Value Strip / Flutter

This project was an introduction to scratch board. Scratch board starts out completely black and by using special tools, the black I scratched away to reveal white underneath. The more lines scratched the lighter the board looks.

I started out with making a value strip. I needed seven values, from black to white. After making a boarder, I started on the white box. I did my best to completely scratch away all of the ink. For the next box I made many hatch marks, then went back over them in the opposite direction to make cross hatching. The next three I did the same way but with more space in between to give them less of a light value. For the next to darkest, I used a stippling technique, the kind used in pointillism, to have a darker appearance. The final box I left black.

For my large projects had to choose a reference image. I chose a picture of a butterfly. I then turned the image black and white and printed it out. I gridded the image and the scratch board lightly, so I could get an idea for perspective.

I started out going across the first row of my grid. On my reference image this row was very light, so I magesure to scratch a lot out. During this row I tried some different tools to see which one would give me the best texture. My reference photo had very soft lines so I had to be very careful with making sure I had the best tools. One tool I used was steel wool, which pulled out a lot of ink, so I used it on the hilightes.

After the first row, I decided I should sketch out and complete the key figures before the background. I scratched out the butterfly and the flowers, then did the background. After this and comparing to my reference I decided I was not happy with the butterfly. I carefully painted over int with India ink, and after it dried I scratched it out again. This time it was much better. I also felt like my first row was not connected to the rest of my piece because I did it differently. I used steel wool again for highlights, and I think this pulled my piece together.