Sgraffito

What guided my artwork was the task to design something with about fifty percent light and fifty percent dark. From the start I wanted to choose a flower because I think they are pretty.  In addition, we were instructed to engage both the background and border which I had a hard time doing. 

How I created my artwork was by first drawing my design on black construction paper. Then you would start scratching away the design on the clay. I did this using mainly the tool with the small loops. After you were done carving, the clay body would be fired and then we would add a pinkish liquid coat to it in order to give it a glossy look.

What changed from the beginning compared to the end product was on the leaves of the lily pad I added an extra layer, making one layer all scratched out while leaving the other layer black in order to incorporate more white. In addition, I added a butterfly to engage the background a little and also to add a little more white because I found that it wasn't exactly fifty-fifty with light versus dark.