Scratchboard

This is a piece I created using a scratch board covered with ink and various tools to scratch the ink away in order to create an image. The picture I used for reference was one that I took of my younger brother at our bus stop in front of the road. This was a good picture to reference because it had a full range of value and good contrasts from light to dark.

To create this piece I first printed and gridded my reference photo along with the scratch board in one inch by one inch squares. I then went square by square replicating each one from the phone to the best of my abilities. To do this I used different tools for different line widths, and different techniques such as hatching and cross-hatching to create textures. I found doing the face and especially the eyes challenging. It was difficult to create realistic shadows on the facial features without creating a contorted looking effect.

There was little significance in the reference photo that I took at the time. However, upon looking back at it, I foun do that it had a full range of value, good contrast and interesting foreground and background. This project relates to my life in that the picture is of my brother who I spend a lot of time with. I think this piece could be stronger if I had found a better way to texturize the background—specifically the trees. It was difficult to do this because they are distant in the picture, causing them to appear blurry, which is hard to replicate because of the precision which which all the tools make marks.