Departure

We are having some work done in our home... today my studio is not as accessible as usual. So, rather than doing without any art activity, I picked up a clayboard and tried my hand at scratchboard work.

I did this nude directly and freehand, with no visual reference: it was more an exercise in using this media - with which I have no experience - than in draftsmanship. I have seen some extraordinary scratchboard works, ranging from bold, loose graphics to meticulously rendered detailed portraits - admire them very much - and assume that most involve preparatory drawings being transfered to the scratchboard. This little sketch was by no means that kind of drawing.

I am sure most who look in on this blog know that scratchboard is a special cardboard or thin wood surface coated with white
clay. A layer of black ink covers the clay layer. The image is made by removing the black ink leaving white marks to show. Artists who work with scratchboard make marks using special tools to scrape off only the black layer: probably quite a variety of tools. I have no such tools... I used an Excel knife...and a small awl! I added color using watercolor paint and a brush.

So what did I enjoy and what did I learn? I feel slightly surprised and quite satisfied with how it felt to do this: I felt very free (perhaps due to the fact that I had no expectations of myself in a "new" medium)... and I enjoyed the process itself, which is a reverse of most drawing processes. I guess that prompted one of the learnings: the reverse nature of the process made me more acutely aware of the use of space. The positive space - for the most part - was the white marks, with negative space being formed by what was left black. I worked somewhat in layers of scratches across the whole board. Each layer or level of detail added more 'light' to the form. I was loose - something I struggle with in my oil painting - and experienced the whole little adventure more as a discovery than a creation.

I will definitely try this again... perhaps even invest in a couple of tools!