Black scraperboard drawing by Kenneth Hunter, (courtesy of Heslock Ltd., and Wilkinson & Warburton Ltd.)

In this article from The Artist May 1949, Kenneth B Hunter, FRSA, takes the reader through the first steps in the production of a scraperboard drawing.

There are several different methods which can be employed in drawing on scraperboard; the choice of a method is dictated by the style of one’s work, just as it is in any other medium, and so I shall describe my own methods and mention others in passing.

There is no reason why you should not start by drawing straight on to the board with ink or with pencil and subsequently fill in the masses with ink, but this very direct method does not seem to me to be really in keeping with the nature of scraperboard, and I do not think that it is much used, so I will describe to you one or two more orthodox ways of starting work.

Preparing a drawing for execution on scraperboard has much in common with preparing a drawing for engraving on wood. In both cases it is necessary to do much of the thinking out and planning, even of technique, before commencing work on the board or wood. Therefore, when I prepare a drawing for either of these media, I spend as much time on the preliminary pencil drawings and on the tracing-down as I do upon the final ‘scraping’ or engraving.

I make these preliminary drawings on flimsy paper or tracing paper. Having organised the design to my liking, and having also planned in my mind the broad schemes of treatment, arrangement of tonal values, etc., I trace the drawing on to the surface of the scraperboard. If I am working on white scraperboard, I simply scribble all over the back of the tracing paper with a soft pencil, place the scribbled side down on the scraperboard, and then trace over the drawing with a 3H pencil. As an alternative method, one can trace the design down with carbon paper, and my only objections to doing so are that the carbon lines tend to smear if they are rubbed and are not at all easy to remove.

The next step is to go all over the traced image in pencil, sharpening it up here and there, correcting any little drawing faults which may become evident at the last moment, and generally making the thing as perfect as possible. I use a 3H pencil for this, just as I do for the tracing, because the hard pencil slightly indents the surface of the board.

When the drawing has been more clearly defined and perfected, I fill in the areas which are to be black or ‘grey’ leaving blank only those which will be pure white in the finished drawing. I apply the ink as swiftly as possible and do not go over any area twice. If two strokes are made over one area and two layers of ink left over it, the subsequent scraping is made very difficult. It means, in effect, that instead of scraping straight on to the chalky surface of the board, one is scraping at a thickish layer of dried ink which has a somewhat brittle texture and leaves ragged lines. If the ink is at all old and tending to thickness, it can be thinned down slightly with distilled water before use.

When the ink is dry on the board, one finds that the slightly indented lines on the surface, caused by the hard pencil, show up sufficiently to enable one to trace them again with the lead. This indentation requires to be done with some care: if too much pressure is applied they may be so great as to interfere with the tool work in the later stages. The marks on the board should be just strong enough to show when looked at from a fairly flat angle with the light on its surface.

Some artists prefer to first trace only the main areas of black and white without any of the details. They then ink in the blacks and allow them to dry thoroughly. Finally, when the ink is quite hard, they place the tracing paper over the scraperboard again, keying it up by means of register marks, and trace the details on to the masses of black. This seems to me to be complicating a job which need be quite simple, but it is a matter of individual preference and some readers may prefer it to the method which I use.

(By courtesy of the “Radio Times”)

The methods of tracing-down drawings which I have just described are applicable only to drawings on white scraperboard. When applying a drawing to black board, instead of scribbling over the back of the tracing paper with a soft black pencil before tracing down, I rub a piece of white chalk over it. This leaves a very clear image on the black surface of the board after tracing, and I work over this in pencil. The shine of the lead pencil lines is sufficient for them to be seen clearly when scraping, particularly if the board is raised rather high so that the line of sight makes a fairly flat angle with the surface of the board.

Having reached this stage, you may feel a bit lost if you have not used scraperboard before. The problem is where to make the first white marks and what character they shall have. A design on white scraperboard is usually a trifle less baffling in this respect than one on black, because the area of the picture will already be broken by a certain amount of white, but a black scraperboard can be very disconcerting to a beginner.

