Fig. 5), and then, having revarnished your plate, you can
execute your trees on the background. As the trees are bitten by
themselves, it is evident that we have avoided a difficulty which is
almost insurmountable,--that, namely, of stopping out with the brush
the lines of the sky between intricate masses of foliage. But we can
also proceed differently. We can commence with the trees, drawing them
and biting them in, and can finish with the sky, having revarnished the
plate as usual: the sky will thus fall into its place behind the trees.
You need not trouble yourself because the lines of the sky pass across
the lines of the trees. The biting of the sky must be so delicate that
it will not affect the value of the foliage, and you may therefore carry
your point in all directions, and use it as freely as you please.

Some etchers find it more convenient to commence with the sky and the
background, on account of the points of resistance encountered by the
needle in the more deeply bitten lines of the trees, which destroys
their freedom of execution. They are correct, whenever the sky to be
executed is very complicated; but if only a few lines are involved, it
will be better to introduce them afterwards. It is, besides, an easy
matter to get accustomed to the jumping of the point when it is working
on a ground that has previously been bitten.

What I have just told you applies also to the masts and the rigging of
vessels, &c., and, indeed, to all lines which cut clearly and strongly
across a delicately bitten distance.

An etcher of great merit has conceived the original idea of executing an
etching in the bath itself, commencing with the passages which need a
vigorous biting, then successively passing on to the more delicate
parts, and finally ending with the sky.[C] The various distances thus
receive their due proportion of biting; but it is necessary to work very
quickly, as the biting of a plate etched in the bath in this manner
proceeds five to six times more rapidly than if done in the ordinary
manner. Every etcher ought to be curious to try this bold method of
working, so that he may see how it is possible to ally the inspiration
of the moment with the uncertain duration of the biting, which in this
process has emancipated itself from all methodical rule, and follows no
law but that imposed upon it by the caprice of the artist.[16]

[C] The bath, in this case, is composed as follows:--
880 gr. water.