Hi @siffermus
I think oil painting is a challenge. You’re handling this media well.
Terri
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Thank you for your supportive comment! Soft pastels are a passion for me so I have had a lot of practice with them.
Sonia
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Both pieces are really good! The portrait is made favorite, especially being of higher difficulty! Thank you for sharing these!
Sonia
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Playing with color and landscapes. Top one is oil pastel. Bottom is watercolor pencils, inktense, and oil pastel.
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Well you should be very proud of your Little Bird, especially being done in watercolor!
Very inspiring and well done!
Sonia
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Wellll….it is not what set out to do, but I ended up painting a pinguin in a festive outfit! It was supposed to be a jay, but the dimensions are so off that it became a pinguin.
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I am doing a drawing of my cat Mia on an ampersand scratchbord. It’s only 6x6. I decided to treat it like a white charcoal drawing on black paper. I had been wanting to do the Bee live lesson series on scratchbord ever since it came out. I guess this is good practice, however I shall get scratchedbord tools because the sharp sculpting tools are not very helpful to me for scratching on the spot intended. I will scratch the board until my cat emerges then post my completed outcome
I shoud,ve done my dark gray cat instead haha
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Hi Sonia @Meme5
I LOVE scratchboard and have done 3 of them so far including the bee lesson, a pileated woodpecker in flight, and my favorite of my cat (which I will attach here). I strongly suggest you get a small (5x7) scratchboard for practicing your mark making with tools before using on your actual project.
I’ve put together a photo of my most used favorite tools, along with what their marks look like on scratchboard. I also have some screen shots from Amazon showing where I purchased some of the items. Let me summarize my favorite 8 tools:
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red handle scraper - is included in most “tool kits”. I’d say it is a useful item. But many kits also have stuff that is crap like the plastic and wooden stylus, and the “dual-tip scratch coloring pens” found in the kit that includes the glove. In that kit that includes the glove I did like the glove, the repair pen and the pouch that holds all the tools together.
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Parallel line tool (is something I use infrequently) from the Ampersand Scratchbord Tool Kit. It’s worth noting that this kit is more expensive but includes items 1, 2 and 3 on my favorites list.
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may be called a “Fiberglass Erasing Brush” or a “Scratchbord Fiber Brush”. The fiberglass wears out as you use it, so you can “turn it” to expose more fiberglass (like you would do with a pencil style eraser used for general drawing). It is great for making large light areas, and to soften hard edges. I consider this a must have item. I first got it in the Ampersand Scratchbord Tool Kit mentioned above. Then because I used it all up, I bought another one separately that was not in a kit. At $16.60 it is more expensive than other tools but totally worth it.
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just a simple SKEWER that I had in the kitchen. It works fine and reminds you to try anything that is sharp or abrasive that you may already own.
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Nib Dip Pen - yes, the one you already have for using with ink. The smaller tip is great for controlled mark making.
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Pottery Needle tool - I like this a lot for controlled mark making and it’s inexpensive. It can be used with light pressure or firmer pressure (just like the Zebra pens that are being used for the church drawing in the current live lesson).
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Exacto knife. Most of us already own this so it is convenient, but I like items 5 & 6 above more.
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This is a pencil style INK ERASER. It’s another of my must have items. Note: I even used this on the current live lesson ink drawing of a church - to regain lighter areas that got too dark, and to blend in the harsh marks where I might have been pushing too hard.
Controlling pressure is very important. Also know that if you push too hard or too often you can wear out the scratchboard using up all of the white underlayer, and there is no way to repair that. This happened to me on the bee lesson.
Hope this is helpful, Terri
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Terri @robichon
Thank you for all the advice and shared list of resources for scratchbording. I went ahead with an amazon order of a couple of those. At the same time I remembered that I have already some pen like exacto knives 
which must be shared as well. I have no idea the reason why I got those it must’ve been a crappy idea since I forgot I had 6 of them in a little drawer. I do own an ink eraser and nib pens as well 
i will continue with my project better prepared now. Thanks again my friend! The cat is so beautiful and realistic 
Sonia
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The top one is really captivating. Nice work.
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Hi Sonia -
Probably wasn’t a crappy idea to buy them. I think you got them for cutting the “Original Frisket Film” that you use as a mask on some of your pastel drawings. Am I right?
Terri
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Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the idea of these little cartoon hamsters helping in the greenhouse. It’s sort of silly. This piece was sketched with graphite on bristol board then inked with waterproof ink and finally colored in watercolor.
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This is so cute! Not silly at all!
I found 5 of them! Did I get that right? 
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@noah I love the originality. So fun and pretty!
Sonia
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Terri @robichon
I think you’re absolutely right, they did not work for the frisket (at least for me), or maybe they did? I can’t remember, I just know I had cut out the outline of some drawing to keep the paper around the drawing clean but ended up taking the frisket film off. If I find the picture of the process I will post it. Most importantly, if I remember
Sonia
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Thank you. Yes, there’s five. 
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Here’s some progress on my experimental 6x6 cat on ampersand scratchbord. It is so satisfying! The nose is beyond salvaging stage but now I know how the tools work, or don’t work in this case so until I get my real tools, so far I received the wire brush thingies which I LOVED using - Thank you Terri @robichon and my knife pen as well. I hope somebody tries scratchbord sometime and love it as well. I thought it was going to be super tedious but it is not! Quick win for me on this one! Well, minus my Mia Cat’s little ruined nose. As long as I capture her sweet bratty look! This is practice anyway… haha
Bee lesson series….here I come!!!
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