Finished Skateboard

This is the finished look of my Skateboard.

Process

How I developed my final design for my skateboard:

To reach my final design, it was a long tedious journey; because there are many steps I took in which to reach my ending goal.

First what I did was I thought first of what kind of design I wanted, did I want a big image, a small image or something crazy. So, I practiced and made 5 thumbnail drawings of possible designs for my skateboard. Once I had my 5 thumbnail designs I realized that I didn’t like these designs enough to put them on my skateboard. The kind of design I wanted to place on the skateboard, to me had to be personal, because they way I would enjoy it more after it was finished. So, I thought of a past event that happened last March Break of 2008, where I went on a school trip to China. This trip really stood out for me because I had a ton of fun and it was very historical, which I like. A figure that stood out to me was Chairman Mao, who was a dictator in China. His portrait was scene almost everywhere. Mao, I decided had to go on my skateboard.

I created my own version of a Mao portrait and created my own text font for his name to be placed on the skateboard. I cut out my designs of Mao’s head and name in stencils. This way I could practice my designs over and over again, but also it could be used to paint my final design onto the skateboard.

There were tools I used to make affects on the skateboard. For instance I used a sponge, the sponge allowed me to distribute the evenly, with the amount of pressure I used being controlled. The sponge worked effectively at spreading the paint on top of the stencils.

Next I created 3 full scale drawings of the skateboard, on paper. I would use these up to scale drawings to make practice designs for my skateboard. I used my stencils to make 3 different compositions using different colours and values.

After I created my 3 practice designs I began to work on the final step, of placing my design on the skateboard. Just before I began to place my designs onto the skateboard, someone in my class suggested creating a direction in which I could place the word “Mao”. With that advice I chose to place the word Mao diagonal and repeatedly. When I placed my design I’d put the head in the middle because of it being a large shape, that stands out. For the word “Mao” I decided to use a gradation scale from white to black on a diagonal. I used balance in the composition, of placing the head in the middle and the text on both ends. I used repetition, in the word “Mao”. Also Unity could be found on the finished skateboard in which, the text draws your eyes to the focal point of the Mao head.