Create a tasty skate deck graphic
From rough sketch through to perfect vectorised artwork, illustrator John McFaul gets reminiscent about designing and preparing a vibrant graphic fit for any plank.
You have to, don't you? You can't help it. It's only natural. For a designer anyway... to just slip away into that strange little world, where there are smiles, swings and roundabouts, open fields, bikes, skateboards, sweeties, designer toys, and all things fun. Where the grass is always greener and the sky is that deeper shade of blue only found in your best dreams. It's a vehicle for all our needs and wants. Not, I hasten to add, that our day jobs are a grind - far from it! We love them too.
We harbour a wonderful existence, making the world more fabulous, but there is always a need for a better, more amazing place, a place where we are free to explore our own unusual minds and dreams. It's not all rainbows and butterflies you know... it's a world in day-to-day change, with mushrooms, beards, spaghetti and worms too, and many other things depending on our mood. It's so easy to do, that's the thing. Getting your work onto skate decks or T-shirts just isn't as difficult as you might think, and the rewards from seeing your own handiwork on a different platform are huge.
We've been in and around the skate scene for what seems like forever. Some might say we're a bit too old for all that now and I know the old McFaul bones aren't what they used to be, but Ollie, our Lead Designer, still does a mean 360 flip. It seemed only natural to design our own decks, because we knew we could cook up something cool if we put our minds to it. McFaul was branching out anyway, and we were (and still are) totally committed to seeing our work in other outputs. It's a great time for illustrators and designers right now, with so many opportunities available to them. Anyway, I digress... we're now riding round on our own decks and it makes skating even more fun. You can create your own designs too, using the following ingredients: 2 different size Fineliners, 1 tracing pad, 1 computer, 1 printer, 1 scanner, 1 mouse, 1 brain, and 5 hours.
Click here to download the support files ( 10MB)
Click here to download the tutorial for free
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