Scratchboard
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Black and White Art
I grew up in a home surrounded by dramatic black and white scratchboard art. The white china clay is layered onto a hard board and sprayed with a matte black India ink. Unlike most scratchboard artists who use exacto knives, I use a sharpened sewing needle held in a pen vice to scratch layers of small marks into the black ink to reveal the white beneath. I love scratchboard, because my attention is entirely focsed on how the light reflects off of every form and texture of my subject.
Colorful Scratchboard Art
In some cases, I add colorful ink and iridescent watercolor to the scratches revealed through the black ink to the underlayer of white clay. If I am making a colorful scratchboard, after I add the color, I must scratch again and cycle through the process until I am satisfied with the end result.
1 Hour Per Square Inch
All scratchboard fine art pieces are rare and unique. Each scratchboard is individually made by hand in the studio. It is not uncommon for me to spend one hour per square inch. Supreme patience and dedication is required. It’s no wonder there are less than 300 serious scratchboard artists in the world.
What is Scratchboard?
Scratchboard is a form of direct engraving with scalpels and sharpened sewing needles to remove a top layer of black ink to reveal an underlayer of white clay. If color is desired, layer after layer of colorful inks are added to the revealed white clay and then scratched again.
Traditional etching and printmaking form the roots of today’s scratchboard art. Because scratchboard artists must work in reverse by applying highlights onto the dark surface instead of shadows onto a white surface, the unforgiving scratchboard medium is considered by many artists to be one of the most difficult of media to master.
Scratchboard requires an artist to think in reverse of traditionally drawing. Working in scratchboard, an artist places down highlights with each scratch, instead of placing down a shadow with every dark line on a white surface. I like the metaphor that scratchboard artists are artists of light, instead of focusing on darkness. In reality, we have to think of both all of the time.
The level of detail and hyper realism that scratchboard makes possible is a veritable feast for an artist of wildlife and wildflowers.