I really, really love good drawing, and recently I discovered professional artists' scratchboard - a medium in which black ink covers white clay, and scratching through the black ink makes a white line....the exact reverse of pen-and-ink. It's an unforgiving medium, as mistakes can't be corrected, but it rewards the patient draftsperson with dramatic images that emerge like magic from the dense black surface.

As I discussed in a recent Artzine, "Monochrome work with dry media is also very pure: mistakes in value or composition can't be glossed over with flashy brushwork or dazzling color. There is only the simplicity of line and value; an artist's most fundamental skills are laid bare".

In this piece, a magnificent bull elk near the end of the rut is caught in low, early-morning fall sunshine, which highlighted his headgear and heavy neck fur beautifully...perfect for this beautiful medium!