- "Safety" - Reference Photo
"Safety" The reference photo for a 7" x 5" scratchboard drawing - "Safety" 1
Here's the first, sloppy stage of "Safety", 7" x 5" The reference photo has a lot of light values in it, so I used Claybord (white scratchboard) for the drawing - that way, I didn't have to remove a lot of black. using artistic license I chose to make the upper and lower left sections dark instead of showing the dog's body. The shape wrapping around her head is an arm in a fleece sweatshirt. At this stage, I blocked in the values by painting with full strength India ink & ink washes. It looks really rough here, but all this became detailed with scratching as I worked through the process. I used a Rapidograph (technical pen) filled with India ink to draw the eyes and to scribble the stripes of her brindle pattern. At this point I had just started "texturizing" the solid black areas by scratching. Here's an Instagram video showing stippling on a portion of the background: www.instagram.com/p/BH4aLolBaqP - "Safety" 2
At this stage, everything has been scratched back to blend the rough look from the previous stage. I added watercolor to her eyes. The background is finished - through a process of scratching, stippling, scratching, stippling, etc. to get that textured look. It's much richer and almost velvety compared to the first stage, where the background was simply a layer of India ink. I posted this video of the scratching process to Instagram: www.instagram.com/p/BIYm9c4hROX - "Safety" 2 - Detail
A detail of the 2nd image in the series. - "Safety" 3
Washes of ink over the previous round of scratching. With the scratches underneath to provide texture, this layer of ink is smoother than the first layer. Still rough, but becoming more refined.