I’m seventeen years old now and I’ve been practicing visual art for as long as I can remember. This is my second year working with Craig and my first year at OSF. One responsibility I have here now is to prove myself as Student Representative. I value many things in life, one thing being love. So why not make a longboard with my own artistic interpretation of it? At first I just wanted to make a board that just looked visually appealing until I came across a simple (though accurate) stencil I made of my girlfriend recently. I decided I would use that stencil and incorporate another graphic that represents a common interest between the two of us. So that’s where the tree came in. We both love the fall season and I decided a bare tree silhouette would work well with my original stencil.
So I had my basic design and I liked that there weren’t too many layers of stencils, but I still had to come up with a background colour. I thought a fade would look great, but I wanted something that communicates the season I was meaning to express in a way that wasn’t cliché. Almost instantly I decided on a fade from grey to pink. I mapped it out and it looked great. I started with the fade and then stuck down the portrait stencil.
For the tree I used a painter’s tape technique where I layered the board with painter’s tape and cut out the shape (freehand) of the tree I wanted. I thought a matte finish would work because it would take less away from my design so I sprayed that on. Somehow it didn’t quite feel complete, so I threw on a gloss finish stencil of another similar shifted tree growing from the bottom and a branch peeking across the top right only visible where light hits it.
Over the years I have learned that sometimes it’s better to make an art piece that comes from one’s own experiences, values, ethics, opinions, or things that represent you or feelings around things that you would like to share or express. Because I used people/things that I value and care about, my design came to me much more organically as opposed to something that only looks impressive and conveys nothing more. I am absolutely satisfied with my longboard design and I am glad I had a chance to incorporate the stencil I made of my girlfriend into it.
I hope she likes it. It’s for her.
