I have scratchboarded a few owl species in the past and thought it would make a good subject for people to get an introduction into scratchboard.  It is surprising how many artists have dabbled with scratchboard at some point, then left it behind.

We are NOT doing the rainbow bleed make it yourself type from middle school!   This is what everyone prolly thinks about when I mention scratchboard….

Lets leave that to memories better left forgotten.

I chose the mindbogglingly tiny Northern Pygmy Owl for many reasons…it is a local resident and it has real neat coloration that just would work well for scratchboard.  I had to hastily dash around the scratchboard in order to show everyone the techniques for different parts…so I didn’t work the way I normally would have, but it has a loose sketchy quality that I like.  I have more to do, but it is close.  I had some great artists who were there for the class, and you can see everyone’s work at the bottom of the images.

I am going to be doing another couple classes for WRI and the Leavenworth Birdfest, and at least one scratchboard class for the Seattle Public Library system where we render a bird….and I will beg scratchboard to once again to reveal its secrets….