Acrylic, Color Pencil, Watercolor, Pen and Ink, Quilting, Brazilian Embroidery, and Scratchboard.

 

 Scratchboard or Clay Board - is a unique art medium where as the artist renders the picture on a Masonite board, which has been covered with a fine white china clay, then covered with black ink. The artist then scratches through the black ink down to the white clay to render unbelievable detail in the artwork. It is a very striking Black and White, which can also have color added. After the entire engraving has been completed in black and white, several layers of transparent watercolor or Ink are applied. The engraving is then re-scratched to blend and highlight certain areas. Additional color may be added to reach the final result.

 

Scratchboard is a wonderful medium to represent wildlife because of the intricate detail, sharp contrast, and wonderful texture that can be achieved -- the subject comes alive before your eyes as the engraving progresses. The completed scratchboard engraving really combines the best of two worlds; the beauty of a full color painting and the detail, texture and precision of an engraving.

 

The History of Scratchboard

 

Modern scratchboard as we know it originated in the 19th century. Originally, cardboard was coated with chalk, but this quickly progressed to the use of India ink in parts of Europe which prevails to this day. Scratchboard became popular for its finer line appearance, and could be photographically reduced for reproduction easily without losing quality. Up until the 1950s it was used mainly for advertising and editorial illustrations. In more recent years it has made a comeback as an appealing medium. More recently Clayboard, or Scratchboard, a finer medium, has been created to provide easier and more detail works.

 

 Notable scratchboard artists

 

John Schoenherr has been famous for his scratchboard work since the 1960s and has been commercially successful in that respect. Carol Biberstein, while better recognized for her use of watercolor, has also utilized scratchboard in her art. Canadian illustrator, Mark Summers, is one the most talented and commercially successful artists in the scratchboard medium today.

 

Acrylic - A type of paint made with synthetic resin as the medium (liquid) to bind the pigment (colour), rather than natural oils such as linseed used in oil paints. It has the advantage of drying faster than oil paint and being water soluble.

The first acrylics were produced in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany, with acrylic paints specifically produced for fine artists emerging in the 1950s. One of the first "big name artists" to use acrylics was David Hockney.

 

 Colored Pencil - makes one think of childhood and coloring in books. But Colored pencils are much more then a children's toy. Today many different types of pencils are made - pastel pencils, wax pencils, charcoal, graphite, color, oil - the list goes on. And the artists quality pencils used by today's artists are light fast - meaning that work created by them will last without fading for many generations.

Color pencils cannot be mixed like paint so to create different shades and values, color pencil is layered on the paper to create the illusion of mixed colors. There are two varieties of colored pencil. There are wax based colored pencils and non-wax based colored pencil. Both are really wonderful, but it is important to understand how each variety works so that you get the ones that right for you. Wax based fine art colored pencils provide artists with the ability to easily create deep rich color on the drawing surface. These colored pencils can be layered. However, when you put more than just a few layers on top on one another you may get wax bloom. Wax bloom is when the wax builds up and causes a white sheen on your drawing. For artists who do not use several layers of color in their drawings this would not be a concern. Wax based pencils can be burnished to create shiny objects like flower petals or the chrome on a car fender.


Then there are fine art colored pencils that are bound with other substances like kaolin. These colored pencils have a somewhat harder feel on the paper but artists can use these art pencils to layer color after color with no worry of wax bloom. This variety of colored pencil does require a little more time or pressure to deliver really dark values on to the drawing surface… but it’s worth it.

 

 Watercolor - Watercolor paints are composed of two things: pigment and binder. Binders for watercolor paints can be substances like glycerine, gum arabic, or even honey. Pigments are the substances that give the paint its color. Artists and paint makers have worked for centuries to find the purest colored substances that could be ground and mixed to be used as paint pigments. Artists have always craved the very best quality in their paints. For this reason, even semi-precious stones are ground for use as pigment. Raw earth, plant matter and other amazing things have also been used.

 

 Pen and Ink -  is similar to pencil drawing in that the use of line and technique is closely related.  India ink is used to draw with because it is a permanent ink.

 
  Quilting

 

Brazilian Embroidery - History - Embroidery, in its most basic terms, has been with us since time immemorial. Over the centuries, basic stitches have evolved into the more complex and elaborate needle works we know today.

Embroidery of any kind uses stitches known and used for hundreds of years in countless ways and for many different purposes.

Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is no exception. The difference is that it doesn't limit itself to specific stitches: it uses stitches from all types of needlework. Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is a style of embroidering where you can choose from the whole palette of stitches and knots you know.

Another difference in this style of embroidery is the thread. Rayon was introduced in the mid 1800's and by the turn the century, was the first man-made fiber in full production. Although it is manmade, rayon is not a synthetic fiber but regenerated natural fiber (cellulosic material, generally wood pulp). Rayon has long been the preferred thread for this style of embroidery because of its sheen and smoothness. Most stitches, especially bullions (which are used extensively for their dimensional effect), are much easier to make because of the thread's smooth texture.

Now we come to the question if the stitches aren't Brazilian and rayon isn't Brazilian, what does Brazil have to do with Brazilian embroidery? Well, many times throughout history, credit goes not to the inventor, but to the ones who popularize an item. Brazil started producing multicolored rayon threads in several weights. The popularity of the thread spread rapidly throughout Brazil to the point where variegated rayon embroidery became know as vari-cor embroidery. It wasn't long before the rest of the world noticed its popularity and immediately adopted it as "Brazilian".