Got chalks? (har har har)

June 7, 2007 2:59 PM

I'm looking into doing a sidewalk chalk festival as on of dozens of artists but I've never worked in the medium. Any ideas on materials and methods?

And no, I'm not talking kiddie-chalk style. this question has some stuff on spray chalk which might work for backgrounds though potentially piss off my neighboring artists...

posted by Ogre Lawless to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Instead of the spray, you could place some chalk in a nylon stocking and smash it with a hammer and then smack it around to cover larger areas. At least that way your neighboring artists would see that you started with sticks of chalk.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:49 PM on June 7, 2007

Once idea that I've come across often: grind up large chalk sticks and mix with an adhesive, then paint on. Makes for secure chalk, and I expect that you can get different textures with it. Dont know if that breaches the rules though.
posted by chrisbucks at 7:39 PM on June 7, 2007

I think you should stick to just plain old sidewalk chalk. Whenever I see (good, non-child) sidewalk artists, that seems to be what they're using... it's probably also in the spirit of the festival to do so.

Methodology: Practice a bit beforehand, yes? Remember to turn your chalk (use the flat edges) for shading large areas, you might want to get a couple extra of any colours you plan to use this way, so you can keep a nice, round stick for detail. Try not to smudge, but wear clothes that you don't mind destroying with smudges when it happens anyway. Scope out the area where you'll be, check what colour the pavement is and work it in to your plans.
posted by anaelith at 7:42 AM on June 8, 2007

Response by poster: I think you should stick to just plain old sidewalk chalk.

Huh, maybe. I'd used this guy as a reference and figured it would pretty well need to be pastels which sounded a bit pricey for the medium though perhaps necessary as I figured there would be no way in hell to stretch any real color out of standard kid sidewalk chalk. In perusing my gallery of past events again, though, I found that this girl here seems to be getting pretty decent results with plain old Crayola brand chalk and some water. Looks like she's sanded them sticks down a bit as well.

This is not really a comp or anything, just an art-for-art festival downtown, so I think I've got pretty free-range on materials. Given that Crayola seems to run about 10 % of what an "artist grade" runs and incredibly less than pastels, its certainly worth investing a couple of bucks ahead of time to see.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:04 PM on June 11, 2007