Crowned with Glory

"Crowned with Glory"
8x10"
Scratchboard
by Sandra LaFaut


For more info or to purchase 
visit My Daily Paintworks

Double Dogs

Lucy and Strider finished. Both 5x7" on black Ampersand scratchboard colored in a few places with FW Acrylic inks. These are not sprayed yet, which will enrich the blacks and even out the colors.

Animal Commissions

I'm working towards being more prepared to do some pet portraits; mostly dogs and cats for now. I have 2 of my own in the works as samples and am hoping to get out to a dog show with a table in a few weeks. I'm still waiting on word from them about that. In the meantime I have these a bunch of these ordered as 4x6 prints from Snapfish at 1penny per print. Not a bad deal! Cheaper than business cards by far.

 

The two I'm working on right now are both my dogs, both black on black. Lucy in the sun, and Strider the German shepherd.  Both are 5x7.  Both will have just a very little bit of color - eyes, collars, tongue, etc.

Amazon Rainforest Update

The latest versions of each.
Again, the toucan and macaw are finished. The jaguar, mother and child, and marmoset are much closer to finished. The hummingbird is only about 1/4th finished. But they're coming along.
See this post: Amazon Images for the beginnings of this set.

Tiger: Power and Peace

This fellow is from one of my zoo photos this spring. I really love the pose and the way his head is resting on his paw. It is a 9x12" scratchboard on black Ampersand board. My largest one so far. It went along very well for a bigger board and I really enjoyed doing it.
Right now I'm working in color on the Amazon set, but I'm looking forward to doing more black and white. I can't even imagine adding color to this one.

Amazon Images

I'm working away on this set of images from S. America's Amazon region. They are all images from sites like Paint My Photo and wetcanvas except for the mother and child which was taken in the Amazon by my mom and dad. They are 5x7" and done with FW acrylic inks on white Claybord™. The Macaw is finished, the toucan is amost finished. I just started the scratching on the jaguar yesterday. Lots to go!

I also did the parrot in a more traditional scratchboard manner on black board just to see how it looked both ways. 

A Grey and Grizzly Day

A Grey and Grizzly Day

by Sandra LaFaut © 2014

9x12" on white Claybord

colored with Ampersand inks

My husband and I watched this bear amble along the beach at Yellowstone Lake a few years ago. We were up on a small bluff about 15 feet above the beach. The bear was not paying any attention to us until some crazy lady next to me yelled "Hey Bear!" very loudly. He looked up and I snapped the photo - then I took off for the car. Good thing he didn't follow - I didn't have the keys. But I got a nice photo.

Holding Court

"Holding Court" 2014
7x5" scratchboard on black Ampersand board
Colored with Ampersand inks
From my own reference photo
Done mostly with a #11 scalpel blade and light use of a fiberglass brush to soften fur in some places.

Barely Awake

"Barely Awake" 2014
5x7" Scratchboard on black Ampersand board
From my own reference photo
Scratched mostly with #11 scalpel and #11 Exacto blades. Highlights in white with a scoop shaped scratchboard tool.

Freckles

"Freckles"
Scratchboard on white Ampersand Claybord
colored with Ampersand inks
6x8"
From my own reference photo
Done mostly with a #11 scalpel and fiberglass brush

Freckles belongs to my granddaughter and is a Golden Retriever. She's adorable and about 4 months old now. She was about 2 1/2 months for this photo.


This still needs to be sprayed with the varnish to protect the surface and it will look a bit different then.

Eye Am Watching

"Eye Am Watching"

8x10"

Black Ampersand scratchboard

done with #11 scalpel and a few other tools

colored with watercolors

Reference photos from African Wildlife Reference, used with permission

My goal on this was mainly to practice eyes, with the bonus of different types of fur. I used Photoshop Elements 11 to crop the original photos and make a composition out of this. I started out with all small rectangular images like the zebra once I started the artwork found I didn't like it that way. Most of the images were added to later to blend them together more. I am happy with this one, but if I ever redo it I would use a larger board and move the animals apart a bit more to blend them together better and leave a bit more black (negative) space.

It still has to have it's spray coating, but I'm waiting for warmer weather to spray. My studio is pretty cold right now. 

Bobcat - Finished

"Bobcat"

9x12 " 

on white Ampersand Claybord with Ampersand black ink

the reference photo for this is my own

Chipmunk

Chipmunk

5x7 on black Ampersand scratchboard

most of the work done with a #11 scalpel

Done from my own reference photo taken out near Cody, Wyoming a couple of years ago.

I may still add color to this but I wanted to get a good scan of the black and white version first.

This was a nice change from doing people. 

WIP: Buddy

Buddy, 6x6", black scraperboard, watercolors. from my own reference photo. Buddy was my favorite cat. I'm still pushing and pulling shades of grey and working on the chair. Since Buddy was grey anyways I probably won't add any more color to this that what is there in eyes and nose. 

After several years of working in other art forms, I am returning to scratchboard. I miss it. And there are so many more resources out there now on the internet for help and networking that I think I will enjoy getting into it again. 

One of my big problems right now is deciding which of my photos to work from! No matter what other kind of artwork I'm doing I always take lots of photographs. I have a large stack that I picked out as possibilities for claybord and scratchboard.