Chart to be scraped (drawing)

The chart to scrape (in English scratchboard or scraperboard ) is a support for work of Dessin, consisted of a paperboard or a fiberboard of wood, on which a layer of white mineral matter is deposited. This smoothed surface can be used such as it is, or be uniformly covered in its turn with a black ink. The scraping of this surface with an adequate instrument makes it possible to reveal the subjacent white and thus to draw in white on black, according to techniques which are connected visually with the Gravure in the face of saving. The techniques themselves are different from those of engraving, because the thickness of the layer to be scraped being negligible, one does not have to deeply notch the matter as in engraving on wood. One can prefer to leave the chart to scrape white, and to do oneself the black roadbase by the means than one finds oneself most suitable, or to blacken only the parts of the drawing which must be worked, even to carry out a drawing in a traditional way and to use the faculty of scraping only to refine certain details. One can also work the chart to scrape colors.

Because of rarefaction in the professional use of the chart to be scraped, from many manufacturers disappeared, in particular in France, where it is currently especially known like activity of leisures for the amateurs and the children.

One invites chart to scrape the technique employed to draw on this support.

The origin of the chart to be scraped

The drawing by scraping is known since highest antiquity. The graffiti will give to XVIe century, in Italy, the “sgraffito”, technique of mural decoration: the wall is coated with plaster blackened with the charcoal, then covered with a fine layer of white plaster. It is enough to scrape the second layer to reveal the first and to obtain a black drawing on white. The principle even of engraving on wood is equivalent to the same thing, except that a engraved feature will appear in white on black bottom. The chart to be scraped true is invented as from the moment when the engravers are not enough any more to ensure the increasing demand of illustrations, and where the techniques of photographic reproduction are not yet at the point. Parisian Gillot invents at the end of the XIXe century the typographical Cliché: one can from now on reproduce a document with the feature , i.e. without intermediate nuances. It is to the draftsman that it falls to return these nuances, with his means, hatchings and dotted lines. One allots the invention of the chart to be scraped with the Austrian lithographer Karl Angerer, about 1864 or 1865, but also in Gillot, the Treves brothers of Milan or the printer Charles J. Ross, of Philadelphia.

Technique

The chart to be scraped consists of a base of paperboard, or for some of a fiberboard of wood (isorel) more rigid. One deposits there in successive layers a formed paste of Kaolin or Craie, glycerin, gelatin and water. Then the chart is rolled under a strong pressure to have a very smooth surface. For the black chart, one adds a layer of black Indian ink. For scraping, the range of the tools is very broad and each artist finds his own instruments. One generally uses:

cutting tools such as cutters , scalpels , lancets ,
the feathers type vaccinostyle ,
tools of engraving on wood like the Graver or the graver (the striped graver, or bicycle , is used to trace several parallel features)
and of the tools improvised according to the needs: sharpened needles , various blades , metal brushes of wire in beam, etc

For work on the freehand, all the tools are possible: brush, feather, pen, scribing tool, but also the pencils with black lead, the colored pencils, inks of color, etc to trace parallel hatchings, one can make use of a hatching machine (instrument consisted a rule which moves of a value given while pressing on a button).

One can, according to the desired result, to prepare the chart, either to smooth it to the maximum, or on the contrary to give him a rougher matter while passing there from the sandpaper.

The milks English

The chart to be scraped experienced a great development in first half of the XXe century, mainly in the field of the press and publicity. The quality of the impression and papers, especially in the daily press and weekly magazine, was not great quality, and the reproduction of photographs by Similigravure at its beginnings implied a lack of smoothness and contrast, a coarse screen. Publicity requiring to show images of products attractive and readable, one called upon illustrators to translate photographs in a style which allows at the same time realism and a good returned in impression. The illustrators thus used the chart to be scraped, for its flexibility in use: large smoothness of the feature, direct vision, and possibility of improving (it is enough to renoircir the part to be corrected), which engraving does not allow. Returned was particularly effective in the luxury items, perfumes, watches, cars, but this kind of work was used in all the fields. The specialists in the chart to be scraped being for much British or Anglo-Saxon, this technique was called in France the milks English . The term “milked” in printing works indicates all that is printed a color in flat tint, without nuance nor degraded. The ranges and the “gray” are obtained visually by hatchings, parallels more or less fine and distant for let us tons clear, thick and brought closer for let us tons dark, or of the more or less dense sets of points.

The chart to be scraped today

By its qualities of smoothness and contrast, the chart to be scraped makes it possible to make perfect documents for the reproduction in photoengraving and the impression. It was essential in the fields of the press and the edition. It was a support privileged for the illustration. It is it always, in particular for the scientific illustration which asks for a great detail. One also uses it with pencil with black lead, which makes it possible to obtain gray extremely moderate, which is exactly contrary to the drawing “with the feature”: what shows the fickleness of this support. Finally of many illustrators always employ it as bases of a drawing which is then worked over again numerically, with design software like Photoshop .

But relatively few artists used it as support for single works of art. However, the chart to be scraped was redécouverte in one recent time, and certain artists draw some from the new parties, finding the freedom of the gesture, of the settings colors to ink, the acrylic Aquarelle or paintings S, and in the manners of using it completely different.

The cartoon

Many authors of cartoon use the chart to be scraped. In the traditional technique, it is a relatively long and often tiresome work, but some knew to find techniques personal.

Jacques Tardi employed the chart to scrape in the Demon of the Ices (Dargaud, 1974), where the illustration adapts perfectly to the style “Jules-Vernien” of the account. Andreas drew posthumous Révélations (Bédérama, 1980) on chart to be scraped. Thomas Ott usually uses it.

Sources and bibliography

Marco D. Elliott, Secret of the Chart to scrape , Paris, tamed Time, 2000. ISBN 2-383-58432-9

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