Designing a Skateboard Deck Using a Sharpie

Let your imagination go wild...

After everything was outlined, I just started drawing. Since I am right handed, I usually work from left to right, which also is nice to keep the design from smearing. Fortunately, the Sharpie ink dries super fast, so smearing is not really a problem.

Try to use a light touch with the Sharpie. Bearing down hard or moving the Sharpie too slowly will cause the solvents in the Sharpie to dissolve just a little of the white paint on the skateboard deck. Don't panic, it's easily fixable. Let that area of the board dry thoroughly for a couple of minutes. Scribble with the Sharpie on a blank piece of copy paper to clear the tip, and resume drawing using a lighter hand. If the ink seems to flow in a controlled and very dark manner, you are doing it right.

Now, I admit that my design is probably not going to be mainstream, but I created it from what I like. And while it took many, many hours to complete, if you are doing a deck for yourself, why worry how long it takes? Enjoy the process.

Here is the completed skateboard. Pretty spiffy, huh? Sharpies make it easy because they are reliable and permanent.

On this piece, I added a spray painted background to this deck, then clear coated it before drawing with the Sharpie. The disadvantage of this method is that the board becomes so slick it is almost impossible to lay out a pattern in pencil, as the surface has no tooth. However, the variations in color on the background are fun and add a lot.