January 21 work in progress

Okay, engraving solid dark areas with this technique is very intense, it really wears my hand out. I could buzz this thing out in about 10 minutes with the airgraver BUT I want to see how long this takes by hand. In order to do the bulino technique properly I need to remove tiny chips of metal (that's what I'm doing). If I just stippled with the airgraver it would merely be displacing, not removing, and would only texture it. Tempting, but no. I REALLY gotta get this done before I go! The background is going to take many many many hours.