: Did you paint free hand? What paints did you use? Did you paint before or
: after the last varnish coat?

I wanted that urban tribal tattoo look so I made a full length paper pattern of the deck after it was attached to the hull.

I drew approximately what I wanted then cut out the separate elements of the design from heavy construction paper. I found it was easier to cut a curved line than draw one and I knew I had only one chance to draw it on the raw wood. Then I placed the patterns on the raw wood and carefully traced them.

The paint I used was just acrylic paint from the local art store. Then varnished it. The varnish didn't react with the water based acrylic paint at all and I got a beautiful finish. This means that I will be able to sand and recoat the varnish hopefully without hurting the painted design. But because the wood has a slight grain if I made a mistake the paint was embedded in the grain and had to be sanded out and that's hard to do with okoume because the veneer is so thin, but it wasn't too hard to keep in the lines.

I'm hoping this will start a trend and there will be more decorated kayaks around. I haven't seen too many painted ones.