notcot.org is so rich

Squeaking in just before deadline, I have spent the last 90 minutes browsing notcot.org and this blog. Undaunted though a bit overwhelmed at the material available at notcot, I went to illustration category and found some pertinent art. Two artists I looked at are Hiroshi Tanabe and Noah Scalin.
Tanabe's illustrations are described as resembling old wood cuts. The value contrasting color images pop from black background. He effectively creates dimension, pattern and texture using thick contour lines and repeated cross contour and hatched fine lines. These images are rich with implied line as well. Check out #25721 at notcot.org.
Scalin created a Skull-a-day project for himself before opening it up to reader contributions & has since collaborated with at least one of them. He began by producing a skull-a-day in various media for a year. I found what I was looking for in #s 49 and 55. 49. Rat Skull Linocut Print uses bold positive and negative shapes that fit the theme very well. The human skull face and rat skull are light with deep black shadow delineating features while the left side of the composition are very black. There is some good use of cross contour to add dimension.
55. Scratchboard Skull is indeed a scratchboard piece that has visual qualities in common with
prints. The black background perfectly sets off the skull composed of white lines. Cross contour lines produce effective shading as well as interesting patterns. Scratchboard could be a good way to explore an idea before making it into a print.
Margaret Raymond