Keeping with the theme of topical and unique skateboards that can be made with Roarockit's Thin Air Press vacuum bag, we have collaborated on a deck to celebrate the 2014 Academy Awards.

This custom deck was pressed as a standard street deck skateboard and modified by cutting out the final shape with a jigsaw. It was then hand painted by a talented local artist.

Tools and Materials:

Skateboard - check out the process involved in laminating a skateboard here - https://www.instructables.com/id/Vacuum-Bending-Skateboard-Veneers/

Reference Photo
Pencil
Jigsaw
Edge Sander (can be done by hand as well)
Acrylic Paints
Paint Brushes

Step 1: Creating the Deck

Once the deck was laminated, we were able to use a reference photo that was blown up to scale as our template for the final shape.

We printed out the photo of the Oscar award and taped it in place on the deck. We then traced the outline shape onto our deck and cut it out with a jigsaw.

Before we started painting, we sanded the edges and face of the deck smooth.

Step 2: Painting the Deck

Now for the really fun part... painting the deck!

It is pretty hard to put a step-by-step tutorial together about how to be an AWESOME artist, so hopefully the photos help to demonstrate some of the techniques used by our talented artist to create the graphic on this special board.

She basically started by painting the whole deck with an acrylic gold paint and then started adding black paint to define the details of the trophy. The shading was achieved with a combination of water and paper towels to help smudge and fade the black paint. Our artist then went through and added white highlights to really make the board shine!

Step 3: Finished Product

With the painting on the board all complete, we put a protective coating on the exterior and added the 'Best Performance' title to the bottom. While this deck will probably never be ridden, the plan is to award it to the skater with the 'Best Performance' at an upcoming event in our community.

Hopefully this helps show off some of the creative ideas that can be brought to life when building your own custom skateboard, and inspires one of you to do the same!

We would like to thank our extremely talented artist, Julieta, for her work painting this one-of-a-kind deck.