Blades for fine hair scratching

Indeed you can and when you combine this with scratching and soft and hard erasing the textures we can achieve are almost limitless, when I started out I relied too much on the airbrush to do everything then later relied too much on scratching, but in the last year I've gradually started using the pencils and varying erasers, as yet I still have try out the fibre pen, I do have one but it's too thick at 5mm and breaks up with the slightest pressure but I will get to two mil one very soon (I hope)

I have 2 fibreglass pens both 5mm ish, havent tried em yet though..

Fibreglass pencils are very agressive. You need to work lightly otherwise you can go through the paper very easily.

Have you noticed that when your fiberglass pen does breakup, it allows you to almost 'brush' away paint and thusly lighten up an area?

Yes but scotchbrite does that too without leaving you with stinging skin

Wear your gloves whilst doing it and no worries!

I just use a brush to brush away all the dust and dirt.

I think I'm starting to figure this scratching thing out. I'm busy with a bearded old man and the only way I could figure out how to do his beard is by scratching and layering. I'm not putting the picture up yet as I still have a few layers to go before it's done.

What I've been saying is true. You need to have paint on the board in order to scratch. What I mean by this is, you can't thin your paint or just give a light dusting and think it will scratch. Too thin and the paint will soak into the board. If you need a light colour, then mix a light colour with white. If you need it transparent, then mix a transparent with base or medium. But there have to be paint on the board.

Also, you need a fresh blade. And plenty of them. As soon as you feel it only slides over the top, replace it. It should not take much effort to scratch. If it does, you will tray and force it and damage the surface. I've gone through 8 blades in an hour. I also found that I like the #16 blade more than the #11. It's sturdier and the point is tougher.

I have been spraying rattle can varnish over my board/paper lately befor i throw any paint at it and it helps, even heavily reduced paint in thin layers is scratching off.
PS ive been watching your painting on FB its looking great

@matty171, if you're going to coat board to make it scratchable, then you can use use any cheap board.

Is true, was just saying that its poss with heavily reduced paint, on my beagle i just finished i used paynes grey for the white on the nose reduced 12:1 and was able to use a blade on it

You reduced so much so that you could build it up right, if you reduce with medium or base first, you can still get the translucency without loosing the viscosity that you need for the paint to sit ontop of the uncoated board.

Yea im not disagreeing with you mate and get what your saying i was just giving another example of how it can be done. I personally dont really like using the medium base. I like working on the surface when its been giving a couple of coats of varnish, i usually use newton & windsor satin varnish, just a couple of light coats, it spiders more easily on the coated surface so ive learned a bit more control on my brush which can only be a good thing

Just curious how the #16 blades compares with the #2 heavy duty?

The #2 is just a bigger #11. I did use it before I found the #16. The point and angle is the same as the #11 so results are the same.