Some recent scratchboards

[Diane Cutter]

Lovely... I really like your style, leaving a lot of the board untouched. It's very dramatic.

Diane

[Garbonzo]

Leigh, anyone lucky enough to sit in on a demo with you will be a much better artist for it. Your Meercat came out great, especially the rock texture, and considering it was a last minute decision makes it even more impressive.

[LEIGH RUST]

I'll keep an eye out for the article Judy.

Lesley, one of these days we will get together! finding time is always the issue... thanks for the plug too!

Hi Harry, quick and intuitive are among the words people use to describe my working method... others include annoyingly prolific!

Hi Margaret, thanks for commenting. Over the years (and many, many demonstrations) I've worked toward creating a style that is focused on economizing each mark while producing a realistic result.

Hi Matthew, I use the ScratchArt for certain works as it is easier to obtain locally (Ampersand is only available from one store that is about an hour away). For scratching I've never had a problem with it but for colouring/toning and rescratching it is useless. Ampersand is undoubtedly the superior surface but I can work on either comfortably (I'm also working on creating a surface of my own but that has a long way to go yet..)

Diane, I see the purpose of scratchboard to push the drama in my work.

Harold, considering I'm still fairly green when it comes to scratch it was a huge honor. I still did what I could to put on a show though

[Hoofnpaw]

Amazing work!

Sean

[Delores Yeager]

Those are really good pictures. I especially like the Rhino. Scratch Art is my first love in the art world. It's like magic when you scratch each hair and the picture comes forward. Thanks for sharing your work. I loved it. Pat

[aaces]

Leigh, You know what I think of these....
But I'll tell ya they are awesome anyway

[pamelalbd]

I love em all...how the heck do you do such beautiful work on the papers. I tried that stuff once (maybe 20 min) If I'm being honest,...and just went back to the ampersand boards...Your work looks amazing! Then it always does!!

[Kaz in NZ]

They look great Leigh, I love the gorilla and rhino best, nice to see them at bigger sizes too, rather than on FB :-)

[FoggyMountain]

Great stuff Leigh!

[TrryCk]

Awesome work Leigh....very detailed.
love the Jimmy Page and his double necked guitar.
must have been a little tricky doing the guitar strings.

Thankyou for posting the pics!!
Terry

[LEIGH RUST]

Hi everyone, so glad to see so many wonderful comments here! Next week I start teaching scratch (I'll be starting them off with mark making exercises, then rendering a ball and a cube). There is plenty of interest for it at the moment and I can feel the momentum building still. Terry - that Jimmy Page piece has everyone talking!

[PatrickHedges]

Leigh, beautiful work.

I'll tell you all a story. Leigh and I did a show together that Dame Jane Goodall opened (to support her organisations and other chimp sanctuaries) and we both did live demos. I worked all day on my scratchboard of a cheetah and this is as far as I got, maybe six hours work.


Obviously I finished it later. Leigh did a pastel demo. Get this - he took the photo of the lion at the safari park the exhibition was held at, and then drew the lion freehand right in front of me (whereas I have to use a grid), and then finished it in pastel. Total time, two hours!! This gorgeous piece is on my wall (kind man)!! He makes me sick though

[richconflictart]

I really love your work. The wildlife pieces are wonderful. Your Jimmy Page is awesome!
Rich

[LEIGH RUST]

Originally Posted by PatrickHedges

Leigh did a pastel demo. Get this - he took the photo of the lion at the safari park the exhibition was held at, and then drew the lion freehand right in front of me (whereas I have to use a grid), and then finished it in pastel. Total time, two hours!! This gorgeous piece is on my wall (kind man)!! He makes me sick though

Fun times mate! The thing that sticks in my head from that day was just how many people kept stopping to watch what you were doing - it was mesmerizing! I look back on that day with a great deal of pride, knowing that what we both did there made a huge impact on what we were working for and also seeing that real starting point for where you have ended up now. That was the milestone for both of us

Hi Rich, glad you like my work. That jimmy Page piece is helping me line up some other musician portrait commissions at the moment