Re: Mortensen's abrasion tone

[DENNIS@klink47.freeserve.co.uk]

Hi Christina one of the contemporary exponents of the abrasion tone
technique is Gene Laughter but he employs it on bromoil prints,check out his
link on the B&S site.Other sites that may be of interest to you
www.screamonline.com   www.texturefects.com and www.pictorialist.com .Dennis
Klinker London
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christina Z. Anderson" <zphoto@montana.net>
To: "Alt Photo List" <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 6:09 PM
Subject: Mortensen's abrasion tone


> I am posting a quickie condensation of the Mortensen abrasion tone process
> to the list in hopes that some of you out there might test it out and
report
> back on it, or in hopes of finding anyone out there who did/does this
> process or knew Mortensen or went to his school or knew a friend of a
friend
> of a friend who knew him and did it...you get the picture.  Richard
Knoppow,
> for one, you are out in CA, correct, and might have been around there at
the
> time his school was in effect?  Oh hell, I could be off by a couple
> centuries, cuz I think the school closed in 1955 according to Judy
Seigel's
> article in Photovision magazine (March/April).  But in one of your posts
you
> talked of the Wolff carbon pencil which is what Mortensen used.  Anyway,
> here's the condense:
>      The process, in a nutshell, consists of covering a print with
pigmented
> chalk or pastel, and then selectively adding highlights and shadows with
the
> help of erasers, pumice, a carbon pencil, and a razor blade.
> Supplies needed:
> . Ivory black and burnt sienna pastels
> . A kneaded gum eraser
> . A pencil eraser
> . powdered pumice
> . Cotton balls
> . brush
> . Spotone and spotting brush
> . Carbon drawing pencil, BB (carbon black, not shiny gray graphite)
> . razor blade.
> . Print on matte paper
> The steps:
> 1. dip a cotton ball in the powdered chalk/pigment, cover print
> 2. with the kneaded eraser, remove the pigment from the light areas of the
> print.
> 3. use pumice to blend unevenness
> 4. clean up again with the kneaded eraser
> 5. add specular highlights and eye catchlights with the pencil eraser.
> 6. use carbon pencil and enhance darks, correct, etc. and blend with
cotton.
> 7.with razor scrape away bits of the emulsion that you want to remove or
> lighten or change in any way, in teeny 1/8 strokes away from your body
> 8. Spotone
>      This is quite condensed from the book, but close enough.  I welcome
> comments.
> Chris
>
>