SCRATCHING (and not the itch)

[V-Twin]

So as I am about to attempt my first picture on home made clayboard and using the scratching technique,
and before I just blow paint down and make a total cock up, I would a little advice on how to start/go about
doing it please.

Do I put a a mist layer down to outline the areas, then follow with a thicker layer then start scratching, or do
I mist a barely visible layer then scratch?

I could wing this and just go for it, but then I would have to power sand all my clay off and re-lay it all again
because I screwed the picture up (which I could do, as its all practice and learning, but prefer to have
at least some kind of basic idea to work from first...).

much gracias all

 

[Ronald art]

it all depends on what you plan to paint and I would use eraser techniques on clay board as in only hard and soft pencil erasers .
fiberglass erasers and knifes will damage the clay if you are not real careful
in general you only use thin layers till you reach the color value you want /need

if it is a portrait of a animal you will want to start erasing from the start to create the fur texture in case it is a man you will do the same for the skin texture in case of a woman you wont need that much erasing if she has a smooth skin and with a child portrait you can almost forget any erasing
this is only spoken in general en it all depends on the ref you use and how much texture you need to create

 

[JackEb]

Your paint choice will also affect how successful the erasing will be, Createx Illustration is made with erasing techniques in mind, so you'll find it a lot easier to erase. I dont recall anyone using Com-art and erasing.

Blades / fiberglass eraser on a claybord, as Ron has pointed out, can very quickly destroy your board if you dont have a very delicate touch.

Thin layers of paint will dry quicker and you can immediately start gently erasing, if you lay a thicker layer and try erasing it may still be a bit wet and the result will be smudging, not erasing.

regardless of paint/substrate / tool of choice for erasing you should only use enough pressure to acheive the desired outcome, you go in to heavy handed and there may be a point of no return where you have no choice but to sand back the board and start again.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

Com art erases well.

 

[JackEb]

Com art erases well.

well there you have it, apparantly Com-art erases well
I honestly dont remember seeing anyone comment on the erasability of com-art,

 

[Robbyrockett2]

well there you have it, apparantly Com-art erases well
I honestly dont remember seeing anyone comment on the erasability of com-art,

I tried it mainly bc malky said it worked well for erasing since he can't use CI
If I remember right.

 

[beginner-James]

Erase with a Light touch, You may think it's not erasing but look at your rubber and if you see paint on it you are removing paint also polish(remove paint) the eraser on cotton works very well old hanky if you have one this will give you a polished rubber tip also less waste on a rubber. If you need a heavy erased area dampen the rubber tip (I'm not saying you should do this) but I dampen the tip with my tongue.

#####DO NOT SCRUB WITH ERASER BUT STROKE LIGHTLE######

just my penny's worth
James

 

[V-Twin]

Wow, THANK YOU ALL, much help and info.
I should have pointed out what I was going to do, but I put that down in another post regards Ginger paint.

Basically, I have cut a 5x7in piece of cherry plywood and laid down my home mix of clay.
I have Com-Art paints (but do have 4 Windsor & Newton Galleria tubes but probably not useful here), thus Com-Art is the only choice.

Ronald, I am painting an animal, a Scottish Highland Cow which has long fur (mainly) and its from a face-on angle and close up.

My choice of tools for scratching are a box set of hobby blades (same as X-acto, various blades), Faber Castle White Soft rubber
with brush on the end and the Pink coloured harder rubber one, Cocktail sticks and Glass Fibre pencil.

So, from advice here, I should only look to use the rubber erasers in this instance, and Thank Goodness Com-Art is erasable, or I
would be stuffed (or at least I would have to paint each bit of fur separately).

thanks all once again, great help.

 

[Ronald art]

it so happens I painted quite coo's as they call em so I might be able to help you out
you will need soft and hard pencil erasers for the nose and horns forget your blades and fiber erasers those will only kill your clay
the basics for the long fur: free hand the basic shapes as close as you can refine the shapes with your soft pencil eraser and slowly build your portrait up with thin layers
if you need sharper thin lines just give your pencil eraser a sharper edge I will get a photo to show you what I mean by that just give me a min.

 

[Malky]

Wow, THANK YOU ALL, much help and info.
I should have pointed out what I was going to do, but I put that down in another post regards Ginger paint.

Basically, I have cut a 5x7in piece of cherry plywood and laid down my home mix of clay.
I have Com-Art paints (but do have 4 Windsor & Newton Galleria tubes but probably not useful here), thus Com-Art is the only choice.

