Scratchboard tools

A bottom layer of Masonite or other hardboard provides a sturdy, stable backing. A layer of white kaolin clay, mixed with water, glue, and white pigment, is applied to the backing and then dried and sanded. The white clayboard is essentially the canvas for scratch art tools. You can also find scratchboard with metallic, holographic, or multi-colored layers rather than white clay.

The smooth colored layer is then coated with deep-black India ink, consisting normally of fine-carbon pigment that is resistant to fading from natural sunlight, providing an archival-friendly surface.

This clayboard is the most common among scratchboard artists. Etching, scraping, or rubbing the ink with scratchboard knives and other tools exposes the white clayboard at increased depths. Each tiny penetration toward the white clayboard provides the many gray gradients that lend nuances of shade and contrast to the artwork. As one accomplished scratchboard artist, Steven Noble, describes it:.

You have to think the opposite of what you normally think. The piece of scratchboard art itself often requires hundreds of hours of work to etch the thousands of strokes that give the pieces their lifelike detail. All etching tools for scratchboard art create either fine lines and fine dots or broader brush and rubbing strokes. The fine lining and the fine dots, or stippling, are the precision strokes that bring a subject to life. Artists may apply the strokes individually, or use them in tandem to create cross-hatching or an immersive, blended texture.

Master artists from the International Society of Scratchboard Artists ISSA , among the most recognized scratchboard artists in the world today, indicate the wide array of etching implements used as scratchboard art supplies. I am currently experimenting with liquid removal methods. Threads from forums and other commentary reveal that many novice artists believe the best tools are homemade—a pin attached to a mechanical pen holder, cobalt deburring blades stuck in dowels with a pin vise, or a set of CNC cutting pins from computer-programmed template prototyping machines.

However, the safety, comfortable hold, and easy control offered by Slice cutters means that they are rapidly gaining popularity among enthusiastic amateurs and professional scratchboard artists alike. Tools for Scratchboard Art I asked on facebook what people would like to see me discuss and the topic of tools was one that many people were interested in. There are MANY tools that can be used on scratchboard, and your imagination is the limit. I have scratched with a bobbi pin, spoon, dremel bits, electric eraser, pencil eraser, heck Anything that will remove the top layer of ink can be used : But I am going to touch on my primary tools that I keep in my tool box, both how to use them and where to get them.

The vast majority of MY work is done with the line tools, which I have photographed above. I use them for fur, eyes, tongues, leather The fiberglass brush is not really a line tool, but I will get into its use in a moment. The rest are used for Older works of mine, such as "Dress Attire" were done all with an exacto. You can see that even with just this one tool I was able to do a lot of different textures and shading.

In more recent years I have added to my tools to give more diversity in line width and texture. In I got turned onto speedball scratchboard tips and , which are available from Daniel Smith Art Supplies. These two tips produce wider lines than the exacto and are great for course fur and whiskers!

Then in early I started working with a scalpel which yields finer lines than the exacto. The blade is not as stiff as an exacto blade and required some getting used to. The diversity of line widths that can be produced with these four tools adds to the realism of my work since fur does vary in texture and coarseness, and realistically I rarely reach for my exacto anymore, mostly using the speedball and scalpel blades. Exacto blades can be purchased at any tool or craft store and scalpel blades at any medical center or veterinary supplies store or many sources online as well.

Like all cutting tools, blades will get dull after some use. You can resharpen some of these tools, but others you will just need new ones. Since exacto and scalpel blades are pretty inexpensive I usually just replace them if dull.

You can tell if a blade is dull if it requires a moderate amount of pressure to remove the ink or is skipping. For most of these tools only very light pressure should be needed to remove the ink. Fortunately, unlike pen and ink, we have some additional tools that yield some softer effects than just lines.