Chris “Burns” and Ted Hunter, with a very early freestyle design on a Roarockit pintail maple board.
Many people ask for advice on how to apply graphics to their handmade custom skateboards. There are many options of course, but one of my favorites is the old-fashioned skill of wood-burning! I remember growing up, we had a wood-burning kit (or rather my brother did) and he decorated many surfaces with it.
Our former office manager and friend, Chris “Burns” Bennett (aka Champstiles) is one of the best freestyle wood-burning artists I’ve ever encountered.
The art piece by Chris I am focusing on here is not a skateboard, but the subject is all about building skateboards!
The beauty of a piece of wood can be its imperfections. For this piece, Chris chose a board that included many knots, something that some other artists would reject. But Chris used the knots as eyes for his subjects!
This illustration is the Oasis Skateboard Factory class in action. Almost every person in the image has a knot for an eye. Working around this framework, Chris has woven the story of a typical day at OSF. If you are not familiar with them, this Toronto District School Board Alternative School helps students who don’t fit a conventional school setting and are looking for a way to complete high school in a more inclusive atmosphere. Highly successful, this school boasts a very high graduation and literacy rate.
Back to the illustration, the main character is (recently retired) founder and teacher Craig Morrison. His stature as almost always the largest person in the room is matched by his huge heart! Craig has always supported students who seem to struggle the most. His vision of OSF was to make learning accessible to those students through hands-on learning. The course units Craig and co-teacher Lauren Hortie developed using skateboard building allowed that to happen with great results. Craig deserves to have the largest “knot-eyes” on the board! The natural grain pattern around these knots works perfectly for the facial structure.
There is a lot going on in this piece. The drawing on the blackboard shows a physics lesson about atmospheric pressure. One square inch of pressure is equal to 14 pounds per square inch in a vacuum (or outer space).
That’s the equation to show the pressure exerted on every square inch of veneer inside a Thin Air Press Vacuum bag while pressing a skateboard.
In the foreground there are 2 students working on applying their graphics to a board using a stencil. This is a tried-and-true method of painting graphics on a board. We have a tutorial here on cutting stencils and applying paint. This method is perhaps the easiest to work with and gives excellent results.
Chris has also included laying out his wood-burning tools on the table behind the front two characters. To get shaded effects and different line widths, he uses a variety of tips for his pyrography process. The colour added is analine wood dye, available from specialty woodworking suppliers (and Amazon).
OSF is also known for their program in converting broken boards into art, as the student (and rat!) in the lower left area are seen holding. The figure near the upper left is shown holding an unfinished board while sanding the edge with a strip of coarse belt sandpaper.
The double pony-tailed student is holding the cord of a jigsaw just used to trim out the custom drop deck longboard they are sitting on.
An octopus guards the cabinet of spray paints the students use for decorating boards and other projects.
The two energetic builders in the back are pressing a board in a TAP kit and waiting to sand the edges after it dries.
Student-produced merchandise like stickers, shirts and painted grip tape hang above their heads. It’s all part of the program at the Oasis Skateboard Factory.
This piece hangs in our location in Toronto, so if you are ever in the area, please drop by for a closer look.
I hope this article inspires you to try the art of wood-burning on your own handmade skateboard. The lovely smell of maple will reward your efforts!
Norah Jackson,
Roarockit Skateboard Company