Azure Dragonfly Meanderings

January 18, 2013

Sketchbook

My progress thus far...

January 16, 2013

Sketchbook

A lot of work has been done on my sketch of Luna in the last couple of days, but it's mostly been details, so for something a little different, today I'll give you a close-up shot of the mark-making. My next post will show my overall progress...

January 15, 2013

Sketchbook

Here is the scratchboard drawing of Luna after a couple of days' work. At this point I was aiming for working in the brightest highlights to establish form. My intention is to go back later and add finer detail in layers.

January 14, 2013

Sketchbook

Last week I began a scratchboard drawing of one of my favourite animals, Luna the Miniature Schnauzer that we met in Italy.

For those not familiar with scratchboard, it is a drawing surface or board that is covered first with white clay, then painted with a thin layer of black India Ink. When the black layer is scratched away using a sharp stylus, the white of the bottom layer is revealed.

One of the most challenging aspects of black scratchboard drawing is thinking in the negative – that the mark you make is white, not black or grey as it would be if you were using a pen or pencil. Generally speaking, the mark you make on black scratchboard will depict the lightest or most highlighted areas of a drawing, as opposed to a pencil or pen sketch, where your marks generally depict shadow.

My first step for this drawing was to transfer my preliminary sketch of Luna to the black scratchboard. The easiest way I've found to do the transfer is to print out my sketch, then rub the back of the paper with white pastel. I then place the paper pastel-side down on the black surface and trace the lines of my sketch with a ballpoint pen in a contrasting colour to the printed image. Phew. All that, and I haven't even started the actual drawing! Suffice it to say that the process is fairly painstaking, so I've given myself a week of work on it before starting to post my progress.

Here is the sketch transfer: