Sgraffito in Figure Painting Process

One of my favorite ways to paint lately has been with a sgraffito technique, seen in the examples above. This technique, usually associated with pottery, has been adopted by many painters. It involves scratching into a top layer to expose another layer beneath. Coming to painting from a draftsman's perspective, I enjoy the ability this allows to "draw" directly into paint. You can see the process in my video here. I particularly like the way the chisel allows me to feel the direct pressure upon the canvas, mimicking a traditional stick media like charcoal or graphite. Drawing into paint feels natural to me and the quick drying-time for the latex paint I use, allows me the urgency I seek.

I picked up this process from my painting instructor at Fairmont State, Lynn Boggess. I've talked about his influence on my work before here. He uses the edge of the trowel he paints with to scrape into oil paint creating beautiful lines. Here is an example below, courtesy of his website.

Lynn Boggess, 20 January 2014, oil on canvas, 2014