Scraperboards

I was digging through some paperbacks and found an old scraperboard that I did when I was about 17. Generally the art teachers I've encountered in school and later at college have tried to get me away from my pencils, so whenever the rest of the class was sketching I'd be given some other type of project to try my hand at. One such project was scraperboards. I don't know if schools still do these things but a scraperboard is a layer of white China clay painted over with a coating of black India ink. Using a selection of shaped blades you scrape away the ink to create a picture. Unlike pencil work you can't create shade or highlight by grading your pencil work, instead you have to use techniques like hatching, cross-hatching and stippling. When using pencils I often 'zoned out' because I was so relaxed but that never happened when I was doing these. I guess the technique is a bit too deliberate to be doing that. I did a bunch of others including a march hare, a magpie, a sea eagle and a truly horrendous race horse.