Chalk Drawing – Flower Family

As the Chalk Festival in Pasadena approaches, its a perfect time to get reacquainted with chalk materials and get back into drawing mode. This drawing is part of a project I was asked to participate in, where various artists from past events  create and submit a piece which will be displayed and sold within the next month or so. This will be my first chalk drawing for sale; naturally, part of the proceeds will go to non-profit organization Light Bringer Project.

Here is the original sketch for this drawing. I usually create a quick frame and draw a simple sketch inside. The top-left block was my first idea. It was going to be an underwater theme, but I decided to go with the flowers instead. I may go back and revisit this idea later. I tend to get more detailed with the sketches once I decide on a theme. I even include little notes.

Here is the empty canvas. I chose a paper with a dark background because I thought it would help pop the colors out, specially since I prefer using bright colors on my drawings. The size is approximately 18″x24, the paper is called ColourFix and it has a semi-rough finish, which is perfect for chalk.

Here I am sketching the drawing. I’m sitting at a small table I set up in my garage; this is my work-area for now. I’m wearing gloves because it was a bit chilly that morning, around 8am, but I decided to keep them on the whole time because it helped handle chalk better without getting this dusty and fragile material all over my hands.

I take out all the material I will need and test some of it on a piece of paper. This is where I can decide what colors would work together best. This chalk is leftover material from past festivals. I have tons more.

Here is the first outline of the drawing. It can be a bit frightening putting the first lines down because this will be my guide for the whole piece.

I start using the some colors and begin shading around the edges. This is also a good opportunity to test out the colors against a dark background.

After I added a first layer I tried removing the excess chalk, but I didn’t do this correctly or fast enough, and it smudged the black area around the stems. Oh well, now I know this paper can get smudged very quickly.

In this step I began shading the flower. I wanted to make the flowers a light-yellow color, but more towards white.

The composition is starting to take form after I added small swirl lines. The colors really begin to pop with the dark background.

I finished the swirls here. At this point I thought it was done, but the more I viewed it I noticed it needed some more contrast.

And here is the final piece after I added some dark lines to create more contrast. The lines helped outline the shapes and helped add a little more shading. Everyone I showed this image compared the swirls style to Van-Gogh. I don’t really try to imitate his style, but it’s clear I’m influenced in some way.

Here’s a close up of the chalk drawing. I try to make the design strong and bold, and to worry too much about the details. If I go over another color by mistake I don’t worry too much. My goal is to create a colorful and pleasing composition.

A close up of the stem of the flower. Since I try to work quickly, I don’t have much time to perfect the shading, I do however admire chalk artists who are able to do perfect blends with chalk. It takes a lot of time and patience.

Here is the final drawing as viewed from the top. Once framed, this is what the drawing will look like. This chalk drawing was going to be called “Three Flowers”, but I decided to change it because “family” is really the subtle theme of this drawing. I consciously gave each flower a family role (mother, father, child), there fore I decided to rename it “Flower Family”. I hope you enjoyed the process as much as I did drawing. If I have any additional information regarding the sale, I will post it here. Till next time.