Beginner Friendly - Skateboard Collage Art

In this tutorial, artist Tessa Maddock talks us through her process for collage, and what better surface to work on than a cool Jasart Skateboard deck? (We have discontinued the Jasart Skateboard Deck, however you can use the new Mont Marte Wooden Skateboard Deck. June 2024) 

To start, Tessa likes to gather all the paper materials that she’s collected and see what she wants to use with the design, laying everything out and seeing what works together.

Sourcing imagery is all about what appeals to you. Tessa is drawn to nature, vintage botanical prints, nostalgic advertising material and vintage pulp fiction book covers. She loves using old landscape photography to source colour inspiration, and she generally works within one colourway. Tessa routinely searches in antique stores and magazine op shops for old books, and sources a lot of imagery online as well.

It's important if you're printing at home that you use a good quality printer and good quality paper, especially if you are using a glue and sealer like Mod Podge, the colours from printer ink can bleed. So always test before giving in a go.

To build up a nice coloured background for any areas that might show through, Tessa used Mont Marte Pouring Acrylic, Matisse Acrylics, and some Jo Sonja Acrylics.

Tessa opted for some beautiful green tones to match some of the paper materials that she wanted to use for this piece. Once the background is dry, it's time to see how it all looks on the board.

Once happy with the composition, to try to keep everything in place, Tessa slowly worked through sticking down all the layers with Mod Podge. She used a Taklon brush to glue both the front and the back of the paper, working in nice smooth motions.

Tessa likes to keep a little container of water to loosen the Mod Podge a bit as she’s working as it can be quite thick.

Trust the process as the glue dries. It will go clear and most of the crinkles in the paper material will flatten out. Sometimes they don't, but that all adds to the character of your collage masterpiece.

Show us your skateboard collage by tagging us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok @artshedonline

Got questions? Send us an email at customerservice@artshedonline.com.au and our friendly team of artists will do their best to assist you.

Happy creating!