To save time, wax and mess while hot waxing 
solids, Hot Touching is better than dripping and then ironing, especially with harder, cold waxes.
Hot Touching & Crayoning uses the least amount of solid wax, total effort, time and is the least messy. By briefly touching a bar of wax against the base of a hot waxing iron, the wax softens and is easier to apply to the base by crayoning a section of a ski or board at a time. When the crayoning becomes 
less effective, repeat the hot touch and crayoning until the base has a reasonably even and thin coat of wax. Then make several passes with the iron to liquefy and evenly spread the wax over and into the base.
(If you are concerned with a hot iron and a very thin layer of wax on your base, using a sheet of teflon between will protect the base and make for smoother ironing.) Let cool & harden, scrape and brush. The scrapings will be minimal compared to drip/hot waxing 
and scraping.
Hot Touching and Smearing is similar to Crayoning. The difference is after touching the wax bar to the base, you smear the wax onto the base with the iron. This can be somewhere in between the drip and crayoning methods in both technique and amount of wax applied.
Following hot touching and smearing with a light hot scrape or fiberlene between base and iron can be comparable to crayoning requiring minimal scraping and brushing.