Claybord 101

This post contains comprehensive information to expand upon my presentation “Claybord™ 101 – The Ultimate Art Surface.” Below you will find “9 Lives” – 9 portraits of my cat Jethro in 9 different media, all on 3.5″ square Claybord Art Tiles. Scroll below to discover numerous valuable links to helpful tips on using Claybord, great articles, how-to videos (including my video of the presentation), and to the work of many fine artists using Claybord. I hope you are inspired use … Read More

Yahoo, I’ve just finished my final portrait in the “9 Lives” series of my little Jethro. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. I have exhausted my supply of various mediums among my art supply stash with the first 8 portraits, so this time I splurged on a new medium. After researching various types of color markers I purchased a couple … Read More

Portrait #8 of Jethro the crazy kitty is done in graphite. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. I haven’t worked with graphite for decades, so I had to dust off my pencils and get my feet wet again. Claybord is ultra-smooth, with no ‘tooth’ as is common in paper surfaces designed to trap the particles when drawing with graphite, charcoal, … Read More

My 7th Jethro portrait is an Image Transfer. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. This image transfer onto Claybord is a fun project to use with photographs, lettering, or with any image printed from a laser printer or copier (not ink jet). I had never tried the process, but I thought it would be a fun addition to my Jethro … Read More

This is my portrait #6 of Jethro, created with gouache paints on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. Gouache (pronounceed “gwash”) is a water soluable paint, sometimes called opaque watercolor or body color. It is a mixture of pigment, a water soluble binder, and a white pigment or chalk (the ‘body’). The latter is added to … Read More

My 5th Jethro portrait is created with colored pencils on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I used Prismacolor colored pencils, which have a soft core. The Claybord surface is ultra-smooth, unlike many papers made for color pencils which have a “tooth.” The lead in colored pencils holds pigments in a wax base, … Read More

Portrait #4 of cute kitty Jethro illustrates using Black Sumi Ink on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I used Yasutomo liquid Sumi Ink KY12, which is water soluable but dries water-resistant. This ink is made from pure vegetable soot, with no additives. Yasutomo brand’s KF series contains a small amount of shellac … Read More

My third portrait of my sweet cat Jethro illustrates using Golden Fluid Acrylics on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I posterized my reference photo in Photoshop to reduce it down to a handful of values. I used just four colors of acrylic paint, with Paynes Gray as the darkest value. I mixed … Read More

This second portrait of my rescued cat Jethro illustrates using Scratchbord Inks on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I made the Claybord into a black surface, very much like Ampersand’s Scratchbord™.  I did this by applying two coats of “Repair Black,” which is included as one of the inks in the set … Read More

My rescued cat Jethro is full of personality and extremely willing to pose for endless photos (he loves attention!). This is the first of my nine portraits of Jethro, each using a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I chose a limited palette of primary colors, letting them mix randomly on the smooth surface to create beautiful hues. Claybord has the unique feature of allowing dried … Read More