The Ubiquitous
They say that the artist is his or her first critic. Well, somewhere out there are fine artists, graphic designers and illustrators who are able to talk about their work with clarity, in a concise manner that perfectly describes what their inner visions are, without a hint of bombastic bragging or B.S. involved.

I'm not one of those artists.

Art, for me, has always been something to enjoy (or not enjoy, for that matter) for what it is. I'll visualize an image or see something and I'll try to capture it; I don't try get philosphical about it, asking myself why an image strikes me in such a way. At any rate, you won't find a lot of maundering over what the images are here, or what frame of mind I was in, etc. I'd prefer to let them speak for themselves.

John's Biography
I received my BFA in Illustration from the Pacific NW College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 1991. The years since then have been spent in a professional capacity as a black and white graphic illustrator, my preferred mediums being scratchboard and traditional pen and ink. I started out doing nothing other than portraits of celebrities, having some vague idea of creating a portfolio of Famous People to show off to magazines like Rolling Stone and whatnot (haven't done it yet...), so you'll see a number of portraits in here in both mediums. More recently, I've started doing some wildlife images, and have surprised myself with the results (I think I understand now why there are so many wildlife artists out there; animals simply make wonderful subject matter!).

My most recent freelance work is a job I just did for Standard Insurance; 2006 is their 100th anniversary, and I was asked to do the front and back pencil designs for the commemorative coin they will be issuing early this year. I'm pretty excited about that one, it was a lot of fun. I love doing portraits, the human face is full of fascination to me.

My next portrait, I think, will be of a fellow by the name of Abdul Baha, one of the Central Figures of the Baha'i Faith. My wife is Baha'i , and the old photographs I've seen of Abdul Baha show a man with a piercing gaze, full of presence. I want to recreate that, if possible. I'll put it up on the site here as soon as I get it done.

Influences
Aside from the usual graphic artist influences one encounters in art school (Durer, Dore, Escher, et. al...), the artists that have made the most impression on me in the last decade and a half have been modern illustrators such as Barry Moser, Mark Summers, and Douglas Smith. Mr. Mosers' amazing woodcuts and prints have graced the pages of some of the finest books ever written, from Moby Dick and Frankenstein to Dante's Inferno and The Bible. Douglas Smith is known best for his book illustrations ( for example, his work on Gregory MaGuire's story of the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked), while Mr. Summers is perhaps best known for his wonderful portraits of famous authors for the Barnes and Nobles bookstore chain.

What Is Scratchboard?
Traditional scratchboard, or scraper board as some call it, has been around as an artist's medium since the late 1800's. Artists and printers back then were looking for a less time-consuming way to achieve the effects of wood engraving, which was the standard method used to reproduce photos, paintings, and line drawings for printing. After some trial and error, the earliest versions of scratchboard were developed in Europe, using cardboard covered with chalk and then India ink.

Scratchboard as we know it today is simply an 18x24 sheet of matting board covered with a smooth layer of white clay. With uncoated scratchboard, one simply spreads a layer of ink (or paint - this is a quite versatile medium) anywhere on the board. Precoated scratchboard comes with the ink already spread. The ink is then scratched off with a fine - edged tool such as an exacto-blade, or one of several specially designed scratchboard tools that are made today. The scratching leaves a fine, sharp white line of clay, the end result of which can produce anything from a line-drawing effect to the multi-line shading of a woodcut or engraving. There is another product on the market now called Clayboard, put out by Ampersand Art Supply, which has the clay spread over a sheet of masonite board, cut in several different standard sizes. This is great if you don't have the space to get out the exacto blades and t-squares to cut the scratchboard down to a manageable size. Clayboard is a little more expensive than the traditional scratchboard, but the line quality is much better. If you like the versitility of making your own sizes, Canson makes a fine scratchboard in either coated or uncoated. I've tried one variety of scratchboard made by Esdee, (the local art store only carried one type by them), but I found the board too thin for my purposes; the ink was always bleeding through the clay to the board layer, which made the resulting scratch image gray in appearance - not good (I was using non-soluble India ink, which should have just stayed on the surface). If anyone knows of a better grade of board that Esdee puts out, let me know. There's a sort of scratch-paper out on the market as well. This stuff is fine for making pen and ink drawings, and scratching off tiny highlights here and there, but not so good for a full fledged scratch drawing; the paper doesn't hold up well and tends to tear easily under that kind of abuse. If anyone out there has any suggestions for scratchboard made by other manufacturers, please let me know!

Scratchboard for Illustration, by Ruth Lozner, published by Watson/Guptill, 1990. A really nice work, with lots of scratchboard examples done by major illustrators, this is great for either beginning artists or professionals. The first couple of chapters deal with the tools and techniques used in the medium, followed by some absolutely stunning examples of how far the medium can be stretched.

Mastering the Art of Scratchboard, by Norman Gaddini and Margie Wilson, published by Wordsworth Publishing Company, 2002. Heavy on technique, this is a marvelous manual by an accomplished artist in his 90's, imparting decades of wisdom. Superb!

The New Scratchboard, by Charles Ewing, published by Watson/Guptill, 2001. Another recent work, indicating just how popular the scratchboard medium is becoming. This has lots of different examples of what can be done with scratchboard by different artists, along with some excellent technique. Acrylics, airbrush, and watercolor are shown along with the traditional black and white techniques. Again, a wonderful book.

Again, if anyone has other book suggestions, let me know. I need to add to my collection...