Scratch art is an excellent way to teach sketching and crosshatching techniques, and have students feel successful!
I have taught scratch art from grade four to twelve, and have seen incredible results! The scratch boards are inexpensive, and for tools, I used wooden skewers, nails, or tacks taped to pencils.
After teaching students basic sketching and shading techniques, I have my younger students print out a picture of an animal. Then, we tape the picture on top of the board, and trace the animal using a pencil. When you lift the paper off, you will see an outline of your picture. I encourage my students not to go over this outline with their scratching tool, because animals and people don't have defined outlines. Instead, using small scratches, and using their printed photo as a reference, students create hair or fur lines in the direction of growth. More lines creates highlights, where less will leave shadows, which is the opposite of pencil. With patience, students create masterful animal portraits using very little tools!
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