BOARD'EM Fundraiser Art Show-Part II - The Creative Process

Bitten by the Creative Bug

Preparing the board for its second life left time for researching the subject of skateboarding and exploring how professional graphic artist have expressed their creativity on this subject. I also saw how artist have used skateboards to make sculptures and furniture - all very impressive. A Californian creation born in the late 1950s from surfing, skateboarding took a while to become as mainstream as it is today. Let's hope that skateboards, like bicycles, become as popular with girls as they are with boys.

Much freedom is given to artists for this fundraiser, but I decided to treat the board as if it was going to be used for its real purpose even if it's old.

*I'm a self-taught artist who learned by observation. Through this training, I developed a realistic style. This being said, I think that stylizing reality would be well-suited for this project.

*The shape of the "canvas" is unconventional and its low centre of gravity when in use also serves as inspiration.

*I'm thinking of a gender-neutral board, attractive to girls as well as to boys.

*I think that reality is often stranger than fiction and often find my inspiration in nature.

*The human animal can be a strange creature and by seeing many skateboarders in action and in mid-air, I see similarities with insects - the ones that are mainly land dwellers, but can fly... albeit awkwardly.

*That's it! Beetles will be my inspiration for my skateboard. A big stylized beetle. A kid could hop on his/her beetle-board and go for a ride.

Thank you to REAL BUTTERFLY GIFTS for the images of these beautiful beetles and the inspiration for this project
I decided to use the rainbow beetle, but all three would have been appropriate.

I photoshoped the legs and antennas off so it would be easier to work with - it practically lookes like a skateboard already.

Here you see the evolution of an idea.
This is how I plan my skateboard to look like, top and underside. For the underside of the board, I used the same beetle in flight surrounded by circular freehand lines - this to convey jumps, flips, pivots and acrobatic motion.

Because I wanted to have a strong graphic presentation, my sketching process was all done by computer using Photoshop and Illustrator. The next step will be to make templates of these images for both sides.