Printmaking hand take -guesstimate 5+

well what can I say - day 5 of trying to figure out the contours of my hand.... Why did I choose this pose?

So here we have the printing and etching of another set of hands!! 

inking up

When do you know what is to far? Seriously tho when do you know? 

I decided to darken more and more so I had I gauge of when the hand didnt work and so I knew what I liked and didn't like with regards of taking it too far. I think I had to do this because shading with a pencil is very different than with an etching. Every angle and mark has a outcome. One false move and your done for...

To be fair I'm not sure the pictures do justice to the real etching but at the same time how long do you give yourself on one image?

The marks you make have to click together to create an overall sense of the final outcome. This isn't as simple as it looks... Again I struggle to see the angles as they are but do feel im improving week from week.

I had started with a very graphic mark process but this week seemed to make little softer marks that I feel added to the hand.

more graphic last week

while not right more lighter lines

It still lacking the distance side of marks bringing parts forward etc but I will give myself more time on this so hopefully next week I'll be closer to the finally print. 

College system when down so I went to local library to print my sketch onto a laminated paper. So I could flip my sketch and etch it like a tracing paper almost. However the women didn't get what I thought and actually laminated my image. So here we have a breakfast place mat to hold your cereal bowl :)

Ok maybe not but I can draw over it which is a great help to be fair. Happy days

This is giving me so much stress but I do want to push forward to really give myself my best effort. For the first time. Rome wasn't build in a day right.