Movement. The incorporation of movement into the poses are extremely important for these characters. Skating originated from surfing, where California was experiencing a period of drought its was banned to fill your private swimming pool. As a result there were multiple empty swimming pools not being used. They were perfect environments for surfing on land. The skate style as a result was very dynamic as they tried to imitate the waves. As the aerial manoeuvres developed the dynamics and fluidity did not falter. These movements also incorporate the energetic, excited and somewhat reckless energy of the youth culture known know as the dogtown skaters. 

No clear faces should be on the figures, this is to display the sense of unanimous identify and community. The faces have been illustrated with the use of contour and hence does give a sense of facial structure. This method was inspired by the work I had seen from other members of the class on the shared Padlet. I also decided to give the figures colourful skin which was another attempt to display the energetic emotions of the culture, this I find contrast well with the bold clothing. The colour scheme of the clothing was heavily impacted by a quote the director Cathrine Hardwick gave in a behind the scenes documentary of the filming of "Lords of Dogtown". This is an homage to the legendary Zephyr skate group, the main circle of kids during this era and place. The colour scheme is very dirty and represents the rougher side of the lifestyle. Many of these kids who were skating in this area at the time were from poorer backgrounds, they skated in the same close because that was all they had. Skating was the main focus, experiencing this thrill and danger, not the clothing. Everyone fell all the time, was sweating and hence their clothes were dirty. I wanted to especially portray this in the illustrations. The muddled sense of appearance also influenced me to create mixed media illustrations. Initially the characters are constructed with a rough pencil sketch, then the contour of the skin was made with coloured pencils, then lastly it was digitalised. This is when the clothing colour and further detail was created. It was very interesting to see how the three mediums acted together. I found that they sat well together when fluid lines were used to create the sense of depth.

I find quite interesting, as stated before the clothing isn't the main or even secondary objective of this culture. It carries significance of recognition like al clothes do, however, the clothes were chosen for functionality. Looking at the clothes from a perspective of costume design was especially interesting because in some sense it gave a deeper understanding of the culture.

Important was for me to keep the the illustrations labelled with small side notes. The notes usually name the clothing item and highlight the importance this group places of their clothing. Everything has a name, a title, specific brand and time that it can be worn. There are rules to have to dress yourself and these largely depending on the time of the year and event you are attending. This thought also led to deciding to omit facial features completely in the illustrations. I felt the specific rules of clothing made the outfits the culture can wear already predetermined and these individuals just slipped inside a mold. Omitting the facial features also gives the appearance of the characters begin dolls or puppets, another 

The watercolour technique allowed me to create a degree of textures and lifelike appearance to the dolls. It also enabled me to define an older and more established style to accommodate the very 'proper' fashion approach in this culture. The individual outfits were inspired by the overarching theme of a group of college friends having a 'get-away-vacation' in the mountains at one of their parents skii houses. This theme gave me a more niche approach to the Prep fashion and made designing the outfits much more interesting as I had to imagine the activities and environment each character was in that scene. 

Most interesting and also the reason I choose this subculture was because it is a stark contrast to the "Skate in Time", my first subculture you saw previously. As the Zboys of dogtown, the Zephyr skate group, really began to become apparent by 1975, where they entered their first official skate tournament at Del Mare. I decided that I would look at Prep specifically in the 70s. The questions I had to consider after establishing the group, time frame and also the uniting theme of the characters was at what point of development was ski attire, what were the fashion trends and any significant historical context that was necessary. Also found useful in my research to distinguish between Prep and Posh, the origins of 'Predome' and how it became such a successful fashion movement.