The "saddle" area on the Airedale's back was filled in with solid black, then the white hair texture was made by scratching out with a knife. The rest of the dog will be drawn with a pen and cleaned up with a knife.

TIP:
Use a slight wiggling motion and slight variance in pressure when drawing with a technical pen to achieve a looser, less mechanical look.

I start the rendering using a .00 technical pen, laying down lines that follow the direction of the Airedale's hair. A technical pen is designed to make lines that have a uniform width and the thickness of the line can't be varied by the amount of pressure applied to the point, as it can with a quill pen. To get a thick and thin line using a technical pen, I draw a line that follows a contour and make another stroke over the same line, making it thicker where needed. I rely heavily on thick to thin lines to achieve different values.

The first line is single stroke with a technical pen. The second line is what the line looks like after making another stroke over it, making it thicker where needed.

As a general rule of thumb, areas that have a value of less than 50 percent gray are drawn with a pen, and areas with over 50 percent gray are filled in solid black, then lightened with a scratching tool.

TIP:
The thickness of a line made with a technical pen can be varied slightly, by changing the pressure to the tip and changing the speed used when making the stroke.

Scratchboard Illustration by Michael Halbert
PHONE 636-349-1145 EMAIL michael@inkart.com
Copyright © Michael Halbert 2000