Scratchboard Fantasy Scape
Submitted by: Wendy Free, formerly at Eastside High School, Gainesville, Florida (Now at Suwanee, GA)
Unit: Drawing - Scratchboard
Lesson: Illustration - Career lesson (cartooning) Fantasy 'Scapes
Grade: High School (adaptable to middle school)
Resources/Introduction:
http://www.pixar.com; Picasso’s bulls (stages of abstraction) http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca; online reef photo galleries like http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/photo2.html; jungle photo galleries like (at school! will send in after break!); Rousseau jungle scapes, Wyland sea scapes (image resource sheet available)
Resources: Scratchboard Internet Lesson - by Wendy Free Detailed Scratchboard instructions in Ken Schwab's Drawing Course 101
Materials:
Assorted images of animals and marine life, Newsprint
Procedures:
View marine and jungle ‘scapes and identify perspective techniques (overlapping, size/placement, atmospheric perspective, etc.).
Students choose subject of composition and do sketches in computer lab of flora and fauna contained within their environment.
View Picasso’s bulls and Pixar website – discuss similarities between Picasso’s processes of abstraction and creation of cartoon characters from FINDING NEMO
from real life clownfish, surgeonfish, etc.
Use sketches to create "cartoonized" composition of creatures and their surroundings.
Practice scratchboard techniques for creating value and texture on scrap board (value scale, shaded sphere, and one animal from drawn composition).
Transfer drawn composition to scratchboard by tracing with ballpoint pen.
Scratch images using directional line and pattern. Create varied values with scratch techniques. Contrast is important.
Complete scratchboard piece by tinting with Watercolor Paint
You can see the process in the video below. As you can see, the artist is quite advanced and uses colored pencils as well as watercolors. It is important to note that you must use the watercolors in the tubes, not the ones in the small pans that elementary students frequently use.
