ILLUS-3748

PEN, INK & SCRATCHBOARD

Faculty: Nicholas Jainschigg

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

3 CREDITS

This course introduces students to a variety of pen and scratchboard styles through a series of assignments with incude drawing from life and executing well defined illustrative problems. A variety of pen tips and their effect on pen handling are explored. Other aspects of pen drawing to be considered: intelligent design of page with subject, the compositional impact of the page arrangement of tone, and the sensitive selection of appropriate pen and scratchboard styles for a given problem.

Among the simplest of mediums to use, pen and ink is also quite difficult to master. It can be as expressive as handwriting and as precise and elegant as engraving. It is also intimately bound up with the history of illustration and of printed images: it was the first medium to be successfully reproduced and remains as contemporary as the latest comic or magazine illustration.

The structure of the course leads students quickly through the very few tools needed (pen, nib, ink, paper) so that a major portion of the time can be spent on the truly important and challenging aspect of the medium – understanding the way pen and ink affects the viewer and learning how its special qualities can be used to articulate eloquent images. Scratchboard will be introduced at mid-semester, both as an adjunct to pen and ink work and as a medium in its own right. Scratchboard ties closely to woodcut and wood engraving, two mediums with a close relationship with illustration across many times and cultures.