Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways in 100 Days. #10 - Scratchboard

This is a medium I haven't touched since I was a kid, and it lends itself quite well to wildlife art.  I didn't have the first clue how to transfer the drawing onto the scratchboard, so I opted to chalk the back of a copy of the photo, do a direct transfer, and go from there.

For someone who is trying to loosen her artistic style, I got waaaaaaaay too into doing this one.  The close work, the definition of practically each hair, the skritch skritch sound of the X-acto blade on the board put me into a hypnotic Zen state.  I gleefully worked on this for hours, and didn't even notice the passage of time or the existence of the outside world.

Scratch Bear

I decided that the background would just detract from the bear in this one.  And, to be perfectly honest, I completely lacked a single inkling of how to scratch rock texture.  Best to leave it out altogether before I totally mucked it up.

I definitely want to continue working in acrylic paint.  I haven't even begun to put a brush on everything it can do, and right now I don't have the time or the mental wherewithal to learn the ins and outs of yet another medium.  But I think I may have found a little artistic sideline drug of choice here.  Maybe I do need to work highly detailed every once in a while, just to get it out of my system.  Scratchboard may just be the fix for that.