Corrina Spurlin: Week 11 Skateboard Engraving

Illustrator Design

Engraved Board

Close-Up of Engraving

Attempt with graphite

Concept
The concept for my skateboard design largely played off of the visuals that came from my 3D Printed Model. I wanted to continue the rose-like theme, while upholding a rigid and geometric aspect to it as well. I wanted to contrast from my 3D model, however, in that the design would appear generally intricate and compact, instead of simple and open. 

Technique
The main techniques utilized in this assignment were the line tool and pathfinder in Illustrator. I also used the rotate tool to create the radial flower designs that sit between the diamonds. Pathfinder was used to crop an inverted version of that design so that it could appear again, just in a different form. 

The file was setup to match the board as closely and accurately as I believed possible, but when it came time to engrave, problems arose and the engraving ended up being off-centered on both axes. 

Materials
The materials used within this project were the skateboard deck, and use of the program Adobe Illustrator. 

The material of the board created an issue for me when it came time to actually engrave, as it had an outer non-wood protective layer that caused the engraving to look different than I would have preferred. The laser had to do more work to get through to the wood, so when it did it was weaker and didn't appear dark. I plan to engrave my design again in the future with a board that either does not have a protective layer, or one that will be easy to sand down off the wood. That way the final product will look much darker (and as close to black as possible without any of the design).

It was recommended to me that graphite or charcoal could be used to fill in the design to make it appear darker, so I tried to mark graphite onto one of the small diamonds to test this theory. As it can be seen in the final picture in the series, this caused the raised layer to look darkened, after wiping off excess, instead of the engraved level. 

EDIT:
I attempted to re-engrave my design with a slightly different material wood that I additionally sanded prior to the laser engraving. The result was far better than my first attempt. 

Michael Crow - Week 11: Laser Engraving: Deck

• Each persons skateboard Deck is meant to showcase who they are. In this case the person I am making a board for has an online persona named Cody, a DJ, skating Dog, much like McGruff, the crime dog. I wanted to make sure this board was unique for him. With a custom hand drawn image. His name and a backdrop logo of his favorite skateboarding company in the background.

Fig. 1: Designs

 From this point I had to try several different techniques to get the best representation of the regional image and nice background. Starting with the One Touch software I started with Posterized images, and found that I really liked the fully colored image much more. Knowing that I changed the way the background was displayed to better show the "DC" Logo. After seeing how the deeper levels came out io Decided to keep the background as a Raster and simply go in and cut the Name and Chest Tattoo deeper to help them stand out, as they got lost in the test engravings. In final I moved a grey scale version into Illustrator and using Image trace I cut out pieces I liked to engrave deeper.

Fig. 2: Tests

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• This test and adjust approach allowed me to do several low cost small test runs with the laser at different Powers and will help the skateboard look clean and help keep away from any major burns. As well as to help make the whole image pop across the board.

Taking this knowledge I moved and redesigned the Imgae to allow for a culmination o the two designs. I kept the gradient fade from the supposed final design, and the colors and raster from the first design. Which left a much better contrast between the name and he logos on the board as seen in Fig. 3

Fig. 3: Logo Detail

A deep ebony stain was applied into the groves for the name and the characters dog paw tattoo, to help them stand out from the other engraving and help the viewers eye continually circle around the board as seen in Fig. 4

Fig. 4: Stain Detail

Finally I applied a triple thick coating of Polyurethane across the whole board 3 times, sanding the ridges and each coat with 400 and 800 grit sandpaper to help remove any imperfections caught in the coat and to help the next layer stick and have more surface area to maintain a better hold. Which gives the board enough protection to be used or displayed without worry. It also leaves it with a slightly glassy and buttery feel up close but without removing an detail from the board itself.

Fig. 5: Raster Details

Finally we have the finished product ready to be shipped to the patron, who is exstatic with the results!

Fig. 6: Final Product