This was a fun little experiment! After admiring all the scratchboard work on Ampersand’s Clayboard, I picked up a free sample at the art store. In my graphite drawings, to make soft lines, I can always use the eraser to draw with to lift graphite from the paper. But I always have to plan ahead when it comes to fine, sharp white lines. Before I even begin to apply pencil, I incise fine lines into the paper with a sharp point (I like small knitting needles for this job). If I’m careful not to “bruise” the paper with too much pressure on the pencil, the lines stay below the surface of the paper and stay white. That’s the secret to white whiskers on drawings like this Cocker Spaniel or this Havana Brown Cat.

So, the scratchboard drawings on clayboard made me jealous of the ease of being able to make fine white lines anytime during the drawing. I wondered if the clayboard had enough tooth for graphite — paper has to grab the graphite particles and hold onto them. if you’ve ever tried to write in pencil on slick magazine pages (whose slickness comes from the same clay coating on clayboard), you’ll know why I had my doubts. I hadn’t heard of anyone using graphite on clayboard, but, I figured, what the heck: Why not give it a try on the free sample I had?

I chose my favorite, but most challenging, subject, my black Standard Poodle Rosie (when she was a puppy). That black, curly coat is so tempting to draw, but so hard to capture details and highlights hidden in the layers of black, very black, dark black, dark dark black, and black-hole black! Wouldn’t it be great to combine the subtle shading of graphite with the sharp detail of scratchboard? But could I get the darks dark enough on the slick clayboard?

I was pleasantly surprised at the results, displayed here in close to actual size (about 3×6 inches). The slickness of the board emphasized the texture of each pencil stroke — both a feature and a bug, depending on whether the subject is a Poodle or a Doberman. The scratchboard lines were a lot of fun to do and really make the highlights pop in a way that would be hard to duplicate on paper. Meanwhile, I could still use pencil techniques that would be difficult in standard solid black scratchboard. It was promising enough that I plan to experiment further. Stay tuned…