Scratchboard

For this assignment, I had to create a realistic scratchboard using a photo I took on my phone. The main idea that guided my artwork was to use scratchboard to create a picture of my cat Summer as realistically as I could. Something I kept in mind while creating this art piece was paying close attention to each and every line/hair in the photo of my cat to try and represent/duplicate the same thing on my scratchboard.

For this art piece, I started by choosing a photo on my phone and then transferred it to my laptop. I then convert it into black and white and played with the contrast to show highlights and shadows. Once I had printed out my photo I used a wooden tool to trace and indent the outline of the cat onto the middle of my scratchboard paper. I started my focus on the white highlighted parts and used many different scratching tools to create my scratchboard piece. One thing I tried to pay close extension not to do was scratch away too much because I knew there would be no going back.

At first, I started with a different photo to create a different scratchboard. I had chosen a photo of my friend Nora, but as I began to create the scratchboard I realized that the photo I had chosen didn't have a good balance of highlights and shadows, and since it was of a person it was mostly a gray tone of human flesh and I was having trouble matching that on the scratchboard. I am glad that I started over with a new picture because the hair of my cat was easier to match on the scratchboard. I like the outcome of the art piece but the process was fun but also stressful.