For those of you unfamiliar with this meticulous reverse medium, scratchboard (often called Scraper Board) is basically a piece of artboard which has been coated with white clay. The clay is then covered with India Ink (or can be painted or sprayed with any color of drawing ink), leaving a solid black (or colored) surface.

The artist then uses sharp tools to scrape away the ink, leaving a white surface where the scratch has been made. We are actually working in reverse, taking away rather than laying down lines, very similar to classical etching, except that we end up with a positive image, rather than a negative one that has to be printed to be seen as a positive. For that reason, a finished scratchboard drawing is often called a "scratchboard etching."

There is really no "right" way to work with scratchboard -- every artist has his or her own methods of using it. I prefer to make many fine lines, and I have several types of X-Acto knives to use as tools, as well as a large needle for making tiny circles. The scratchboard surface is very delicate and and can easily be scratched by accident -- by a fingernail or ring on a hand that's brushing away the dust that results from the scraping -- or by moisture (Never, never BLOW away the dust!) -- and especially by the skin oil from a fingerprint, so I generally cushion my hand with a soft cloth as I'm working, and use that for brushing the surface. One fingerprint on a finished piece of scratch art can ruin the whole thing, which is why I seldom demonstrate the medium in public. For some reason, people feel compelled to TOUCH the material they're curious about, so I spend as much time protecting the artwork as working on it.

Scratchboard is not a very "forgiving" medium -- it's difficult to make corrections, and almost impossible to make INVISIBLE corrections. Each scratch leaves a tiny indentation in the surface, and when it's re-inked, that ink may flake off when you scratch over or across it. So, rather than "wing it," I will make a pencil drawing of my subject, and then transfer the main elements of the drawing to the scratchboard surface, using light transfer paper. I then use the pencil drawing as a reference as I scrape.

Many scratchboard artists use color in their work, which means the area to be colored must first be scraped to white. I then use acrylic paint, gouache (opaque watercolor), or drawing inks for color. The scraped area is too smooth to hold pastel chalks, which require "tooth" of their surfaces, and transparent watercolor is absorbed by the surface and can make the india ink coating run. I know of artists who use oil paints, but I've always been afraid of the potential effect of oil on this surface.

And, many scratchboard artists prefer to work in the classical black and white, which is a wonderful way to learn the use of values in a painting. Scratches close together give you a light gray, while farther apart they produce a darker gray. The range of values in a scratchboard etching is almost infinite.

Lately a new material called "ClayBord" has come on the market, using masonite as a base rather than art board. I've tried it, and though many artists seem to like it, I've decided it's not for me -- the surface is too tough for me to scratch through with fine lines. It has the advantages of not requiring a mat to frame the finished etching, and the surface is not as delicate as that of classic scratchboard, but the cons outweigh the pros for me.

One of my favorite experiences with scratchboard happened as I was busily scraping away at an art show and noticed a little girl standing at my shoulder, watching every move. "Do you have any questions, Honey?" I asked, and she nodded.

"How did you know there was a kitty under that black?"