Illustrations on skateboards (slick wood)

[NHansen]

Aright, so I'm going to start doing some illustrations on skateboards (the woods is pretty slick). I was wondering what type of medium to use. I'm used to pencils/ink/markers and the like. Would paint pens be a good idea? I might try just using acrylics, but I'm not that good at painting and I don't want to practice on decently expensive skateboards. Any nrecommendations? Thanks.

[warmblade]

Hey bro,
Have you thought about using an airbrush? I have airbrushed on snowboards skateboards etc. works great....

[NHansen]

ooh, that's a good idea. I'm assuming you can get different tips/caps for nice thin streams?
I could draw out the illustrations in marker or something to get a rough idea then airbrush over em.

[nick reynolds]

sand/scrap down the paint to the wood grain and then sand to a decent finish. Then gesso the board, 3 or 4 layers of gesso and you sand between each layer.

Then you can paint/draw with most any medium you want. I remmeber seeing gallery show pictures of paintings on skateboards a long time ago in a transworld. They even did some jigsaw cutting of the boards to make some new shapes.

[cotron]

I've done it a few times.. I just slap gesso on a board... and paint it in acrylic, sometimes ink as well.. although nick's method would definitely make them look a lot less grungey. i'm just too lazy to sand that much :)

[arghmisfit]

sweet i was just thinking of doing this myself yesterday, thanks for the info guys