My plan for this week was to add aquatint to the curtains plate I had done last week, but I had forgotten the plate at home so instead I made a new plate leading in from the same style as last week. I had taken new photos for research through the week of cracks in my ceiling with the spotlights and different areas that I had saved for future possible etchings which I used as a reference.  I used an aluminium which takes different times than the copper in the acid, and has .

Instead of doing hard ground and a line etch I painted on varnish which protects against the acid, leaving the lines and circle exposed which become the dark tones. I added in the long straight line to balance the image it felt like something else needed to be there there was too much of a gap from the square and circle. so I went back in with a paintbrush cleaning away the varnish which is why that line is wobbly and distorted and I am glad I did it that way I think it looks more interesting. I first put it in for one minute 30 seconds but it didn’t make much difference so I put it back in for five minutes which was a lot better. The acid began to break away the varnish which I let happen for another two minutes after applying the second layer to get my darkest tones, I hoped it would be similar to the speckled affect in the curtains and look deteriorated or aged.

I was pleasantly surprised by the proof, all the different marks and texture in the dark areas from the acid looked so interesting and my whites came through well. The print looked almost mechanical, you can see how the plate had been eaten away by the acid which I really like.

Again like with the previous I added chine-collé, since the blue tone was my favourite I used it again after considering darker colours, I just wasn’t sure where to add it. My options in my mind were the line space on the right, the square and the centre of the ring but didn’t want to do all at once as it would be overloaded personally when I placed the tissue paper on my plate to see. I ended up going for the square and everything but the centre of the ring. I would be interested in trying more options for chine-collé with this plate I quite like the options I have.