What is Scratchboard?

Scratchboard is a 19th Century engraving technique developed in Britain and France. It was especially popular from the 1930’s to the 1950’s as a way to make editorial images for print. It replaced wood, metal and linoleum printing as the primary way to make reproducible images. Each piece is rendered via thousands of scratch marks using x-acto blades, tattoo needles and other sharp instruments. Color is added later with an airbrush.