Grizzly. Scratchboard with acrylic ink, 12 x 9 in, 2007. $380.00 framed.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what draws me to scratchboard as a medium – I mean why scratchboard? Why not just draw or paint? My usual answer is that I love how scratchboard combines the best parts of drawing with the best parts of engraving. And from a purely technical standpoint, I think that’s true, but there’s something else, something about how the image emerges from the darkness as I work on it that appeals to me.
A lot of artists call themselves “painters of light” or say that their true subject isn’t the landscape or whatever, it’s how light is affected as it strikes the subject. And cliché as that sounds, I think it’s particularly true of scratchboard. Think of it – with most other media you start with a white ground and create form by putting in the shadows, but with scratchboard you’re creating form by carving out the highlights. I think it’s a beautiful process.
