Why be bored in school? Go to a Skateboard School! This Toronto District School Board alternative school design program helps students earn high school credits and graduate by creating their own brand and running a skateboard business / professional design studio. OASIS SKATEBOARD FACTORY (OSF) "ON THE GRIND": TDSB's ART & ENTREPRENEURSHIP O.G.s since 2006!

Friday, November 17, 2017

BAD SLIME

I’m a an 18-year-old student in my second year at Oasis Skateboard Factory. My brand is called Ickytoy and right now I’m working on a capsule collection for it called WARTS&ALL, which is all about focusing on the ugliness of monsters. I’ve been drawing and creating monsters since I was a child and my art medium of choice is digital, but I love working with spray paint and watercolours as well.

The theme of the board - and the character especially - is about common animal phobias, such as snakes, spiders, bats and bugs. The character is made to be a mixture of all these animals. This fits into my capsule collection by recognizing that despite the phobias of these animals, they still deserve love and respect.

My inspirations come from the animals mentioned. I find that animals that are common phobias are interesting, becoming even more interesting by being phobias. For me, finding the reason why people find them so scary and icky is interesting, albeit disappointing, because these animals and their subspecies are - for me - really cool!

For this board, I tried to make all the colours bright and vibrant to make it eye-catching and used the rule of thirds to figure out where I would put the body parts so no part of the board was too lacking or busy with detail.

The materials used were watercolours for the paint and a woodburner for the texture. First, I woodburned the board. Next, I used gloss sealing spray on the board so the watercolours wouldnt be absorbed into the wood as easy. Then finally, I painted the board with watercolours.

While making this board, I learned that, personally, I should take more time to make sure my sketch is readable so when I eventually woodburn or spray paint it, i can read the lines better so I don't end up making silly mistakes. I also learned to make sure I plan out what details go where and plan out the pose of the monster so it's not as confusing for me and the people looking at my boards.

No automatic alt text available.