Scratchboard Design

For this work we were experimenting with scratchboard for the first time. First we made a value strip to get a feel for what the material was like. Once we did this value strip we needed to chose or create an image we were going to recreate on scratchboard. For this project we were basically working on figuring out how to pull highlights and draw them. We only wanted to pull the highlights because if you want something darker you needed to keep it black and not touch that area of the scratchboard. This was different from other projects because usually you focus on the darker sections when normally drawing but this was only focusing on the lighter sections. During this project we also learned that you couldn't mess up. We learned this because on scratchboard once you scratch something there is no erasing like there is when you draw.

For this work the material list was rather simple. During this project we were using scratchboard as our medium. For this project we used different types of scratchers. For my project the first one I used had a single pointed tip made of metal. I used this to highlight around the outside of the cat as well as do the eyes of the cat and the backdrop. The next material that I used was a tool that had about five bristles at the end. I used this to show the white hair of my cat because I knew that I could create good overlapping fur for my cat. One thing that I wish I could have used was color because I could have made the sheets red like they were in the original picture but I needed to make them white so they would stand out in my final scratchboard design.

For this project research was very limited. The only thing that I guess you could consider research was finding the image I wanted to use. I chose the image of my cat because I liked that there were little highlights that I needed to pick out which made the process a little bit faster. For this I did a little practice. The practice that we did for this was to create a value strip. We learned while creating the value strip to make a section darker you want to scratch less of the board for that section. We also learned that you don't want to dig to hard or you will rip the board and create a false white color. For this project it was hard to revise because if you mess up you must restart. With this being said the only revision I did was adjusted my photos contrast to give it a full range of highlights. For this project the whole experience was an experiment. I knew that this would be different because it was the first time using this medium. One thing that was hard to get used to was focusing on the highlights rather than the darker section. This kind of felt incomplete because the black fur I was not able to scratch that part just because it needed to remain dark.