This evening, I made a second plate using an aquatint screen. The second plate has more subtle texture and variation in the line widths and does not produce lines with open bite.
Here’s the second plate. This plate was exposed first with an aquatint screen and then a second time with the artwork. In this plate, the lines are made up of microscopic pits, instead of open grooves.
The plate with aquatint shows more subtle variation in the line widths.
For comparision, here is the original artwork, the print from the aquatint plate, and the print from the first plate.
This is the artwork that I used for the plate exposure. My goal is for the prints to match the original artwork as closely as possible.
The second plate makes use of aquatint. Here there is a greater variation in line width and all lines print without open bite.
This print is from the first plate. That plate didn’t use aquatint and may have been over-etched, resulting in open bite and thicker lines.