Wakesurf Board Illustration Project: Steps and Tips

One of my favorite aspects of working at Sparksight is how much we’re encouraged to be creative outside of work as well.  Something I’ve been continuing to push myself in, beyond animation, is illustration and when I learned that our very own (and very tall) Clint Smith was part owner of a wakesurfing company, I offered to do some art for his artist series boards.

A talented local artist named Brian Imler had already done a slew of amazing boards for their artist series that featured traditional surfer and nautical imagery so my piece needed to be different for variety.

I’ve been a fan of the works of Alphonse Mucha, an Art Nouveau painter and illustrator, and decided to design something in a similar style. My goal was to bring a little bit of a classic art look into the piece and refrain from using elements commonly found on board designs.

I sketched the design and scanned it into Photoshop, stitching together different parts of multiple drawings to achieve the line art I wanted. Then I projected the image onto the actual board and traced the line art directly onto its surface.

Posca paint pens are the most commonly used materials for painting designs directly onto the boards and can even be blended. I utilized them in combination with paintbrushes and fine tip Pitt pens for smaller detail areas.

The key to achieving an Art Nouveau look is the thick outline that provides a nice contrast to the finer details. It gives the character a little bit of a comic book styling to it and Art Nouveau is in fact a big influence for many comic artists in the industry.

The last step was to seal the artwork with several coats of Acrylic Clear Coat to protect it from both water and UV damage.

Illustration projects are some of my favorite to work on at Sparksight and I always jump at the opportunity. Check out this link for a time-lapse video I captured of the painting process and even an opportunity to purchase the original board.