Grattage
Grattage
a method of drawing by scratching paper or cardboard that has been covered with india ink with a pen or a sharp instrument. The grattage process is reminiscent of scraping an oiled surface in lithography. Works done by the grattage technique have a black background on which the drawing is traced in contrasting white lines, resembling a woodcut or linocut in appearance. Grattage is used in 20th-century graphic art. In Russia grattage, under the name of grattografiia, was first used by M. V. Dobuzhinskii in his works in the 1920’s.