The New Scratchboard
Colorado painter, printmaker, and educator Charles Ewing explores art on clay surfaces inThe New Scratchboard. Unfired porcelain clay applied in a thin layer to a support gives a surface that is both absorbent and easily scratched. Images are created by applying and removing pigment. Ewing looks at the long history of clay-surface art and describes the nature of clay-coated surfaces. He presents a staggeringly wide range of pigment that media artists can employ on scratchboards, including graphite, colored pencils, charcoal, ink pens, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, oil, etc. Application and removal tools are equally diverse. Chapters about using India ink and color on white clay surfaces include demonstrations and exercises, and Ewing also provides extensive demonstrations of printmaking techniques such as relief, intaglio, and lithography. The book is exhaustively illustrated by a wide range of artists who have exploited the easy versatility the clay surface affords. Ewing's own work portraying horses and animals from the wild on inkboard reflects a mastery of line, form, and rhythm; his black-and-white rendition of four dancing ravens, for example, is simultaneously amusing and realistic. Any artist is sure to find a captivating technique from the wide media illustrated, each with its own unique characteristics. Although saturated with technique, the book celebrates experimentation, which is perhaps best captured in its being "dedicated to those with a 'What if...' curiosity that always prevents them from exactly following a recipe."--Mary Ribesky