Collection: Scratchboards

Artists who use scratchboard as a medium are used to scratching the surface of their paper in order to reveal the beauty underneath. Scratch art is virtually the exact opposite of regular drawing: instead of adding charcoal onto a surface and starting with the subject's shadows, scratch art removes black ink from a surface and starts with the subject's highlights. It's a remarkable subject and medium to work with, but in order to do any artwork justice, it needs to be done on high-quality scratch art paper, like the selections we have from Ampersand and Scratch Art.

The scratchboard from Ampersand is a clay-coated, hardboard panel that is coated with India ink. It's comparable to traditional scratch art paper, but it's better in every way, especially because it's more durable and easier to scratch, giving you cleaner and crisper details and lines. For added dimension, highlights, and volume, colored inks may be added to the white areas and then scratched again. Artwork can then be sprayed with spray fixative, allowing the finished board to be framed without glass. The Ampersand scratchboard is very popular with our customers!

Meanwhile, the Scratch Art Black-Coated Scratchboard is an economical, clay-coated board for all scratching and sgraffito techniques, especially those that use scratch knives, wire brushes, and blades. This student-grade board is ideal for creating highly detailed and textured drawings and illustrations in vivid black and white. The scratch art board comes ready to use, pre-inked with opaque black ink over a smooth coat of white china clay. Dramatic, professional-quality etchings can be created by scratching through the velvety black coating to expose the white clay surface beneath. Use it in your classroom with your art students or create your own solitary masterpieces.

No matter how you choose to create scratch art, we're sure that you'll love the results! If you don't, we have a hassle-free, 365-day return policy in place just for you. That's right: you have an entire year to try one of our products and decide whether or not it's right for you. For further questions, give our helpful customer service team a call.