The New Scratchboard

A study of scratch art, covering its history and describing three basic scratchboard techniques: scratching onto an ink-blacked surface; India ink on a white clay surface; and acrylics on a white clay surface. A final section presents a variety of other media that can be used on a clay surface.

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This volume begins with a look at the history of scratch art from petroglyphs, sgraffito and scrimshaw to the state of the medium today, with an emphasis on how surfaces, tools and techniques have enlarged the artistic vocabulary of artists working with scratchboard. The main focus of the book is an in-depth, step-by-step description of the three basic scratchboard techniques: the traditional scratching onto an ink-blacked surface; India ink on a white clay surface; and acrylics on a white clay surface. A final section presents a wide variety of other media that can be used on a clay surface, including airbrush, gouache, watercolour, casein, coloured pencil, tempers, coloured inks, lithography inks, encautic, oils, and printing techniques such as monotypes, offset lithography, serigraphs, and those that are computer generated.