Our last Family Day, in October, was inspired by the exhibition “A Perfect Model: Prints after Anthony van Dyck’s Portraits.” The exhibition includes engraved prints made by several artists who copied original portraits by van Dyck.
A print is a copy of an image. Engraving is a type of printmaking that carves designs on a metal plate. To engrave a print, artists use a sharp tool called a burin (BYOOR-uhn) to carve lines into the plate. They then cover the plate with ink and wipe it clean, leaving ink in the carved lines to transfer to another surface (such as paper or fabric).
Take a closer look at these engraved portraits. How many types of lines do you see? Is there a strong contrast between the dark and light areas? What different kinds of marks did the artists use to create darker areas in the print?
Now it’s your turn to use an engraving technique to make scratchboard art.
You will need the following supplies:
- white paper
- several colorful crayons
- black crayon
- toothpick
- pencil
DIRECTIONS:
- Use the colorful crayons to cover your white paper with shapes and designs. The brighter the colors, the better! Be sure to press hard.
- Now color over your design with the black crayon. Press down hard to make a thick layer of black on your paper.
- Sketch your design on a separate piece of paper. Will you make a portrait, landscape or an abstract design?
- Use the toothpick to scratch your design into the black crayon. The colorful layer underneath will show through where you scratch. What happens when you try scratching at different angles? With gentle or hard pressure?
- Once finished, admire your work of art.