Line by line, scratchboard artist works to capture Moses Lake's K-9 Chief
Raines etches her portrait of K-9 Chief into “Scratchbord,” made by the Ampersand Art company, a ⅛ inch thick white clay boards coated with a smooth, thin layer of black ink and a Masonite-type backing. Though Chief already looks like he's about to jump out at the viewer, it's still a work in progress.
Courtesy photo
When Raines starts sketching out her newest scratchboards, she first prints the photo to the scale she wants for the final product, she wrote in a recent Facebook post. She then coats the back of the paper with soft willow charcoal so it will transfer easily with pressure, fix the paper to the board, and trace the major features she wants to use as landmarks for the drawing. She then traces over the charcoal lines with a mechanical pencil so they don’t wipe off as easily while she's working on the portrait, completing the outline.
The subject of Raines' portraits slowly appear out of the clay slate, gradually building detail, depth and shading.
Months after it was deemed medically necessary for him to retire, K9 Chief’s one-eyed, toothy smile is being immortalized into a slate of black and white clay by nationally recognized K9 scratchboard artist Allie Raines.
Hundreds of submissions were entered in June, with K9s from across the country serving in every type of law enforcement agency and branch of the military--but when the dust settled, it was K9 Chief, formerly of the Moses Lake Police Department, who won the top spot.
And, like many a footrace between Chief and a fleeing suspect, it wasn’t a close competition.
“His photo and story was submitted to the contest to be voted on to win a scratchboard portrait, and the amazing amount of support from his fans brought him an overwhelming win,” Raines wrote to the Herald.
Raines etches her artwork into “Scratchbord,” made by the Ampersand Art company, a 1/8 inch thick white clay boards coated with a smooth, thin layer of black ink and a Masonite-type backing. While the surface of the medium starts off as a deep, matte-black, and is scratched away with an X-acto knife, tattoo needle, or sandpaper to reveal the white clay beneath. The final images are high-contrast, crisp, and--at least in Raine’s hands--intricately detailed.
“The scratching usually consists of a lot of layers to build light and dark values, sometimes in conjunction with adding ink back in to deepen the darker areas or to add color,” Raines wrote.
The high-contrast medium lends itself well to rough textures, like fur, but less so for smooth features like human skin, which can be difficult to portray accurately, Raines wrote.
“For this reason, it tends to be an ideal catalyst for uniquely detailed pet portraits,” she added.
Raines came to the medium by chance, when a high school art teacher handed her a scratchboard in 2009. Taking around three months per piece, she made the first three artworks of a white lion, a wolf, and a polar bear. Though those pieces won her accolades and unexpected success in state-wide art competitions, she shelved the medium to explore others.
But she slowly picked it back up in the coming years, etching a few pet portraits as she entered full-time work as a pet dog trainer. By 2016, Raines said, it had stuck.
“When my scratchboard work seemed to have become my trademark, I decided to adopt it full-bore and specifically focus on scratchboard pet portraits, and the niche grew from there,” she wrote.
Though the medium has remained a favorite and dogs still a preferred subject, Raines’ artwork began to shift from pet dogs to police K9s, while at the same time her professional dog training work made a similar shift.
Raines, who doubles as a certified professional dog trainer and police K9 decoy, and works with, for and alongside law enforcement and K-9 causes, decided to hold the giveaway amid increased stress for law enforcement amid the pandemic and a state of heightened racial tension weeks after the death of George Floyd.
From among over 300 entries, Raines narrowed the submissions to her favorite 15, including active and retired dogs from police departments, sheriff’s offices, state agencies and the military.
But it was Chief, with over 2,700 votes, who won. While chasing a criminal suspect in February, Chief was shot in the face and neck, only living out the night due to the efforts of Dr. Jesyka Morrison of Pioneer Veterinary Clinic and Dr. Emilia Terradas, a resident in veterinary Emergency and Critical Care at Washington State University.
After being transported by Life Flight to the WSU veterinary hospital, Chief was stabilized and his eye surgically removed. After days of uncertainty, he was brought home with a police escort dozens of vehicles deep and given a heroes welcome in Moses Lake, the city he had served.
Now, Chief is spending his days in retirement. With a piece of shrapnel still lodged close to his jaw, which experts determined was not worth invasive surgery to remove, Chief is going to spend the rest of his life in the lap of luxury--or at least in the lap of Officer Nick Stewart, his owner and former handler.
And soon, his portrait, hand-etched by Raines, will immortalize his service and sacrifice.
Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.
