Skateboard Resin Painting - Final Thoughts

You will be able to see from previous posts that I've been struggling (i.e. learning) with putting resin on the below skateboard painting. All had pretty much failed (half of it hardened and half did not, it has weird texture, and it dulled down all the bright colors in the painting). The exhibit I had made it for had a due date of May 1st and I was prepared to tell them I would not have my piece after all, and I was going to just toss it out.

I met a nice artist upstairs in the building who works with resin all the time (apparently successfully - not an experience I have had yet). He suggested - at this point, I try to put a poly-acrylic varnish over it - that it sometimes creates a hard layer over the resin underneath (that will never harden). I went out and got a gloss polymer varnish by Golden and decided this would be my last crack at it before it goes in the dumpster.

It actually worked! It hardened all the parts that were gooey underneath and it didn't even feel soft to the touch. Then I got greedy and put another coat on after 3 hours and then began to notice that the parts that were gooey before were now buckling and crackling. I was kicking myself for going for that second coating! But I decided to leave it in the studio overnight and see what the morning would bring.

And it has a happy ending - the buckling and crackling areas are all clear and gone now and it all seems to be hard and dry to the touch. Yea!!!! So it would appear it has been saved from the dumpster.

In the final analysis, I still have not had a successful resin session, it seems to have interacted with the oil paint and dulled down the brighter colors (giving it an unexpected almost antique look), and the surface has lots of wavy texture - not what I was going for, but certainly different and acceptable. You can compare the below photo with some of my earlier blog postings on this project.

Will I paint on a skateboard again? Definitely. But I'm a little resin gun-shy at the moment and it will take some doing to get my courage about that going again. Maybe just a gloss varnish next time (though I hear it yellows after awhile). There's just something unique about resin but right now, it is stronger than me (I am powerless over resin and need to call on a Higher Power....)

Here is the final photo with all the failed layers of resin and the two layers of polymer varnish on top. It's a done deal! Oh, by the way, it's a painting of the Point Reyes Lighthouse coastal area.