View Full-Size Image

 

In this picture, you can see that Rafael has completed the outer scratch line around what will become the red-filled area. He is now doing a wash line around the areas that will have a black fill. The wash line is similar to the scratch line, except that a diluted black ink is used to trace the edges. This technique will again create a small "trench" in my skin to keep the black ink from bleeding into the non-colored areas or into the red areas. By using the diluted ink, Rafael is creating an edge that will not stand in contrast to the fill color.

This part of the process was time consuming, but necessary. The fill work is fairly straight-forward and speedy, but it's important to have a perfect outline before the artist starts "to color between the lines." Rafael compares this portion of the job to the masking technique that air brush artists use in preparing their pieces.