Sgraffito? What on earth is that?

Today, in my latest Artstart Mixed Media Art Class on Youtube, we are talking about Sraffito, what is it, how you do it & where do you use it.

Sgraffito (pronounced scra-fee-toe)is an art technique (originating in Italy) where a surface layer of paint or plaster is incised (cut into) to reveal a ground of contrasting colour.

It's a great technique to use in mixed media as we are constantly creating layer upon layers. You can use this technique in you art journal, on paper, canvas or wooden board.

Acrylic, pastel, oil & encaustic artists use this technique though in watercolour it is more difficult to achieve.

It is important that the colour of the ground underneath is sufficiently contrasting to your new layer so that you can see your sgraffito.

Applying coloured ground in art journal

Firstly, I applied a contrasting coloured ground in my art journal (I was using left over paint from the 'love grows in the garden'class).

I applied the teal paint really thinly, scraping it on using the edge of my palette knife, which makes it dry almost instantaneously.

I then scraped on a thick layer of white gesso & while this was still wet I used the point of my palette knife to cut into the gesso to create my abstract buddlea flower design.

Cutting into the wet gesso with a palette knife

Cutting into the white gesso to create an abstract flower design

I allowed this layer to dry overnight (it needs at least an hour to dry and you can't use a heat gun on it as the gesso has a tendency to bubble and do weird stuff that you don't want, at least not for this design) and completed my design using water colour crayons, acrylic paint and ink pens.

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Til next time

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