Ronald, I am painting an animal, a Scottish Highland Cow which has long fur (mainly) and its from a face-on angle and close up.

My choice of tools for scratching are a box set of hobby blades (same as X-acto, various blades), Faber Castle White Soft rubber
with brush on the end and the Pink coloured harder rubber one, Cocktail sticks and Glass Fibre pencil.

So, from advice here, I should only look to use the rubber erasers in this instance, and Thank Goodness Com-Art is erasable, or I
would be stuffed (or at least I would have to paint each bit of fur separately).

thanks all once again, great help.

With your Fabre Castle erasers pink is soft and white is hard, as far your blades go those exacto knives can be vicious, especially on clay board, I would recommend you get hold of some scalpel blades which you can find in any decent high street art store fairly cheap, I have three types, one is a long pointed one, one has like a quarter circle curve at the top and the other is the same shape but smaller, the numbers of these are 11, 10 and 15 respectively, although 24 can also be handy, I work with these off the handle just holding the shaft between my thumb and forefinger so as to get softer scratching, you don't even need the original Swan & Morton handle since the blades will fit into your screw type exacto handle if you need that, the scalpel blades are usually sold in packs of 5 and are sealed in a sterile foil pack each with their own grease proof paper sleeve.

 

[Ronald art]

here is the photo of the sharp edge pencil eraser , you just cut the eraser in a more or less 45 degree angle and you erase with the rounded part ( I always keep the flat cut side "up" if that makes any sense

 

[V-Twin]

@Ronald art , many thanks for help and tips. @Malky ; same also, but my pink rubber pencil is def the harder one, its same colour (wood and rubber) as in Ronald's picture. My white one is really soft and bendy.

And this is the Cow I am painting (ahemm.... trying to). Not sure about the background, might do my own.... not sure...

 

[musicmacd]

I like to think of the blade as if it were a razor on a baby sounds dark but you know what mean, but you also have to have a confident stroke, hesitation will show!
Regarding the paint values, that cow has quite contrasty hair so it will require you building up some nice sub layers then sinking them all back before going for the top layer, that final layer will need to be clean
Hair is wonderful to paint

 

[Malky]

Are you doing the whole scene or do you intend to crop it so that you just have the cow in the foreground? If you're doing the whole scene it's not that hard, it's easy to be intimidated by it but you just need to pick out the shapes that are in there.

Almost everything is out of focus except the main cow, for snow I would just put in a light blue grey mist then erase most of it away with the soft eraser and maybe a kneedable/putty eraser to get the texture and shadows in the snow, for the greenery I would just free hand a random figure 8 texture using several shades of reduced green then add shadows using umber for the darker parts, I would attempt to be more precise with the greenery on the right of the main cow since it has more shape to it, it can all be tidied up and manipulated with some more careful erasing, the stuff in the distance again I would just free hand with the colours I see but with the airbrush further away from the substrate.

I would definitely do the background first starting with the most distant parts and working towards the foreground, i5sxasimpke case of working closer as you come forward or down, I woukd likely have the main cow masked off with a cut out to protect that area till I'm ready, as Ronald says, there won't won't be much scratching on this, even on the main cow if I wanted to scratch at all it woykd be minimal and with a blunt blade mainly on the cows nose.

The main cow is easier than you think, you just build that up in layers with your ginger mix reduced, I woukd start the cow in umber and carefully free hand in the main features and dark areas then proceed with the ginger mix erasing the lighter areas as needed as I go, if your reasonably good with free hand the fur/wool effect would take care of itself as you add more layers as will the differences in opacity, as you go you'll be able to see what needs to be lighter or darker.

Just plan your attack and take it easy, study smaller areas and decide how you want to approach them then move on to another area, it's looking at the whole image that makes it appear harder than it actually is.

The cool thing about claybiard is you can sand or clean off a whole area if your not happy with it.

I think your going have more fun with this than you think, having seen your other work, you'll realise how easy this is compared to it.

 

[V-Twin]

@musicmacd, thanks, any and all help much appreciated, keep holding back on actually picking up the brush to start as feeling nervous about
attempting this kind of thing for the first time, that and getting colours right really does my head in!
Probably the most difficult thing for me to do at present.

Also, the day I reach your abilities I will hire my own 747 dreamliner round the globe, pick everyone up and fly everyone to the Caribbean with
a baggage full of Herbs shine I keep reading about and PARTY..... <ie: more chance of seeing a flock of purple spotted pigs flying by)

 

[V-Twin]

@Malky, wow, there is a lot in there you have given me. I am printing all this good info off so I can re-read and digest better at the table and
at the easel.

