Decades of deck graphics along with archives of art direction files for various brands, Mark ‘Fos’ Foster has been, and still is, the artist behind many of skateboardings best sketches.
What began with a boom in London, England, in 1997 Fos drew up the original Arm series for Toy Machine skateboards to kickstart a career as an artist. It happened almost by chance. Since then Fos has seemingly done it all in the skate world and has landed himself in Los Angeles, California. Just last year he released a second series of Arm graphics for Toy Machine to bring things full circle.
From freelancing graphics for his favorite pros and brands, to holding down the reigns as art director at other legendary companies like Baker and Altamont; Fos has found an endless outlet for his creative expressions through skateboarding. Not only that, he has Heroin. His own skateboard brand that has been along for his entire creative ride.
Fos wasn’t always known as the artist that he is today, though. But he has always been heavily involved in skateboarding, and ultimately that helped him carve out his place in it today. Also, he is never bored and doesn’t shy away from a little rejection, both are qualities that go a long way on four wheels.
Hear how Fos found his way from his homeland to Heroin headmaster and creator of his own reality in the interview below.
Let’s begin with how you started. You have been creating skateboard graphics for more than twenty years, but did you first have other jobs in the skate industry? How did that lead you down the road to make a living from your artwork?
I did, I worked at shops in London a little bit, then I worked at Slam City Skates in the warehouse for a good while. Started out taking shoes off lorries, and then became the sales manager at some point, so I got to see the ins and outs of the whole industry that way.
It was funny because I had a design degree from Goldsmiths College in London, one of the big universities, but I didn’t really have any interest in going into design in the traditional sense, it was weird, all the jobs were basically looking for a mac operator to work at an ad agency or something, so that wasn’t for me. I was happy working in Skateboarding somehow packing orders for shops at that time, and that transitioned into selling Circa and DVS shoes to the stores and doing all the pre-orders and stuff.
I was always drawing and having ideas for art, though. So, I sent Ed Templeton a rough draft of a series and they ended up running it for Toy Machine, that was the first time my graphics were ever used on skateboards.
Your art has been featured by brands like Toy Machine, Zero, Baker, Deathwish and, of course, Heroin Skateboards. Do you have any particular projects over the years, or people that you’ve been able to work with, that stand out as extra special?
I was really happy to have been able to create the whole brand identity for Deathwish. I drew those original logos and basically created the art direction of that brand. At the time, you had Greco and Ellington leaving Baker to start a new brand, they brought on Antwuan, Lizard and Slash—it was exciting to be involved with that whole thing, for sure. To get to have done Antwuan boards when he was at the top of his game was an honor.
I like all the projects I work on, though. All the Franky Villani, Primitive stuff I did over the past couple of years is really rewarding. He’s one of my favorite skaters, and so its always rad to see him skating one of the boards I’ve drawn.
What was the inspiration behind Heroin Skateboards? What drove you to bring that brand to life, and what’s new on that front?
Sitting in a hospital bed with a broken wrist waiting for an operation to get pins put in my wrist for four days. Not being able to eat because they might do the surgery that day, then 9.00 at night they say, “all the surgeons have gone home now.” Four days of that. Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, watching the Texas Chainsaw massacre, drawing like a maniac in my sketchbook, realising that all I’m thinking about is when I can get to skate again. Girlfriend leaves me. Lease runs out on my house, so I have nowhere to live and have to move all my stuff out.
So I just said, “I’m gonna start a skateboard company, fuck it, I’ll call it Heroin.”
Whats new? Earth Goblin Video came out in January on Thrasher. We made DVD’s and VHS’s too. I was hyped on that one. I got to edit a lot of the parts myself, I chose the songs and cleared them with the bands. I feel like it’s the first video that I had total creative control over, except maybe our first one, Good Shit in 1999. Happy with Earth Goblin, though, and the response has been great. Other than that, just dropped a series of boards from my mate, French, called the Videodrome series.
What brands are you currently working with, and what is in the works with them?
Just did a Zero, Gabriel Summers board and a Deathwish, Jamie Foy board last week. Lots of smaller shop tees and things like that happening at the moment. It’s good, though, staying busy with it all.
Outside of work in skateboarding, what other outlets do you have for your art?
I bought a cabin a few years ago in the San Bernadino mountains, so I go up there quite a bit and I’ve really been enjoying drawing all the other cabins in my town. There’s some really rad ones. I just do that for fun really.
How has your work life been affected by COVID-19? Are you staying busy? Are you working on anything that is directly related to this worldwide event?
Well, I’m a freelance artist, so I work from my house anyway. Not too much has changed for me, really. Before all this I’d figured out that I had to work during the day and skate after working, in the early evening. If I try and skate in the morning, that schedule doesn’t work for me, and it took a while for me to get that. So, I miss skating.
I haven’t been to a store in 6 weeks, we’re getting groceries delivered. I’m not doing stuff that is directly related to COVID-19, but I had an “Online art show” a few weeks ago. As an artist, I feel like what you do has to reflect what is happening in the world somehow. It’s your interpretation of it. So, a few of the pieces I created for that have a subtle idea of the Quarantine within them, without being too overt.
For everyone bored at home, do you have any advice for people trying to tap into their creative sides? Where does someone begin? Can COVID-19 be used as creative opportunity?
I’m never bored, I don’t think I’ve been bored in 30 years. I don’t really understand that idea.
I have the internet, so right there we have access to literally a million movies and shows. I have a load of comic books that I’ve been meaning to read. I have books that I wanna sit down and find the time to read. I also have so much stuff that I want to draw and write.
I’ve been working on an idea for a comic book. I draw skateboard graphics all day long, and then when I’m done with that I’ll draw some stuff towards [the comic]. I’m working on a new ‘zine, too. I did the cover a year and a half ago, I just need to finish a few pages for that. It’s my “Life is Good” zine. Number 2 coming soon! Maybe now is the time.
It’s made us all slow things down a bit, sure, but try and see it as maybe the time to work on that novel you always talked about, or that podcast. Learn to draw, like you always wanted to. Learn to play the guitar, or whatever.
Any words of advice for young artists looking to get involved in the skate industry? What words of wisdom can you share with a young creative that you maybe wished you would have heard 20 plus years ago?
You have it easy. Every brand has an Instagram account, you can get someone to see your graphic pitches. I used to have to physically mail a copy of my graphics, from England!
To “Art director, Spitfire wheels, whatever street, San Francisco,” and you didn’t know if they’d even get it half the time. No replies is bad, I always try to reply. It takes four seconds.
Todd Francis was the art director at Spitfire in 1996, when I would send graphics pitches. He replied, and we talked about it years later. Now, we’re mates. I still have the rejection letter.
Now, it’s easier than ever. You can live in Malaysia and if you have a strong idea, and access to the internet, you can get your stuff seen.
Also, bear in mind that every skateboard brand needs new graphics every 90 days. Just figure out which ones would work with your style of artwork.
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