I like the heavy, bold scratches on this one. Kay Leverton does a good job with the direction of the scratches in the background. They give energy to the composition and keep my eye interested. The texture of the fur is what I like best about this.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Rosamund Fowler – woodcuts
I know woodcuts aren’t scratchboard, but the finished product is often very similar. I like how Rosamund Fowler uses the space in her compositions.
Leslie Gilbert Illingworth – French withdrawal from Algeria
I don’t know the history of this conflict, and I don’t know much about Leslie Gilbert Illingworth. He didn’t seem to do a lot of scratchboard work for his political cartoons. What interests me here is the visual journey. The composition keeps my eye moving around it. There isn’t a lot of detail, but the high contrast light reveals the story in silhouette.
ComradeBitter – scratchboard portrait
I ran across this piece on deviantart.com. The artist’s ID is “ComradeBitter”. Her name is Helen. The dramatic lighting is what caught my attention, and the rough finish kept me looking at it. It would work well as a book illustration.
Russ McMullin – George Washington with American flag background
This piece isn’t new. It’s been sitting around, patiently waiting for me to decide how to finish it. It had a solid back background that seemed to be calling for more personality. I envisioned an American flag backdrop and today was the day to try it. My wife likes it, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
Booda – Flying Dragons
“Booda” is the name on the Flickr account. This piece is seriously cool. It’s a crop of a larger image. I like this cropped version best.
Brian Gallagher – Sunflower and Dolmen
I revisited Brian Gallagher’s blog today and found a few new pieces that I had to post. It seems that most scratchboard artists these days are striving for as much detail as possible. Brian goes against that trend and creates nice work with simple bold strokes. This leaves more to the imagination in my opinion. His style has an energy that really appeals to me.
Alderson Magee – beautiful birds
I think Alderson Magee did these beauties back in the 70s. I especially love the kingfisher. Too bad there is a glare off the frame glass.
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Dan Metz – Midnight Wolves and a few others
Dan Metz doesn’t seem to be doing much scratchboard work these days, but it’s fun to look at some of his past work. I like how he is able to communicate so much with so little detail. I especially like the design of the Midnight Wolves composition.
Mary Flock – wonderful scratchboard illustrations with great design and line variation
I first saw Mary Flock’s work around 1992 in Scratchboard for Illustration, by Ruth Lozner. Today I was searching for new scratchboard work to admire, and her name popped into my head. I found some really nice pieces from the late 80s (below).
The images on her website are disappointingly small, which is unfortunate. In my search I found her Facebook page and although I didn’t find any scratchboard work, her sketches and watercolors are simply amazing.
UPDATE:
The images aren’t showing up any longer, but trust me, they were nice. 🙂
The images aren’t showing up any longer, but trust me, they were nice. 🙂