I think my biggest issue, and it has affected me since my last 3 or so pictures, is "where the hell do I start"! Thus I put things off for a further day
or 3 or 5 until I decide to just do it. Don't know why now, as my first several I had no issues starting, I just dived in. Now I think I am
over-thinking what I want to achieve and that my main concern is "it has to be perfect first time out" but I just don't know where or how
to start. I keep thinking about what I have read here on starting with the darkest areas first, then work outwards. I have a tendency to
move all over the picture, but have read I should really be looking at one square inch (or cm) at a time, do it then move to next etc.

Think it's confusing me a little.

 

[musicmacd]

@musicmacd, thanks, any and all help much appreciated, keep holding back on actually picking up the brush to start as feeling nervous about
attempting this kind of thing for the first time, that and getting colours right really does my head in!
Probably the most difficult thing for me to do at present.

Also, the day I reach your abilities I will hire my own 747 dreamliner round the globe, pick everyone up and fly everyone to the Caribbean with
a baggage full of Herbs shine I keep reading about and PARTY..... <ie: more chance of seeing a flock of purple spotted pigs flying by)

I’m happy to answer any questions, it’s helpful seeing what you want to do

Don’t be afraid of putting pigment on paper! Be more afraid of not painting at all

I would use sepia for most of it then add orange with burnt sienna for the top layers. Probably at the end I would use a blue violet for extra deep shadows and any “too much saturation” areas

 

[Malky]

@Malky, wow, there is a lot in there you have given me. I am printing all this good info off so I can re-read and digest better at the table and
at the easel.

I think my biggest issue, and it has affected me since my last 3 or so pictures, is "where the hell do I start"! Thus I put things off for a further day
or 3 or 5 until I decide to just do it. Don't know why now, as my first several I had no issues starting, I just dived in. Now I think I am
over-thinking what I want to achieve and that my main concern is "it has to be perfect first time out" but I just don't know where or how
to start. I keep thinking about what I have read here on starting with the darkest areas first, then work outwards. I have a tendency to
move all over the picture, but have read I should really be looking at one square inch (or cm) at a time, do it then move to next etc.

Think it's confusing me a little.

When you started out, meaning before your last 2 or 3 paintings you were having fun and just went at it and with much success, since then you've reached a point that happens to all of us where you start to second guess yourself, that plays with your mind and makes everything cloudy so that you can't see the forrest for the trees, your asking too much of yourself so you need to go back to your first paintings and adopt the same attitude, to give you an extreme example of what I mean, if I spend some time preparing a board as you've just done I go through a phase for days and days where I don't want to put paint on it in case I make it dirty and it's no longer that beautiful board I spent ages preparing, your worried about wasting time and paint but you should instead just think about having fun, I mean what's a little of your time and paint even if you failed, you would still learn sonething.

When your doing a piece with lots of activity you need to just break it down into bite size pieces, see it as several smaller paintings rather than one big one, concentrate on each area individually, all that's needed is a little discipline and self control, if your not jumping all over the place you're less likely to get lost in what you're doing, as I said, plan your attack and stick to it.

As I said above, start with your background beginning with the areas with the least focus and work towards the foreground then finish up with your main cow, its far easier to handle the cow when you don't need to think about the other surrounding areas, only because it makes sense to me I work on the priciple that objects that are closer overlap and hides whatever is behind it so with the cow being the main focus everything behind should be done first, some will do the main feature first and blend it all in later but that loses me.

Just have fun with it mate, nothing needs to be perfect, it only needs to look like it is, you are doing a painting of a photograph so it can be a painting and there's no law that's states it should be identicle, your job, your rules

In the SBS section there are loads of SBS's from @beanpoleuk and @haasje dutchairbrush, have a read through their animal ones, it will shed a lot of light on where to begin and processes involved, you'll also notice how they both work on small areas at a time, I know Beanpole has done one of these cows which should be in there so that should be of great help to you.

 

[Ronald art]

@V-Twin the pink side is the soft side and the white tip is the hard side and I went trough my old photo's to see if I had some progress pics of a coo I painted and this is what I was able to find
1: how I started

the progress


and the finished painting

 

[jord001]

I struggle to decide where to start but best thing is to pic a spot and start there. I would however get your guidelines onto the clayboard as accurate as possible.

Lee