Scratchboard Demo: Northern Saw-whet Owl

After all the work I've been doing on the albatross and wheat artwork I felt a need to do something loose and relatively carefree. I turned to clayboard and a few colorful inks.Above is a video of some of the work I've done on this little saw-whet project. I'm working on a 4" x 4" piece of Ampersand brand Claybord and working with Ampersand Scratchbord Inks. They dry quickly and really stick to the board's clay surface. I'm working back and forth between inking and scratching, adding ink, scratching back, adding more ink, and so on. It's a fun way to work, and it isn't limited to inks for color. People use this same approach with colored pencils and watercolors (and probably whatever else they can come up with). [space_20][space_20]The tool I'm using for scratching is a number 16 X-acto knife blade. The edge of the blade can be used for shallow, wide scratches while the tip works for fine lines. By rotating your grip on the knife you adjust the scratch shape. The brush I'm using here is a small, inexpensive synthetic round brush. I've got water in a container too for washing the brush and for diluting the ink. My palette is just a plastic lid. The inks dry quickly so I don't put more on the palette than I need for more than a couple minutes of work.The other tool I'm using here is my camera. I haven't done much with the video capabilities before so I'm experimenting with both that and Photoshop CS6 video editing tools. What do you think? Are you interested in seeing more work in progress?