Scratchboard, as in black and white photography, draws its drama by including the widest range of light to dark in each “painting.” The process itself is as basic as drawing with a pencil. The artist uses a knife instead of a pencil and applies the strokes to a panel coated with black india ink over white clay instead of applying to white paper. With each stroke of the knife blade, a scratch removes the black ink revealing the white beneath. The challenge is to remember you are creating various grey tones all the way to white (depending on the amount of scratching you do to remove the black). It is a thrill mid-process because your imagery emerges with each stroke. I love it and am sure you will, too.

We’ll be initially inspired by viewing contemporary scratchboard artists’ works, then do an exercise to gain confidence in removing a wide range of black and creating those grey tones, and finally on the second day we’ll do a quick review of composition and be starting our own artworks using our chosen subject matter and an excellent composition. (For people who use stroking in other media, this will be a breeze.)