Free Ampersand Scratchbord Demo At Jerry's Artarama Austin!

Yes dear folks, I am in beautiful Austin, Texas.  Home of Ampersand Scratchbord (and other delicious art bords, like gessobord, claybord etc...) Check out their website to see all of them.  I will be at the Jerry's Artarama Austin on N. I-35 this Saturday November 19th from 12noon-3pm teaching all who stop by about the wonders of scratchbord.  If you are out and about stop by for a bit and play.  If you've ever tried the paper version of scratchboard and been frustrated with how it tears and deteriorates, stop right in and try Ampersand's surface.  I have been in love with this product for 10 years.  Hmmmn, my longest relationship so far.  And it's a good one! Go to the Ampersand website to learn more...about the bord, not my relationship history y'all!

This is a little 5"x7" version of my owl design on the scratchbord, without color added.  Usually I add inks from the Claybord ink set that Ampersand sells, but I thought I'd go grey with this one.  I'm off to more visiting with friends, and some damn good tacos!  Enjoy your day, stay in the moment and make some art...

2 Grey Owl Scratchboards

A friend suggested a 'grey' version of the owls I've been working on. Here you go Ryan...2 Grey Owls. They are 5"x7" Ampersand Art scratchboards. I used the original designs that I had done a few days ago, made patterns and transferred them to new boards. A fancy way of saying, I traced 'em. No shame in that. Learning how to do that (I've been working on designs and instructions for kits) has opened up a whole new world. I used to freehand all of my pieces. Now I can knock out a design and then do numerous knock offs of my own designs! I had a lot of fun with these. Used the basic scratch knife, fiberglass eraser, and the bigger scraper knife. I've got these in the studio right now, and I added just a faint touch of orange to the eyes with ink. I couldn't bear to leave them just black, white and grey. Interesting, when I first started scratching I stayed strictly black and white as I was afraid of color. (really that means I had little experience with color)

Anyhow, the latest in my world is; First Thursday is coming up at the Fayetteville Underground this week...I'm hanging some new pieces there tomorrow...Friday was my birthday, I'm older and probably wiser.

More Scratchboard Owl

This is another of the 5"x7" scratchboard owls. I had a lot of fun scratching this out, went pretty quickly. It's the usual, Ampersand Art scratchboard product with inks (some Clayboard inks, some Liquitex Acrylic ink) I like brushing the ink on and then carefully pulling it off with a paper towel as you can see in the wings and the eyes.

Spent the last week remodeling a house. Got a few moments in the studio to frame some large pieces, those will be shipped to Austin to Ampersand offices to be a part of the conference I'm going to in Phoenix in April. More about that later. I'm up to 30 followers, whoo hoo, makes me happy. Now, what would make me even happier is to have more comments from all y'all. Talk to me people!

4 Scratchboard Owls

Here are 4 versions of owls. Kind of based on nature, but then went off into my imagination with them! They are all 5"x7" Ampersand Art scratchboard. I'm crazy busy making art 'product' for the East Austin Studio Tour this weekend and next. http://www.eastaustinstudiotour.com/ My first year doing this as a guest at my friend Aly Winningham's studio. http://www.terrafirmastudios.com/ Should be big fun. And of course I want to sell lots of art!