Skateboard Stickers

With my own characters, I recently received some feedback that said they were a little too flat, they look too isolated in the centre of the page but I have many references to back up my decision for this… but… The main reason I do this is because of my love for stickers in which a character is often the central focus with a little bit of text around often just for the name of the brand the characters are from (usually skateboard manufacturers).

I now own various books on the art of stickers but my most recent purchase “skateboard stickers” has rekindled my love of them and also inspired the latest changes to my editorial pieces. The main thing about skateboarding is that it’s a youth culture driven sport… and usually the kids involved in it like to rebel and more often than not the stickers/skateboard graphics reflect this in some way.. (or they used to anyway). Sometimes seen as ugly when compared to traditional artwork the skateboard designs and stickers you owned were just as much an expression about your own views and interests as was your actions… I have often said that I never saw stickers as a form of advertising, they were more like miniature pieces of artwork that I could decorate my belongings with (e.g. see my mac book)… I admit I never got into posting sticker anywhere and everywhere as a way of spreading a message but I do know this is one of the first applications they had.. either to promote bands, spread the word but for me and my friends.. Collecting the stickers of skateboard artwork was cheaper than buying the skateboards! As I mentioned in my post about Marc McKee, it was skateboard designs and stickers that made me pursue my drawing more and more as I grew older rather than going for a “real” job… but again I think it was their resemblance to cartoons that maintained my interest… they were like still frames from a cartoon where an accident was about to happen or something already had happened to the character featured. With others it was all about the style/look of it… nothing said alternative than some melting face design or a severed hand with a screaming mouth attached to it or anything else which appeared out of the ordinary. I feel stickers give me a little more freedom to create anything I can imagine… although I now know that I can’t just go straight to print with them.. instead I should look at creating a design that would first go onto a product such as a skateboard and then apply the same thing to other products such as t-shirts, bags, or stickers.