Blurring Scar on Model

[DREW WILEY]

Yes, I frequently post tips and so forth, but only to give my mind momentary breaks during much more involved projects. At my age there are distinct logistical problems with where all this stuff is going to end up. I'm from an art family and the overall collections are substantial. Yes, quite a bit is already in museums or in books, or on the Natl Historic Register. But there is still a lot leftover in family hands important to preserve. Then add my personal contribution. Planning for that is, frankly, going to be a lot of work for someone. I had an uncle who was about to build a private museum for me and my aunt, but suddenly died before groundbreaking; and now I have a younger family member with the means and intent to build a large archival storage vault, and hopefully they can generate some serious income that way, with a distinct portion going to my younger wife if she outlives me, which is likely. None of this is the kind of thing a tourist gallery sells. Some of my own work is in private collection hands, and I did have my own rite of passage, so to speak, in high end gallery venues for about a decade, plus curated public venues. Been there, done that. Glad I'm not Rothko - a genius, but forced to paint for the profit of the Mafia. Some of his chosen colorants have faded terribly.

 

[Pieter12]

Yes, I frequently post tips and so forth, but only to give my mind momentary breaks during much more involved projects. At my age there are distinct logistical problems with where all this stuff is going to end up. I'm from an art family and the overall collections are substantial. Yes, quite a bit is already in museums or in books, or on the Natl Historic Register. But there is still a lot leftover in family hands important to preserve. Then add my personal contribution. Planning for that is, frankly, going to be a lot of work for someone. I had an uncle who was about to build a private museum for me and my aunt, but suddenly died before groundbreaking; and now I have a younger family member with the means and intent to build a large archival storage vault, and hopefully they can generate some serious income that way, with a distinct portion going to my younger wife if she outlives me, which is likely. None of this is the kind of thing a tourist gallery sells. Some of my own work is in private collection hands, and I did have my own rite of passage, so to speak, in high end gallery venues for about a decade, plus curated public venues. Been there, done that. Glad I'm not Rothko - a genius, but forced to paint for the profit of the Mafia. Some of his chosen colorants have faded terribly.

I find it hard to understand that you post many claims of your artistic merit and pedigree, yet there is no back up. You have plenty of time to be on the computer or smart device to post and read, yet there is no time for even an inkling of this great work and heritage?

And Rothko working for the Mafia? His dealer, accountant and others were certainly crooks, but I had never heard of any mob connections.

 

[DREW WILEY]

There is plenty of backup. No, I won't give you collector names because you'll probably disbelieve that too. Makes no difference. An awful lot that goes on, or has gone on, has zero to do with web chatter. Get used to it. DaVinci was both a very inventive guy and a great artist, but didn't have a website. Neither did Phidias, or Van Gogh, or name a few thousand other people known to history. They didn't even participate in web forums. Did that make them nonexistent? Gosh, the pettiness of some of this gets pretty annoying at time. There are still people around who actually did see my website, as well as links to my extended family in an artistic sense. If you are so darn web smart about all this, you could have stumbled onto the same thing with a few clicks.

As far as Rothko goes, the mob used its bully techniques to get a monopoly on his work. He was essentially their slave after a certain point, allegedly making his life miserable. Somebody should make a movie about him, like they did with Jackson Pollock. But at least he could still paint what he wanted to. But his sheer specificity of hue selection tempted him into using a lot of fugitive pigments; so great expense had gone into "restoration" of certain of his paintings. I greatly admire his work, but certainly wouldn't want his life.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I find it hard to understand that you post many claims of your artistic merit and pedigree, yet there is no back up. You have plenty of time to be on the computer or smart device to post and read, yet there is no time for even an inkling of this great work and heritage?

And Rothko working for the Mafia? His dealer, accountant and others were certainly crooks, but I had never heard of any mob connections.

Much of the world does not live with their noses glued to the internet, thankfully.

 

[Pieter12]

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

 

[otto.f]

airbrushing a negative

If someone can do that at a relatively small film like 120, I’ll eat my hat

 

[faberryman]

Much of the world does not live with their noses glued to the internet, thankfully.

Says the man with over 40,000 posts.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Says the man with over 40,000 posts.

But I do not have a website either and that has not damaged my self image either. I can live without one, can you?

 

[faberryman]

But I do not have a website either and that has not damaged my self image either. I can live without one, can you?

With more than 40,000 posts I can't imagine you having time for a website. Speaking for myself, I can and do live without a website.

 

[Sirius Glass]

With more than 40,000 posts I can't imagine you having time for a website. Speaking for myself, I can and do live without a website.

Good for you.

 

[Pieter12]

View attachment 309184 Good for you.

What the hell does that have to do with anything?

 

[M Carter]

If you're stuck and can't reshoot -

4x5 or even 120 neg? Pencil mask (enlarger, on the film plane) to lighten up the scar. Print exposure times will double-triple with a matte white mask. Then retouch. You can also get some silkscreen pins and try it at the paper plane, with a sheet of cheap litho film as the mask, punched and stuck over the paper. You'd be amazed how handy that can be.

The people who use "scraping the print" as a retouch method - I dunno, never got with that myself. Matte fiber print, "dry" iodine bleach, #000 brush on a dry print is powerful stuff to remove density or even go down to paper white on small details. It's not actually "dry", so for perfection, you do a few passes and then dry the spot with a hair dryer (it's mostly alcohol at least). Really a go-to tool for me.

After bleaching, then spotting/retouch. I have what I think of as "a retouch loupe", so when I spot I can actually re-create the grain. (I'm not a master of anything by any means, but I'll humbly say I'm pretty much one badass mofo with spotting and print retouching. I've worked very hard at it for some time.)

Of course, you can retouch with opaque paints, which will show up on the print, so do a somewhat flat 16x20, retouch with opaque colors, shoot the print 4x5 and develop the sheet, and make a 2.5-3ish grade contact print to judge exposure/development. Shoot and develop again to dial in the contrast if it's not right, then print from the final neg. You can use tempera and build up light tones to cover the dark, and if you blow it, a wet q-tip will wipe it off.

 

[flavio81]

But I do not have a website either and that has not damaged my self image either. I can live without one, can you?

You do have a website.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You do have a website.

Not my website. I do not own nor control nor have any influence that website.