Beginner Scratch Board Art

Original work by Allie Raines

Scratchboard is a beautiful art form, depicting great detail and texture of the image being drawn. Instructor, Allie Raines, specializes in de-mystifying this medium and making it very accessible for absolute beginners with no drawing experience! Everyone will try their hand at drawing an image of a dog, using tools provided for class. You won’t believe what you can accomplish! Ages 14+ are welcome.

Allie’s Story:

Allie Raines is a professional artist currently based in Manor, Texas. She specializes in scratchboard work featuring pets and wildlife, and has created hundreds of custom portraits for clients all around the globe since her first encounter with the medium in 2009.

About the Medium:

Scratchboard (made by the Ampersand Art company) is a specialized medium consisting of a 1/8″ thick kaolin clay board coated with a smooth, thin layer of black ink. To create an image, the black coating is scratched away by the artist with a sharp or abrasive tool such as an Exacto knife, tattoo needles or sandpaper to reveal the white clay underneath line by line.

The defined and precise nature of scratchboard lends itself beautifully to capturing every detail in complex surfaces such as animal fur, and procures a dramatic depth in each piece seldom found in more common traditional media.

Allie Raines