Where does one even buy scratchboard? And what do you use to engrave it? And is there anyway to sketch it out beforehand? This is utterly fantastic, by the way.

Scratchboard is: a thin 1/8" or so layer of plaster with a smooth coat of ink on top.
You scratch through it with anything you want, a needle, a penny, steel wool, an
Xacto blade or razor, etc. The point is that you are working from dark into light,
instead of white paper, which goes light into dark.

You end up thinking about your subject very differently, I find. And lighting effects
are easier to describe, I think.

You can make it yourself, or buy it at any craft supply shop. It's cheap and super effective.

I would advise that you get this little tool that looks like a small itty bitty pitchfork.
it's used for making neatly parallel hatch lines.

You can make one yourself by using masking tape and a couple sewing needles
held together side by side.

Give it a try!

Goodness, thank you so much!

WANDERFULE

omg your grasp of the medium, even on your first attempt, is AMAZING!

reminds me of Silent Hill in the most "dear, the pancakes are ready" sort of way! OwO

awesome stuff mr. after you scratch stuff out you can also go over it with watercolor. i have seen some wild stuff done with that. sand paper and brillo pads are also good scratching materials. keep up the good work mr.

wow. just wow. i can taste the flavours of an old fifties kitchen and house. there is the slightly acrid flavour of cookies burning. and somewhere the warm low tones of fresh blood that invites and disgusts. i think maybe you found something nicely subconscious here.

This 'scratchboard' reminds me of paper that I would scratch to produce colors, and depending how deep I scratched the black paper would depend on the resulting color. It was fun.

Awesome picture/engraving btw, hmm, is it a picture, or an engraving using this technique? Or both? Well, carebear was definatly a good subject. Almost reminds me of black and white cartoons.

I hope this scratchboard is not an exclusively American art tool. I'd love to give this a try now that you've made it look so easy. If it's harder than you made it seem I'm going to cry all over the board and call it conceptual art.

Why is my brain flooded now with murderous care bears?

One of us. One of us. One of us! One of us!

*laughs evilly*

Superior.

Also, Care bear.

Creepiest image I've seen in a long time. Seconded only to the movie poster for "Steel Magnolias".

This reminds me of Robbie the Bunnie from Silent Hill 3. Have you ever played it?

No, I'm no good at those kinds of games. But I do like to watch, so I've seen SH3 yes :) I know what you mean, mm.

I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight...