Demonstration - Coloring Whiteboard

by Eliza, May 2007

Tools used:

• Clayboard White by Ampersand, 5" x 7" (any white scratchboard would do)
• Ampersand Clayboard Inks and paint brush
• Paper and pencil and white pencil, or white transfer paper
• Craft knife with several blades

Step 1

Take your white clayboard and drip different colored inks on it in random spots. Take your brush and spread the ink, keeping it random. Use a different brush for each color, or make sure you wash your brush between colors. Don't wait too long to spread it though! It will dry and you will be left with a little lump. Try to make it as smooth as the clayboard was originally. You can mix the colors where the edges meet if you like - but remember - you might get a yucky brown if you mix it too much!

Step 2 Wait patiently for the colored ink to dry and then paint or spray paint (if you can) your black ink over the surface. I've mixed black and blue ink together to make a slightly brighter surface sometimes and that looks nice too. The trick here is to make it SMOOTH, and it might take some practice. Put on one coat brushing one way, watch it dry, making sure no drips develop. Then put on another coat brushing the other way. I usually use 3 or 4 coats. I could show you a picture of the finished article - but it would be a blackish rectangle - so let's move on!

Step 3

Take your paper and draw what you want to do on your scratchboard. When you are happy with it, transfer it to your (now black) scratchboard. You can use a white transfer paper, or if you have a white colored pencil you can scribble all over the back of your drawing and trace it onto your prepared scratchboard that way.

Step 4

Scratch as you normally would - but keep your scratches light and shallow otherwise you might go through your colored ink and into the white of the clayboard. Once you get use to it you can feel how deep to scratch. Of course, there might be areas you want white, so scratch deeper in those areas. The colors come through as you scratch, and you never know where! The colors are much more muted when scratched then they are when you first put them on, but still vibrant.

Here is my Chameleon Dragon