Scraperboard Drawing.

Kenneth Hunter, F.R.S.A., comments on recent developments and describes techniques in detail.

Directional-line scraperboard drawings made from photographs are much used at the present time in place of half-tone reproductions of photographs. The increase in this practice is partly due to the quality of the paper on which most present-day newspapers and magazines are printed, which makes the printing of half-tone blocks in advertisements less easy; but I think we shall still find scraperboard transcriptions of photographs being widely used even when better quality paper is available, because many advertisers have found that these “tone drawings” are crisper and brighter than a half-tone reproduction and that they ‘marry’ well with the typematter.

It is often necessary, when working from a photographic original, to make a tone composed of straight, parallel lines. To do this satisfactorily it is essential that some mechanical aid should be used – freehand lines would not be sufficiently regular. A T-square, held in the normal manner and used in conjunction with a sharp pointed tool, will be found most useful for such passages. The drawing should be so placed that the T-square lies along it in the direction to be taken by the shading lines: one simply rules the lines with the pointed tool, moving the T-square down after each stroke.

There is another type of ruler equally useful for this job and it is known as a ‘parallel ruler.’ It is simply a straight ruler with a little cylindrical roller let into each end, set parallel to the long edges, so that when the ruler is rolled forwards or backwards it comes to rest along a line parallel to its original position. Such a ruler has some advantage over a T-square in cases where the drawing contains three or four areas of parallel line shading each of which is at a different angle.

Areas of tone formed in this way with a T-square or a parallel ruler can be made the basis for a wide variety of interesting effects and need not be so flat as one might at first imagine. For instance, a very simple variation is to increase gradually the distance between the lines while ruling them and this results in an interesting gradation of tone. Alternatively, the area can be ruled into a flat grey tone and then cross-hatched either with other ruled lines, or with lines of a less regular nature drawn freehand, to suggest effects of light and shade or changes of plane. Useful suggestions of surface texture can be obtained in the same way.

Even more interesting effects are possible if the ruled lines are later broadened in parts with a knife. Suppose, for instance, that one were drawing a piece of material containing folds and creases. The entire area could be blacked in and an even grey tone ruled over it in the manner I have described. The folds and creases could then be modelled-up by broadening the lines in the appropriate places to suggest light and shade. Solid blacks could be added with a brush and highlights scraped out with a knife later on to complete the drawing. Of course, one would require a fairly finished tone sketch or photograph from which to work.

It is possible to treat an entire drawing in this manner and some interesting and unusual results can be obtained. I once saw a drawing of a head in which the entire area of the sketch had been blacked in and then concentric circles, evenly spaced, drawn over it by means of a pair of compass dividers with very sharp points. The circular lines had then been very cleverly broadened to follow the tones and the final result was distinctly novel.

“Stunts” of this kind are mainly useful in the illustration of advertisements, where novelty is desirable because it attracts notice, but I would not recommend anyone just commencing work on scraperboard to try any such experiments. I have described this particular drawing only to show what very interesting things can be done with the medium by an artist who has thoroughly mastered its technical aspects.

Besides rulers, T-squares and compass dividers, French curves are also very useful for the more mechanical scraperboard work, particularly engineering or technical illustrations and some types of catalogue drawings.

When using any of these aids to accuracy with a pointed scraper tool, one must be very careful to keep the tool almost vertical. It may lean slightly in the direction in which it is being moved, but the point must not be allowed to undercut the surface of the board or this will result in lines having one clean edge and the other undercut, uneven and ragged.

I am going to talk about two drawings executed in quite different styles, though both were made for the same purpose, as illustrations. One is part of a set I did to illustrate a series of advertisements issued by a large firm of wholesale drapers and the other is by Charles Pierce, whose work is to be found illustrating many national advertising campaigns.

Scraperboard drawing by Charles E. Pierce (reproduced by courtesy of the artist)

Let us look first at Charles Pierce’s drawing (above). The perfection of the composition is particularly noticeable and impresses one at once. This was not arrived at by accident but most carefully considered, and I think it may interest you to know the method which he used when planning this landscape. First, he made numerous sketches of the scene, on the spot, from various viewpoints. He also took photographs of it. These sketches and photographs were simply regarded as data – the raw material from which the picture was to be made. Armed with this materia pictoria, Pierce returned to his studio and got down to the serious business of planning the composition. Bits were chopped out, others were added; some details were drawn as they were seen from one viewpoint, others as they appeared from other positions. As you can see from a study of the reproduction, the pattern of white roofs in the central third of the composition, sandwiched between the darker tones of background and foreground, was the important feature of the picture, and the alterations to the original scene were deliberately made with a view to accentuating this pattern.

It would be true to say, I think, that this landscape is essentially decorative in treatment: the natural forms of trees, houses, etc., have been formalised and treated as units in a design. Surface textures have been similarly formalised and treated as areas of pattern. The rich appearance of the foreground is especially worthy of notice in this respect. Yet the complete picture is not in the least lacking in realism.

Light and shade have been skilfully used to counteract the formalisation of the details, so that one feels that this is a real village, springing more from fact than from the imagination of the artist. It is no easy matter to ally fact to fancy in this manner.

The treatment used gives an effect very similar to that of a wood engraving. I do not know whether or not this was the deliberate intention of the artist. As he is a wood engraver of repute as well as an exponent of scraperboard, it may well be that the similarity of technique was unconscious.

The tool used was a needle inserted in a holder, and the gradation of the white lines from thick to thin – so very similar to the stroke made by a graver - was made by starting each stroke under a fair amount of pressure, allowing this to decrease along its length and then ‘flicking’ the point out at the end.

In my drawing of a nineteenth century canal scene, a different approach was necessary. The nature of the subject made it quite impossible for me to collect my material from real life; instead, I had to get it from books of reference. The setting was reconstructed from a verbal description, and the barge from old prints.

Drawing on black scraperboard, by Kenneth B. Hunter (By courtesy of Messrs. Heslock Ltd, and Wilkinson & Warburton Ltd)

I decided that a naturalistic treatment would be most suitable to the requirements of the advertisement and chose to use a fairly free treatment on black scraperboard.

After the usual preliminary roughs to determine the composition, I made a fairly finished tone sketch in pencil to decide up on the arrangement of the tone values.

In arranging these tones, my aim was to create a lively counterpoint of light and dark masses and I had decided at the outset that I would take out no more white than was absolutely necessary. You will notice that there is no large area of pure white anywhere in the picture. Only one tool, a scalpel, was used throughout the drawing. In some parts of the picture, I have deliberately used lines with rough edges in order to suggest texture. You may notice this in the cobbled road at the side of the canal. These strokes were made with the blade held at right angles to the direction of the line and the handle sloping more acutely than usual, pointing towards my right shoulder.

Clean lines, such as those of the top hatch of the barge, were made with the tool held almost vertically.

This article was originally published in the August 1949 issue of The Artist

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