SCRATCH ART

Being a great technique to highlight the vibrant textures of a painting, Scratch Art involves placing a coating of paint on top of a paper that has been coated with crayon and making a design by scratching away areas of dry paint with a pointed tool.

Dog painted using Scratch Art onto brown MDF sheet

MATERIALS YOU NEED:

1. Heavy drawing paper or MDF sheet

2. Crayons

3. Toothpick, Nails, Empty Ball-Point Pen etc.

4. Black poster paint (also known as Tempera paint)

5. Brush

6. Liquid dish-wash soap

Crayon painted drawing paper

Poster color coating crayons

Scratched coating of black poster color

HOW TO MAKE:

• Using the crayons, initiate by covering the entire MDF sheet / drawing paper surface, pressing hard so that the paper doesn't show through. The technique will not work if the crayon is applied too lightly. 
• Then coat the MDF sheet/ drawing paper surface of the crayon coloured paper with several coats of black poster color solution (mixed with liquid dish-wash soap in equal ratio).
• Let the paint to dry
• Using a nail (on MDF only) or toothpick, you may scratch the drawing onto the surface of paint.

I think what makes this activity so much fun is the element of surprise. You just never know quite how the picture will turn out until you start scratching away and reveal the surprise underneath!

This technique works best while creating the outlines of a painting in scratch art, wherein the underlying crayons do bring a magical character to the black coated ground color.