Im going to start making my first board next week, I dont want a blank colour board, but I am rubbish at art too.
Im my local pub they have torn posers plastered on some the walls like the pictures below. I was thinking this would look quite good on a board, what would the effect be of laminating some movie posters like this between the layers of glass?
I wouldn't recommend it - just not the right material for the job. Better to get one of the surfboard graphic companies to produce your image on a fabric lam made for that application. They can take your image as posted and make it into a lam, or any image you'd like.
Otherwise you're liable to have issues with rippling, running, fading, weak bond or material de-lam, all kinds of problems you could run into. Plenty of things can go wrong when building / glassing surfboards as it is, why add further unnecessary complications?
i have been messing with decopouge on sanded hotcoats. Adding a layer of 4 oz glass cut at the apex.not a whole lot of weight added. My boards are not lightweight high performance but more classic retro. Did this on the bottom of an 8’0 egg years ago and all is still good. Not sure about ramifications on the deck of a lightweight board.
I see a small trend toward artistic boards. The resin tint abstract/airbrush/rice paper graphic thing has been beaten to death.Nothing new there. So our way of thinking is either make a work of art or just make clear boards. Nothing in between is worth doing.
Bear in mind I am in it for self gratification and not much more. I live in a Southern town with a huge world class art school and the kids are all over this stuff. Some amazing talent floating around. I feed on their energy. Youth can rejuvinate old bones like mine.
Before you purists start bitching think about Hot Rod custom cars. Things of great beauty that never really get driven to work or the market. Just very cool to own or build.
That would be some serious decoupage or decollage. I wonder how the paper would hold up as far as not yellowing or affecting the lams.
I'm all for artistic surfboards - I just don't think movie posters are the lam material of choice.
Most all my artwork is done by hand, so I have never used printed graphics - but I know pretty much anything that can be done graphically can be done on a surfboard lam.
On my last board I used an old aloha surf shirt for my lam, then derived the rest of the surfboard design and color scheme from that.
As far as resin tints - I am continually blown away by some of the awesome work on this site.
And I don't think you'd get much argument from anyone that your boards are works of art! I always enjoy seeing pics of your work.
Well said Huck. I am heading in a new direction on the boards. While you speak of lams I assume you mean graphics that are applied while laminating the board (ie rice paper logos/aloha cloth etc). i am of the mind that the graphics i plan on applying will be laid on after the board is sanded. After the art is applied to the hotcoated surface another (extra) layer of 4 ounce or maybe two ounce is applied over the art. it is then hotcoated and sanded again. finished with a polished gloss.
i first got this idea from Gene cooper. He was adding an extra layer of four ounce on the bottom and the depth of light refraction put his boards way ahead of everyone elses. it’s a lot of extra work but so far what i have seen is incrdible. the sanded hotcoat is more like an artists canvas and possibilities are mind boggling. I figure that on an 8foot board you may be adding a pound at the most.
i have been around here since the beginning and have talked endlessly about how to do tints/cutlaps/resin pins etc etc and it’s all getting to be somewhat boring. time for some changes.
may have to start a new thread “Wall hanger art boards…for the sake of art and nothing more” (Or some such shit)
have fun above all RB
Thats a cool idea for a thread, Mike Ward has been doing some really nice wall hangers lately, from wood. I think the subject is a good one.
Here's the board I was talking about. The deck design is a shirt I lammed onto the blank before glassing. Then I used that as a color scheme for the whole board. The yellow is handpainted, the rails and lines are artists tissue that was painted to reinforce the color (intensify the hue and give it a little more fade resistance), all before glassing.
I know poster material is not the correct material, how about printing pictures onto paper or rice paper or something. Then making them into the design i want?
Would it make the board stronger having the graphics laminated after the glass, under the hotcoat?
I do like some of the resin tints which have been posted in the thread, but they have been done so much, I want something unique on my board.
This thread would produce some beautiful boards!
You could have them printed onto a special fabric that you would apply under the glass when you laminate the board
google "surfboard graphics"
Rice paper works for logos and smaller stuff, I think when you get into large areas the fabric is the material of choice. But I've never tried it, so maybe it is printed on paper? Someone here must know. They can pretty much do anything you want in terms of graphic design.
You could do your artwork with the decollage style on masonite or some other sturdy surface.
Then take a high-res digital photo of your artwork and have it printed on a material more suited to lamming onto a surfboard. This is how they make prints with fine artwork canvasses.
I’ve seen these guys material on boards and it looks really nice.
http://victimboardart.com/custom-printing/
I’m sure they could steer you in the right direction on the best approach to doing your artwork in your medium of choice then getting them a digital file of it for printing.
Personally, I think it would look amazing and be unique as hell. Go for it. Wallhangers are fine, but it’s even better if it’s artistic AND functional.
n my real job I work in the printing and printing equipment business. You can print anything on just about any media you want today. There are even flat bed printers similar to CNC machines that could potentially print directly onto a shaped blank. How deep are your pockets? ;^)
Rice paper or fabric run on a wide format plotter is the way to do laminated full board graphics.
One of our guys has been using printed vehicle wrap media on boards and it comes out great. If you decide to change the graphics you just peel it off and print a new one. It doesn’t add much weight and it has the added benefit of protecting the board from absorbing water if it gets dinged. Here he is riding one of his wrapped boards…All of his sponsor logos are printed as well. Sorry for the jumbo pic.
Thank you for posting the article. more posts.