Back to Black - Experiments with Claybord

Two of the other Fine Line Artists., Nicole and Maggie, have been using coloured pencil on claybord and producing some great work, so I wanted to give it a try.
I couldn't find a supplier in the UK so I ordered from Dick Blick's in the US, and sent for both black and white Ampersand claybord in various sizes.
The ampersand website has a great deal of useful information on using the claybord with various media.

I have been wanting to try scratchboard/scraperboard work for a while so decided to start with a small piece of the black and use a combination of coloured pencil, gouache, acrylic and scratching.

I transferred my pencil drawing from rough paper to the claybord using white tracedown paper and as always started with the eyes.

I used a base coat of gouache, scraped a little and then put several heavy layers of coloured pencil on top.

I will need to show you some detail in my next post, which will also show my homemade scratching tool.