Sgrafitto Watercolor Textures - by Gregory Conley
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Etching dark lines
Sgrafitto is an Italian term for scratching techniques usually associated with stratching through layered ceramic glazes to expose the
underlying glazes. Do you recall those rainbow colors covered in black crayon you would scratch pretty pictures into as a child? Same concept.
Still fun.
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Shown in this example is a variation scratching a line with a fine sharp point, in this case a pen knife. The wet paint is sucked into the bruised paper fibers as you scratch across the wash, creating dark lines.
Used judiciously, this technique is excellent for adding details to landscape paintings in the form of naked trees and branches, and other flora.
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Broadside scrapes on credit
I often use old credit cards, cut to shape, to scrape larger areas of paint around.
The smooth flat edge will act as a squeegee and push the paint off the area you are scraping.
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It's on the brush!
Many brushes come equipped with angled scrapers built into their handles. I have several sizes of synthetic brushes I've purchased just for their handles.
I use the scraper end of my old Grumbacher 1" flat red sable and proceed to push some light color tree trunks up and into the "sky" area. Notice the dark edges that automatically form where you scrape away the paint.
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Had I waited another minute the scraped areas would not have as much back fill (fuzzy edges).
Timing is very important. Scrape too soon, you'll get backfill. Scrape too late and it won't work at all. You'll burnish a smear through your paint.
©2004, 2005, 2006 Gregory Conley - www.WatercolorPainting.com
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