I Painted a Skateboard Deck!

As the title suggests: I painted my next skateboard deck! Here’s a few pics:

And a few of the (lengthly) process below:

It started with a mockup (above), just to see if my idea would work. It's extremely rough and looks nothing like the finished piece, but the concept is the same. It was taking forever to plot out the pins how I wanted them (which was a lot closer together than on this- this is so sparse).

I made a template of a bowling pin from card and drew around it creating an ‘all over’ style pattern on the deck. I then used acrylic paint for the base layer. I was lazy and didn’t sand the deck down first (naughty, I know), but the paint held quite well regardless. Though I’m sure the coat of paint would have been a lot smoother if I had sanded the deck first. So in future, I will definitely get the good old sandpaper out! Also, just for info, the deck I used was an ‘Enuff’ blank deck (8”). I usually wouldn’t go for this brand, but I’m sure it won’t be the worst thing ever to skate. Or at least I hope not!

Second coat (left) vs first coat (right)

After the base layer had fully dried, I used Posca paint markers to do coat two of the white, followed by the red stripes at the top of the pins (once coat 2 had fully dried). The second coat of white made it look a lot cleaner and more vibrant, as you can see in the image above). The first coat really wasn’t that opaque, despite me using a fairly decent brand of paint (Liquitex). I did the red stripes freehand, so they aren’t completely uniform, but for this project I felt that wasn’t especially important: the overall impression is there and they aren’t even wonky! It felt odd for me to do something which challenges my perfectionism, but I didn’t think measuring out the lines and drawing them on with pencil first would have made much difference to the overall design of the deck and would have just wasted time. Perhaps for another project, yes, but definitely not for this one. It’s going to get scratched off after a few skate sessions anyway!

It took a while to create, especially the first coat of paint, but no good things come easy (or so we’re told). I’m super proud of it and can not wait to skate it! I always feel I skate better when I’m using a deck with a design I’m fully into and this deck, I am 100% fully in! It’s essentially my dream deck. Bowling and skateboarding all in one- doesn’t get much better than that! I think I’ll get some white griptape as I always like to match the grip with the board graphic... See you at the skatepark xo