I'll agree with Pat. The toned etching is very interesting as to how the light hits it.
Here's a couple pictures of the same panel. In the morning, it shows a positive image, and in the evening, it goes negative, and sometimes during the day, it completely disappears!
It's really interesting how it changes, which adds a certian mystique to the "all seeing eye".
Erik-
When "toning" the white acid panel, there's two different ways of going about it. You can mask the panel, then remove sections of the art and tone them. Or, the white acid panel can be painted with asphaltum, then toned, or in combination. Adding the toning mask by painting, can achieve details that you can't get with a vinyl mask, like crosshatching, spounge textures etc.
Oh, and did I mention....if you're going to solution gild over the toned etching, you'll need to do the toning reversed, as the dark tone will yield a light gild, and the light tone will yield a dark gild....it starts messing with your mind a bit, trying to figure the design out!
You keep on as you are....I like your enthusiasm!
Aho!
-TBF
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Denver Chapter of the Letterheads