For this next project, I wanted to try to create an image of a hand- also inspired by the 19th century photo.

I drew my own one, and planned a series of steps:

1. Stop out acrylic marker for whites
2. Aquatint layer
3. 3 sets of greys: 30 seconds, 1 minute (for the background) and 3 minutes exposure
4. Soft lines/ shadows on soft ground
5. Fine lines on hard ground (Lascaux)

 

I photographed with lateral light:

The final version came out very hard though, because the acrylic liner gives very hard edges. I thought the subsequent layers would work to break them down, but they stayed quite hard. This is the version with the plan for the hard lines.

It ended up rather scary, considering it was my own hand. It looks flayed, and I somehow lost the greys.

 

I tried to compensate for the hardness by printing on soft paper again. I need to do a monoprint or something to tone down all the lines, and the hard edges of white. How could I have reversed that during the etch?