in this land
Valley of shadows
and crows
here be dragons
that haunt to this very day
a child now grown
that no one but me
remembers and mourns
- Ronberge (anno primo)
The Niche Knew snowboard design was a collaboration between Ana Van Pelt and illustrator Zosia Olenska.
The artwork depicts a great dragon, dwelling deep within the forest. In many cultures dragons are viewed as representing the primal forces in nature and the universe. The symbols on the top and base are called a Dragon's Eye, which is an ancient Germanic symbol. It combines a triangle, meaning threat, with "Y" meaning a choice between good and evil.
Given the dimensions of the canvas and perspective of the illustration, the artwork was drawn in several pieces and then adjusted and put together to create a single, cohesive, full finished illustration. Some areas are actually several layers of different finished illustrations.
The finished graphic took over 120 hours to complete between illustration and coloring. The original completed layout was fully colored, and then converted to greyscale in order to achieve subtle tone variations between the shades of grey, so that the highlights and shadows would add enough depth to the overall graphic.
COMPLETED LAYOUT >> COLORED >> FINAL DESIGN
