Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Process: Graphite and Conservator's Wax on Claybord


Apologies for the poor video quality -- and for my head in the frame.  This was a one-woman, one-tripod, one-shot project.  However, it should give you some idea of how I go about starting a drawing using my wax and scratch technique with graphite on Claybord.

3 comments:

Tatiana said...

That's excellent, thank you! It's so nice of you to give a clear demonstration of your process. I'm wondering, do you know if the Renaissance Wax brand is the same the sort of wax you use? It is used in museums for conservation, but is not labelled explicitly as conservation wax. I have a jar of it, and it seems to be the same size and consistency as what you have, but it has a chemical smell and it clearly has some solvents or VOCs in it. Does that sound right? If so, I might give this a try.

Leslie Watts said...

Hi, Tatiana.

I just found this link on a woodworker's forum that might be helpful: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?205112-Conservator-s-wax-or-Renaissance-wax

It sounds as if they are the same thing, although yours is apparently more costly. Since I also occasionally use shoe polish with this technique -- and it is clearly loaded with solvents -- I don't believe the solvents interfere in any way with this technique. I did find that shoe polish is so slick after buffing that it makes it nearly impossible to add more graphite on top, so I tend to leave it until the last step, when I want to give the drawing a slight brownish tint.

I say go for it! I figured this out through experimentation, so why not? Let me know how it turns out.

Tatiana said...

Thanks Leslie, I will try it then. Dorland's wax medium for oil paints might be interesting, too. I think it is about the same consistency. I'll have to dig my jar out of the supply bin and do some experimenting. Thanks again. :)