This is a project I had promised my friend I’d do for him. I finally got it finished and it came out pretty nice. I had some ideas of what I wanted to put on it regarding certain things he liked including TV shows and movies. I started by printing out mirrored images by flipping the pics horizontally on Microsoft Word. This really helped because I have no idea how to paint mirrored images and it would’ve been a pain trying to figure it out.
I taped off the sides of the clipboard since there were ruler marks I didn’t want to get paint on. I also taped off the top for when I did the final coat of background paint. The trick to this kind of painting is doing the detail work first and then filling in the bigger background portions. For the image below I traced his name. I used sharpie for the black outlining, did a few coats of that and then painted in the burgundy for his letters. That also took a few coats since paint doesn’t always stick the first time these type of clipboards. Remember to always do the outline first. It’s definitely easier painting when you have a solid outline that won’t let any color through. Below you can see the beginning outline of the Stark Sigil for you Game of Thrones fans:
After I did the first outline I’d take out the paper and go over the entire image again. The Beemo image above I decided not to use because my friend just wanted a single image of him. I was going to put a time lapse of Beemo skateboarding but the single image definitely saved me time. Below is the finished Stark Sigil before I painted it:
As you can see below I did a few coats of grey on the Stark Sigil and then did the white for the teeth and eye. I realized I should have painted the white first because I ended up getting grey in there so I had to scrape it off. Oh well, live and learn right? To scrape off the paint I just used the back of my paintbrush but be gentle and don’t go too fast or you might take off the sharpie as well. If you want to take off any Sharpie because you messed up or drew a crooked line, just use a whiteboard marker, rub it onto the area and wipe it right off! You can also see the re-drawn Beemo outline because I messed it up. I also added the Avatar title and a star wars logo:
For Beemo, I painted the little details including the buttons and skateboard before putting on the coats of his body. It’s easier to just paint the bigger background portion after all the details are done. Below you can see the additional Lich snail and the Ghost Busters symbol without the white on the ghost:
Here’s what it looks like with the white finished on the ghost. Luckily, all of the facial features were black so my Sharpie definitely came in handy:
Here’s the front before the background coat:
Now that all the single images were finished, it was time for the background. My friend wanted navy blue but I didn’t have any so I ended up mixing all my blues together with some black and white to turn it into a nice grey-teal color. It came out a lot nicer than I thought. Once I started coating it with the paint I turned it over and found that the colors mixed really well with each other.
Once the background was painted it was time for Mod-Podge! I’d never used this stuff before so I was a little nervous but, after reading up on what it does I was ready to go. I used the matte version since I didn’t really need it to be glossy. I then spread a medium layer onto the back of my board using a paintbrush. I started worrying when I saw the white linger but I just needed to give it a little more time and it would disappear.
The only downfall I had with this project is that as I was putting the Mod Podge on I ended up not waiting long enough for the back to dry because the paint was moving with every brush stroke I made. This resulted in the outlining I did to show through the back:
It all turned out okay though because my friend is putting stickers on the back. Below is the final product. I love it and I’m glad my friend loved it too. Maybe I’ll get a clipboard soon so I can experiment with more decorating. This project took me about 3 nights to finish (I got home sometime after 5 every night and went to sleep around midnight) so patience is needed!
There you go, a usable clipboard with a big twist to it. It’s definitely rewarding once it’s finished so I encourage everyone to make at least one of these in their lifetime. If you don’t want to spend that much time on it, find a smaller clipboard.
Happy Clipboard decorating!(:
Engineer with a Twist 