Hair Of The Dog

"This was my first painting in many years done on an art panel called Scratchbord™, manufactured by Ampersand Art of Texas. It is a masonite panel with a layer of white clay topped with a thin solid coating of black India ink. It is made for scratch art, a "subtractive" process of creating a painting by using various scratching and abrasive tools to reveal the white layer below the black, creating textures and values.

In elementary school, an art project I remember was to rub bright crayons in a solid layer of random colors on card stock, then rub black crayon over the entire sheet. An image would be "drawn" onto the surface by scratching through the black layer to reveal the colors below. I don't remember what tool we little ones used for scratching, perhaps nothing too sharp, but the results were fun and colorful. The process took time, so perhaps the teacher used it as a 'busy work" project…? Scratchbord™ is a professional adult version, and I find it fun, challenging, relaxing and not busy work for sure.

Many artists find this surface to be especially good for depicting animals and birds, because of the fine textures you can create to depict fur and feathers. A sharp instrument like an x-acto knife with a pointed #11 blade is all you need to scratch through the black layer to reveal the white below. Many other scratching and abrasive tools can be used, like steel wool, sandpaper, wire brushes, and even tattoo needles. Sometimes the art is left black and white, other times artists use transparent thin coats of color ink, watercolor, or thinned acrylic paints (my choice here).

See more examples and learn all about black and white scratchboards on my webpage: "What is Scratchboard?".