Writing about scratchboard a few days ago prompted me to check back in with illustrator Chet Phillips, who I first posted about back in October of last year.

Phillips uses Corel Painter to create what he terms “Digital Scratchboard”, using the digital painting programs customizable tools to incise sharp edged linework as if scraping with a real scratchboard tool. (Painter, in fact has built in “scratchboard” tools, the most basic of which is my preferred tool for making digital “ink” drawings.)

Phillips has done both editorial and advertising illustration and his work has been featured in numerous books on digital painting. He often does wonderfully bold and graphic images of domestic animals in which the “scratchboard” effects start to lean toward a woodcut feeling.

His portfolios have been revamped and expanded since I last wrote about him. (Unfortunately, they’re still in the tedious “click and click back” arrangement found on so many artist’s sites.) It’s not always obvious that the gallery sections can be split into subsections with links under then main menu, so keep looking around. You can find additional styles of images (fun Tiki images, for example) in the “Merchandise” section.