What is Scratchboard art? Scratchboard Art can trace its
heritage to Paleolithic man's scrimshaw etchings on reindeer
antlers and bones.  It
shares some kinship with the woodblock patterns the ancient
Egyptians used for printing on fabrics. And it is decidedly
related to the wood engravings of the 18th century which
began to express halftones with varied permutations of etched
lines, dots, dashes and cross-hatchings. The scrathboard,
or scraperboard, was developed in 1880 by blockmakers in
Vienna, Paris and Milan. The first version was a cardboard
coated with hard wax and chalk, which was embossed with
a grained pattern and painted with India ink. Initially,
this was used as a template to be photographed onto a metal
plate in preparation for printing the etching. Today scratchboards
are either black or white and coated with white chalk or
china clay in various textures and smoothness. |
Catalina Meders, of the San
Felipe Title Company, sells her scratchboard art through
her bookstore in town. The store is located at the corners
of Av. Chetumál and Mar de Cortez, on the second
floor, next to Baja Java Cafe. Come see her work. You'll
be amazed by the detail and the obvious hours of work
needed to uncover these hidden scenes.
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| Examples of Scratchboard
Art |
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