Who Needs Trees?

This talented scratchboard artist always tries to spend some time just observing a piece of her work before deciding it is complete.

- Renee Treml

Claybord is made up of a hard panel that has been coated with a fine layer of smooth clay. When I work on white Claybord, I like to combine painting, drawing and scratching to create a piece with a unique style and texture. I created this piece ‘Who Needs Trees?’ for an environmental art exhibit and it exemplifies why I love this technique … I can create very realistic looking animals and place them in highly unlikely settings, and yet they still look believable.

STEP ONE

I trace the completed drawing onto a piece of tracing paper and transfer it to the Clayboard. For this example, I put a piece of graphite paper (shown here) under the tracing paper and lightly traced over my lines with a ballpoint pen. I am careful not to press too hard because it will indent the clay.

When I do not have graphite paper available, I lightly shade over the lines on the back side of the tracing paper using a soft 2B pencil. I then put the tracing paper right side up on the Claybord and lightly trace with a ballpoint pen or hard pencil.

STEP TWO

I make a concentrated mixture of ink using about one drop of ink to three drops of water. I never paint with ink straight from the bottle because it is too thick. For my initial washes, I dilute the mixture even further until it resembles wet watercolour paint. I paint the ink on the Claybord in thin washes, allowing it to dry between layers.

Claybord is very absorbent and dries quickly, so do not be surprised if you see ‘blooms’ or other irregular marks in your washes.

At this stage I begin building up the volume and roundness of the Frogmouth’s head and chest.