The simplest, though by no means the best way of starting is to scratch thin white outlines around the principal objects in the picture. This gives something to work on and breaks down the resistance of the solid black masses. The disadvantage of this method is that you may find, towards the completion of the work, that many of these white outlines are not desirable. For instance, you might place an outline all the way round a figure and then find later on that this white line, coming between the figure and its cast shadow, destroys the effect of realistic light and shade. Sometimes this can be put right at the completion of the work by touching out the offending line with waterproof ink, but that is not good craftsmanship and often the ink will run too far into the line, making a very difficult alteration necessary.

Diagram A

Diagram B

Diagram C

Diagram D

The method which I find most satisfying is illustrated by the four little diagrams above.

Diagram A shows the black board, on which the drawing has been traced in pencil, with the shape of the head and the background outlined with a white line.

Diagram B shows the first solid white areas scraped out. These are the highlights, the positions of which have been planned in preliminary pencil roughs, and they provide me with some points from which to work; I can then arrange the intermediate tones between them and the solid black areas.

In C some of the intermediate tones have been introduced and I should like you to notice how they are still quite closely linked to the original whites of the highlights. In other words, having ‘broken’ the black with the highlights, I am now working outwards from them into the surrounding black.

Diagram D shows the finished drawing with the tones completely worked out.

Many beginners tend to be extreme in their use of scraperboard; either they leave a drawing too black, with hardly any white in it, or they break down almost all the black and obtain an all-over greyness which lacks vitality. In drawing the little head for this demonstration, I aimed at taking out no more white than was necessary and yet getting as wide a range of tone as was possible in the small space. I also varied the nature of the tool strokes to suggest texture and give interest to the technique.

The advantage of this method of working is that it gives one a definite point from which to start work. It is only necessary to ascertain the disposition of the highlights and the main masses of tone. These should be planned out in the preliminary roughs and if your subject is a complex one it is a very good idea to make a tonal rough of this in wash before commencing work on the actual scraperboard. The less you leave to chance, the greater the likelihood of your success with this medium. There is plenty of scope for the inspiration of the moment in the choice of tool strokes and in the technical manipulation of the scraping instruments; more fundamental issues should be thoroughly thrashed out beforehand.

The other illustrations to this article show how the method which I have described with the aid of the small diagrams is put into practice in full-sized drawings.

Black scraperboard drawing by Kenneth Hunter, (courtesy of Heslock Ltd., and Wilkinson & Warburton Ltd.)

I used black scraperboard for the above drawing as I did not intend to use any large areas of white in it. I decided this after making a fairly finished tonal rough in pencil, but I had already completed quite a number of preliminary sketches to determine the composition and presentation of the incident and the arrangement of the figures in relation to background details.

Having traced the drawing down on to the scraperboard and drawn it more clearly with pencil, I started scraping by clearing the whites from the sky, the lower part of the shop doorway, and those portions of the window, roadway and pavement which outlined the figure of the top-hatted traveller. These whites were scraped out with the scalpel. The next step was to open up some of those white areas, and still using the scalpel but employing the point instead of the round part of the blade, I shaded the rest of the sky, the window of the shop and the pavement in the foreground.

My next concern was to establish the tonal values of the figures and so I worked on the figure of the traveller almost to its completion, scraped out the light tone of the carriage door behind the porter and then finished the porter’s figure.

The foreground cobblestones, the shopfront and the carriage and its driver were then developed simultaneously, so as to preserve the unity of the foreground. I used a variety of pointed tools for this, but the scalpel was used liberally in finishing off and thickening some of the lines.

Finally, the distant background was worked up and a few more highlights introduced into the shop window at the left and into the carriage.

The main difficulty, in a fairly complex drawing such as this, is to preserve a lively counterpoint of black-and-white and grey-and-white masses throughout the entire picture. The big contrasts of the main tonal scheme must be echoed again and again in small contrasts in the details.

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This article was first published in the May 1949 issue of The Artist.

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