In first year I liven just down the road from a popular skate area. The plus side to this was that I able to pikey their broken decks from the bins. throughout the year I was able to retrieve two decks. Both of these decks had been snapped beyond use but I had a plan to recycle them into pieces of art.
I didn't really like the thought of four halfs next to each other and thought three would work much better. So that I knew how the materials worked together I decided to use one half for a present for my mates birthdays, Duncan and Charlotte.
Duncan and Charlotte's dog is an Alaskan Malamute (a wolf/husky with a curled tail) called Samson, he can be quiet rowdy and boisterous but thats mainly down to his size. Anyway he quiet the character and more often then not I find myself drawing him. I decided that he would be a great image for the deck, another point that I took inspiration from was when he howls.
The first picture is a selection of the images I used for research, the second is the deck half sanded. Originally I planned to sand it right down but some black bits of paint where quiet deep into the grain so i then decided to leave them in, I also thought this would add too the grungy recycled look I was after.
These are my developments of the image I want to put onto the deck. I came up with the actually image I went for relatively quickly but I didn't know how it would work and thought it would look like it was floating to much by itself, so I developed it further to see what could go around the design.
When I first came up with the black design at the top I showed it to my brother house mate who laughed at it mainly for the section underneath. He said it looked like the dogs penis...
Originally I want a mixture of a more graphic block image with a fine art illustration, but there was no relevance to the more graphic section. In a small doodle i drew (bottom left) I realised by incorporating Sam's tail that I could create a really interesting shape as well as a strong image.
Since the general shape of the design was quiet curved i thought it might be possible to incorporate a C and D into the design. This didn't really work and the original image was much better, I did contemplate drawing the whole body but again I felt the original was a much better shape.
This project was taking me far to long to complete, all I could seem to do with it was to develop it. I really didn't think the image by itself would work. I had planned to get it done with a couple of other projects by the end of the summer. So with that deadline coming up I decided to just go for it. I used a variation of different marker pens which I had tested on out on a simular piece of wood to make sure they would come out. Originally I wanted to use spray paint as well but i thought this would look too bold with the wash of the pens. Some grey tones that I had didn't come out half as well as they do on paper, but what they did do was put a dark stain onto the wood which worked really well. Like in the original drawing I used yellow to break it up a bit which again i feel worked well.
If I could do it again or change it I would change the position of his eye I think it needs to be lower and my eye is drawn to it every time I look at it. Still all in all i thought it was a great practice for when I create my own piece with the other three halfs of deck.
