my first chalk painting in pasadena california in 2019

the first thing people always say to me when i’m working on my chalk paintings is “well it must break your heart when this washes away” — and while this might have been true the first few times, it is much less true for me now. and this being said, i should have been STOKED to watch my first few wash away, they were pretty bad. that being said, like with all things, i learned a ton from them, and continue to learn from my murals i am less proud of. and it doesn’t help that… you have to learn on the fly most of the time, because every ground / concrete is treated differently.

work work work work work - pasadena 2019

at first i thought it just sounded fun. i didn’t know how physically draining it would be, what things i would need to bring, how the chalk even really worked on the pavement. i spent a lot of my first day just coming to terms with the material. i found a few techniques i liked, and tried to just rely on those to finish a lot of the piece. it was this time that i also got to spend talking to other artists and taking in their advice that also really helped me.

i’ve started to want to focus on doing some of my own designs. while from a competition perspective, this is maybe not as smart, as a lot of judges really like portraits and photo realism from known faces. but in a lot of ways, i started doing these because i wanted to just create what i felt like creating in the moment, and so i have tried to embrace just rolling with that as much as possible, even if there is an overall theme to the event i am working in. this has been easier to do as well as i have learned tips and tricks to staying in good form. pieces of cushion to make kneeling on the ground more comfortable, a camelback to make sure i stay hydrated in the sun, LOTS of sunscreen and a shade as well— it’s like a marathon, not a sprint, so taking care of yourself especially when travelling to create these pieces has been extremely important.

but i know you’re all really just wondering why i keep doing it. if it takes a toll on my body, if it makes me sunburned, if it washes away days later. and to be honest, i’ve come to love the ephemeral nature of it. i like that it washes away. sure, photos can capture it for a little while longer, but so much of everything we do now is captured and compartmentalized into a place where we may never even look at it again. painting a piece that is so big it’s difficult to capture all on it’s pristine-own on photo, but will be gone in such a short amount of time, makes me appreciate being able to see it and behold it with my own eyes. i like to think other people stand and enjoy them a little more too because of this. i hope you keep that in mind the next time you go to see some beautiful chalk art.

now, a little bit on my process. how i prepare my mind and image for a chalk mural weekend:

for the sake of trying to explain my process, using my initial sketches works best. for a recent show in burbank, we were told to pick a scene from our favorite movies, or a scene from a movie. i couldn’t NOT do this scene from shape of water. i’m a bit of a GDT fan.

rough sketch from shape of water for sketch

next is i decide what i want my initial sketch to be. i don’t use a grid because otherwise i get to caught up on inconsistencies and places where i mess up, so to save myself time and headaches i just section it into four quadrants and work from the inside out when sketching onto pavement.

after my initial layer and sketch is down, i can go in and start blocking in color. i try and make a little color palette so I keep it in mind, but a lot of the time i will just let the colors that fall out of the box speak to me in the end. i block in these colors, and then once i have some colors down, i start to reference my image, and figure in the details of the image little by little.

then, finish up your piece, add some boarders if and your signature if you decide you need it, and have everyone ask if your image is from avatar!

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creating chalk murals ... why do it?