Leslie Scott – For starters I grew up in the Chicago north suburb vicinity of Evanston. I hadn’t intended to be an artist although I took art courses in high school. My interest in art bloomed later while in my sophomore year at Idaho State University. After graduation I headed for Washington D.C. and worked in various graphic departments while attending graduate school of Fine Arts at Howard University. In my third year I decided to pursue art full time by going to Detroit to work on the Chevrolet account as an intern and going back to Chicago and holding various jobs both in the Cook and Lake county areas.

I worked with all mediums including oil, acrylic, color pencil, pen and ink and occasionally dabbled with computer based art. It wasn’t until 12 years ago that I drew an interest in scratchboard from looking at illustrations from a children’s book.  What is scratchboard? This is a hard Masonite clay-coated board that sprayed over with black India ink. The subject is drawn on the surface from tracing paper smeared with chalk by pencil. Then its scratched by a x-acto knife which an image of white appears.  The art is a result of white art on a black surface.

Scratchboard has an ancestry that goes back hundreds of years of scratching art first on animal bones and then on rocks and boulders. The medium is somewhat related to etchings and woodcuts. It’s not as popular as watercolor or acrylics but its making a good comeback.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it could become the art of the future if given a chance. Meanwhile enjoy!

 

Scroll to Top
%d