As I posted
previously, I had a project to paint a skateboard deck for a
themed gallery show that starts this weekend. Well, I finished it! Here's some progress shots:
Before putting any paint on I sanded the red finish that was on the board and then applied white spray primer, just plain ol' Krylon in the rattle can.
This is the background gradient. It's upside-down in this picture. I did the artwork using acrylic paints and brushes. This gradient didn't come out as well as I would have liked, but it looks okay.
Here's the finished board. I call it "Icarus Falls." The theme of the show is "Self-Propelled," and I think that the Icarus myth is one of the earliest (and obviously longest lasting) stories about self-powered flight, so it seemed appropriate.
For the sun at the top, I used actual astronomical photos for reference... I didn't just want a bright yellow ball, that's boring. There's a trail of feathers spiraling down from the sun to the figure, from the rapidly disintegrating wing.
Acrylic paint goes on pretty thick, so the sun and the figure had quite a bit of bumpy texture to them, which I didn't want the final board to have. Also, since it's a skateboard deck and it's possible that someone might actually put some trucks on it and use it, I wanted to put on a tough overcoat finish. I used polyurethane, again from a spray can. I put on about 12 coats, pretty much the entire can, sanding and steel-wooling between each coat. As the thickness built up I sanded down the high spots, so the final finish is perfectly smooth. I wanted to get it buffed to a very glossy mirror-slick finish like lacquer, but apparently the spray polyurethane won't do that, at least not with the buffer that I have. So it's a bit more matte than I wanted, but it's still a good finish and quite attractive and tough.
Well so that was fun. It goes on display
this Saturday night, I will be at the opening party in the evening, so if you're in the Valley area come say hello! It's always a good party at this gallery and many of the artists will be there.
Meanwhile, there will be a comic this week, as work has calmed back down. I got the pencil, lettering and borders done last night and will ink it tonight. The past weekend turned out to be too full to do a comic, so I apologize for missing a week. It will happen from time to time as long as I'm going week-to-week; I hope to get a bit further ahead over the next couple months.
Back to work...
