Tips and Techniques

I feel like I get the strongest images when I use a Sharpie Marker to draw directly on the eraser. Bold images are the easiest to carve. The way you improve your drawing skills is to use them.
When I start carving, I may correct less than perfect lines as I cut. I may choose to cut a little inside or outside of a line to make it better. You can also draw in pencil first, and then go over it with the Sharpie. Or, if you really don't trust yourself, you can use carbon paper or graphite paper to put the design on the eraser. Remember the print will be reversed, so you have to write letters, names and numbers backwards. If you draw a dog facing left it will print facing right. Usually it doesn't matter which way animals face, but for your finished piece of art, you may need it facing a specific way. If you want two dogs ...one facing right, one facing left, then carve the first dog. Ink it well and stamp it onto a blank eraser. Then use that stamping as the carving lines for dog #2. And viola, you end up with two dogs that look pretty similiar but not exactly the same. This is also a way to save a design you loved that went wrong somewhere. And a good way to improve.