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Led Zeppelin, 2023
A Mixed Media by Richard Sele
Information
This piece is not a photo or done with a pencil or paint. It is scratchboard, one of the most difficult art mediums. It originated in 19th century Europe and was used for book illustration. The scratchboard panel is made with a special clay layer and coated with black ink. Using a scalpel and x-acto knife, I made hundreds of dots and scratches by tapping the tip of the blade on the ink. These scratches revealed the white clay and formed the image.
I used a little water and diluted ink to create some tone differences. I finished the piece by spraying a museum archival quality clear varnish to protect the work. Since I'm working with very small details, I use a magnifier on all my pieces to enable me to get the best possible view of the scratching surface. I worked roughly 100 hours total on this project.
I originally created these four 5x7" scratchboard pieces to be matted and framed separately. After giving it some thought, I decided to mount them together on one large panel with a frame and mat. I'm glad I went this direction. It's a beautiful piece of artwork. Up to now it has been hanging in my guitar room at home. I really want to see a Led Zeppelin fan add this to their own collection. It will be hard to part with this as it's among my favorite pieces.
