How do we do that voodoo we do? Here’s a quick look at our process of hand painting one of our custom skate decks. This is an actual deck for a client, who asked for a robot theme. We love robots, too, and this was a blast of metallic fresh air. David explains his particular voodoo:
Penciling in the design is always my first step. Still, I like to leave things a little bit loose because I dig those serendipities that happen along the way. That’s what makes it fun and unique. At this point we show it to the client so they have an idea of how it will be laid out.
Sometimes I like having some of that pretty natural wood show through in my designs. In this case I had a vision of bright, bright color filling the whole board. This red made a shiny start.
Those pencil lines stay put so I can use them as a guide while I start painting by hand. Stay, pencil lines, stay! Good pencil lines.
The pencil lines were very good so I gave them a treat. I painted them. At this point, the board isn’t quite finished. I have plenty of touch-ups to do and lines to fill. Maybe another lightning bolt. We’ll see. I also used a new silver paint pen that looks great, but is super difficult to work with. Silver likes to drip and run, so I go much slower in those areas and let them dry completely before filling in lines around them. Somebody has to whip that silver into shape. Oh, hey – I guess that’s me.
We’ll post the final board once we’ve tamed all the colors and added the final touches. No board leaves the studio without 20 once-overs. Would that be 20-overs?
Anyway, stay tuned. You can also check out the Facebook Fan page where we post all kinds of juicy photographic updates and obscure iTunes song suggestions.