I wanted to introduce my eighth graders to scratchboard- paper coated with white clay and sprayed with a layer of india ink. Before starting on scratchboard, it was important to have them practice drawing objects and areas of light on a dark background. This way of drawing white on black works opposite of the way we draw with pencil on paper. Instead of drawing a visible outline of an object, I wanted them to fill in areas with the values they saw. I set up still life arrangements of white, geometric objects, and gave them white coloured pencils and black paper. We discussed different techniques we could use to show the varieties of white present, including varying the amounts of pressure, types of mark making and the proximity of the lines. These are what they came up with.
Gateway Art 