Wall Of Stripes

- Patrick Hedges

TECHNIQUES

Scratchboard is an extremely versatile and forgiving medium. When people tell you that you need to get each scratch in exactly the right place first time or your board is ruined, don’t believe them. If you are painting in oils and make a mistake, you simply paint over it. The same holds true for scratchboard where you can re-ink over mistakes. The one important thing to remember is that the goal is to scratch the ink off the clay but not scratch through the clay. Use a light touch, something that needs developing, and you will find you have plenty of opportunity to work in layers just as if you were painting.

The fibreglass shaft running through this clutch pen (above) is made up of thousands of tiny fibreglass slivers. Caution – beware, do not get them embedded in your skin, they hurt like hell! However, after a false start, that hasn’t happened to me for years and I don’t use gloves. Just to be safe though, you can put surgical gloves on and save yourself any problems. Vacuum slivers off your desk regularly.