yellow, like most of the materials I worked with 
did.

-Mark Tucker