Bartow artist creates intricate pieces with thousands of little scratches

Florida artist creates unique art one 'scratch' at a time

Artist Tifane Worsley immediately became addicted to the craft of scratchboard art. FOX 13 photojournalist Barry Wong shows us some of her work.

BARTOW, Fla. - Artist Tifane Worsley immediately became addicted to the craft of scratchboard art. 

"It's very meticulous, and I have to completely zone in on it, which really helps me just decompress, relax," Worsley said. "The fastidiousness of it I love."

Dig deeper:

Her addiction began after taking a class 18 months ago. Worsley explains that scratchboard art involves removing India ink, a staining agent, layer by layer off of a clay board. It's the opposite of an artform like painting, where you are adding materials. In scratchboard art, you remove them. 

"It's a bunch of little hash marks, just little line by line by line. Sometimes you're putting them on across each other. Sometimes you're doing the hairlines," Worsley said. There's a lot of different forms you can use."

Like many other scratchboard artists, the repetitive nature of the craft serves as therapy for Worsley. Her first piece, a small bumblebee, won a third-place award at a Lakeland Arts Association show "Express Yourself." 

She's currently working a on a piece featuring moose in the wild. 

"It's the weight of your hand, the weight of a blade value system. For the lighter stuff, I literally just ever so lightly graze the top of the surface and that gives us a gray," Worsley said. "Whenever I know it's going to be white, like the whitest of the whites, I push down hard and dig really deep to get that effect."

Color is added after the scratches, and sometimes she will have to re-scratch the areas to clean them up. 

What they're saying:

Worsley primarily creates pieces featuring animals, thanks to a previous job at a sanctuary.

"I hope that it takes them to the animal that I'm working on, the scenery that I am working on," Worsley said. "I hope it makes them want to take a closer look to stand right up next to that piece and see the individual lines and just invest more time than just walking by."

What's next:

Worsley has created a handful of pieces. When she has completed more, her goal is to have a solo exhibition.