A half-hearted promise

I made a half-hearted promise to myself that instead of starting any new art projects, with the remainder of the year I'd try to finish all the half finished and barely started and almost completed ones I've got.

So here you can see three of the little matryoshka dolls. These three finally got a coat of sealant over the pencil drawing, so they're now ready for painting!

And what's that strange murky black void infront? It's a copper etching plate coated in bitumen. I have a week to finish drawing on it, then I'll try to etch it and add aqua-tint in a day, then hopefully printing within another week or two at the maximum. I have a dealine of early November for this one.
That probably sounds pretty close to jibberish unless you're familiar with intaglio printing. I've been taking progress shots of it, so I'll write a nice indepth post about the process once it's finished!