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A Miracle on 34th Street, 2021
A Mixed Media by Richard Sele
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I enjoyed working on this scratchboard piece depicting a scene from the Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street. Suzie is very skeptical of Kris's claim to be the real Santa. Here you can see her tugging on his beard, which happens to be very real. Kris responds with an "ouch." This is my favorite Christmas movie, which made it a fun piece to do. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Scratchboard art is a form of direct engraving. The working surface is a three-layer medium made up of a 1/8" masonite panel as a support. The support is covered with smooth white clay followed by a thin layer of black India ink, leaving a solid black panel to start with. The artist then uses various tools to scratch through the black ink and reveal the white clay below. I use #10 and #11 scalpels, x-acto knife, sandpaper, and a fiberglass brush on most of my work. Every line, dot and dimple are created by hand. Variation in tone and value are based on how many lines are scratched in a particular area. Colored inks can be added to the exposed white areas of the work if desired or the board can be left black and white. Pieces can take up to hundreds of hours to complete due to the many layers of tiny scratches that cover the board. Scratchboard is considered by many artists to be one of the most difficult of all mediums, as you cannot take an eraser and fix a mistake.