Zebra Scratch Update WIP





In life there are times when you are very thankful for things you usually take for granted.  That just happened to me, I am thankful for being able to read and being persistent on the internet.  You all know there is so much on the internet these days that you can either watch YouTube or read something to learn just about anything.  I am a pretty voracious reader and for folks who I really follow and do blogs I read all the historical info, catching names of people they know and techniques that don't come up in queries - another kind of networking I guess.  Drives my hubby nuts ........ (is that a bad thing?)
In working on this piece I came across a scratchboard artist who works with adding pastel dust on his scratchboard - John Hopman of Tuscan AZ.  Well eureka, the lightbulb went off - A BREAK THRU - I was off and running, excited because I love pastel and have a boatload of colors.   I thought I wanted a softer color transition than I could get with what I have seen with inks.   Well here is the result of adding soft pastel dust to this piece for coloration and I am still way excited about the potential. 
I was lucky enough to go to Birmingham AL zoo (what a little secret gem that zoo is) this weekend and saw Grant Zebras close up and they do really have a lot of brown in their coats - who knew, all these years I thought they were simply black and white (before I saw with artist eyes).  So now I am working on getting dry pastel dust to go into and stay in the grooves of the clayboard left by scratching, thus adding coloration.  Inks just seemed to be too stark a contrast for me, even trying to do them diluted in layers.  Guess I am too impatient and want full color fast - so am going to continue to try to see if I can develop the technique to do this.  Next problem with this is trying to figure out how to seal the piece when done as Scratchboard is sealed at the end of the process and sealing tends to darken pastel colors.  Hmmmmm.
I know I have to get studied up, probably on the hugin program, read about it just haven't tried it yet, and that is the reason you have two pics above, even then, not a full image scan of the entire piece.  Sorry.
I have another problem that I need to research, as I rotated the initial reference piece, and that would have changed the light source, so just need to figure that out now and be sure I have my highlights on the correct side to where I think my light source is coming from. Will have brights and shadows in different places as rotating doesn't change the light source, just flips the original pic.  Now I am sure if I was savvy enough to do GIMP I could figure that out and correct it before I finalized the reference pic that I am referring to.
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Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Comments

hmuxo said…
The more I read your posts, the more interesting the process of the scratchboard sounds, Nelvia. Using soft pastel dust for color made my ears perk !! lol Sounds wonderful.. Curious...will you be framing this under glass?
May 13, 2014 at 8:53 AM
Nelvia said…
Hi Hilda, that is the thing that hooked me. Pastel. I am not sure yet whether I will,spray the whole thing, and take the note on darkening the pastel color, or under glass. It appears to be mixed as to,how they frame with it without glass.
May 13, 2014 at 7:10 PM
Alexander said…
Wow great stuff. you seem to be on the roll. Keep on
May 14, 2014 at 4:31 PM
renate said…
The ears are incredeble Nelvia. Such a good job so far!! I wonder who this Dutch artist can be?? Love ya:)xxxx
May 15, 2014 at 4:25 PM
Nelvia said…
Thanks A, getting to the end on this, several more tweaks then final post.
May 16, 2014 at 8:55 AM
Nelvia said…
I particularly like the ears. I used a fiberglass brush to get the softness. I love the pastel, it pops off do the white board just like watercolor does on white paper, seems lit from within.
May 16, 2014 at 8:58 AM
renate said…
Fiberglass brush? I've never heard of it. Anyway, the effect is beautiful. Can't wait to see the finished zebra. You're doing such great art. All your research is paying out.
May 16, 2014 at 3:12 PM
Nelvia said…
I will take a picture and post, it is a brush made of fiberglass and takes off quite a lot of ink/clay and kind of smoothes the scratch marks. Trying all kinds of things that can make a mark.
May 18, 2014 at 12:42 PM
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