Etchings

Aloha!

I thought that I would post some of the clay Scratchbord™ etchings that I have been doing lately. If you don’t know what a scratch board etching is, please let me explain: A scratch board is either a cut piece of clay (masonite) or paper, that has a slick white coated surface, underneath a thin veneer of flat black paint. Using a scraper tool (xacto knife, sculpting tools, or proper etching tools), the surface of the scratch board is slowly etched away to reveal the bright white (and some times gold, silver, or bronze) color beneath. Working from a reference, I have created many etchings, and here are some of the ones of late.

I started out doing sea life: turtles, an octopus, etc. then moved onto a celebrity, Lauren Bacall, and even a T-rex skull. Over the past month, I have decided to do etchings of musicians that have influenced me over the years.

T-rex skull

Octopus

Lauren Bacall

Sea turtle

David Bowie

Sea turtle 2

Peter Tosh

Debbie Harry

Johnny Cash

Frank Sinatra

I find that although etching and tattooing are worlds apart in almost every regard, there are similarities that help me to become a better tattoo artist. Etching requires patience, accuracy and utmost attention to detail; one wrong line and it all looks like hell. By focusing on these things, I have found that my tattooing technique has become much more honed. So, I do etchings on down days when I have no appointments, or between appointments if time allows.

John Bonham

Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols)

Most of them are quite small, 8″x8″, the largest being 8.5″x11″. I even have a stack of playing card-sized scratch boards that I have yet to tackle. 🙂

Thank you for looking!

Aloha,

Roland