Lifeguard & Ben Day

Here is this morning's practice sketch done in pencil.

Progress with Ka-zar:
In my quest for the perfect dots for my ka-zar challenge, I happened upon a little history about those little dots that fascinate me.
"Ben Day also ben·day or Ben·day (b n-d ). n. A method of adding a tone to a printed image by imposing a transparent sheet of dots or other patterns on the ..."
"Invented in 1879 by Ben Day for introduction of shading effects in line drawing and reproduction therefrom."
Currently, I am focusing on a grid of straight sewing pins through a plastic latch hook "canvas". One of the challenges is the pins aren't precisely all the same length. And the latch hook canvas is half the resolution I want (25 dpi).
According to the information I unearthed, comics back in the day had a very limited pallete which used only 25, 50 & 75 dot screens. So that is what I am limiting myself to.

Ka-Zar Art Challenge

I was reading an old Ka-Zar and got inspired! Having been in graphic arts back when they still did camera shots, I am intrigued by the simple use of half-tones (a bunch of little dots that make up a tone in the old comics) and the mechanical means by which they produced these books of art on cheap paper for only 25 cents. And I have wanted to do my own mechanically printed art just like the old comics. So, I am challenging myself with this panel to recreate, dots and all, using only itaglio etching on plastic plates. The only use of the computer being printing the picture out to use as reference. All the rest being done mechanically by hand. Yes, that's alot of dots, but I have practicing and want to put it to use in a project. So, time to get out my etching needle and start scratching! Should I actually complete this self-dare, I'll post a print.