Anna Phengsakmueang: Week 12 Laser Engraved Skateboard Deck

Concept

To draw upon the aspect of nature into my design, I chose to use lotuses as the borders for the ends of the board. I also wanted to include a bit of a personal touch to the board by incorporating my spirit animal, the wolf onto the board by using a tribal art style to illustrate the wolf. To really emphasize the concept of a reflection of myself within the board, I chose to also put my signature into the design as well.

Technique

Rhino File

Using the Illustrator template, I rotated the skateboard shape at a ninety degree angle to make it easier to begin my design. Then, I used the curvature pen tool to draw out the lotus petals and leaves. After finishing one lotus design, I copied and pasted it into other areas of the skateboard template. Then I added curvlinear accents to the middle lotuses on both ends to achieve a visual balance. After the end designs were done, I began to work on the wolf which was made with many curves. I wanted to ensure there was an implied texture of the wolf's fur, so I added a bit of detail to the area of the neck to the body. To add a bit more balance to the negative space around the wolf, I drew a circular moon to the right of the wolf. For a finishing touch, I added my signature with a star shape in the curves. After the design was complete, I ensured that each aspect of the design was layered correctly and colored according to the type of engraving that I desired. Additionally, I checked the stroke width to be 0.001 so that the design would be all vectors rather than rastered.

Materials

I used a blank 7.5" skateboard deck for the engraving at the Machine Shop. Unfortunately, some parts of the design were unable to be engraved onto the board because the board itself was not flat, therefore the laser was unable to reach and engrave into the ends of the board. It also made some of the lines in the design for the edge lotuses a bit thicker and there was a bit of soot on one of the ends of the board. Some of the designs in the center was also a bit cut off, meaning that I may have sized the reference of the board a bit too large, but it was only by a millimeter or so.