Well, after all the trouble we had to go through getting our hands on a good piece of scratchboard, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that scratchboard tools are a dime a dozen – or whatever the going rate for sewing needles is at your local craft shop. You can buy “real” scratchboard tools, but my favourites are not purpose bought items. Depending on the size of the image and detail required, I tend to use one of two tools most frequently:
The first is number 11 X-acto blade in holder and the second, a regular sewing needle in an X-acto blade holder. Both make nice clean lines, although I find the thickness of the X-acto blade line more variable and this makes it very well-suited for hair. The needle lines are much finer and I prefer to use it on smaller baords like the 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 sizes.
I do use two “real” tools, both are scratch nibs made by Speedball number 112 and 113 scratchboard nibs:
As you can see, the 112 nib is very pointed and makes marks similar to the X-acto blade, except a bit wider, and the 113 nib is like a tiny shovel with which one can “gouge” out larger areas of white. I know there is a purpose made tool for clearing large areas of white, a fibreglass brush tool, but I’m not a particular fan of that tool.
Other “tools” I use are a nylon brush from Loew-Cornell for brushing the clay dust off the board as I work, Staedtler Pigment Liner pens for making minor corrections, and for colouring finished boards, FW Acrylic Artists’ Inks.
Next time: safety issues around scratchboard.
Sadly, I had to delete this entire post because it was in Cyrillic text, and as I don’t read any eastern European language and couldn’t be sure what it said, it had to go. Please, post in English, or perhaps French, only.