Essentials

Getting Started Right

"The best part of any new endeavor is that it involves the purchasing of a whole bunch of new stuff" - Thoreau

Chalk Art is centuries old. It is rich with a wonderful heritage of pioneers who carried their easels on horse back to the town square, the meeting hall and the church house. They easily captured the imagination with the simplest of tools.

CHALK

The type of chalk you use is very important to the ease and effectiveness of a large format presentation. Pastels (both hard and soft) for the most part will not work except for limited special effects and fine details. Be sure you get "lecturers" chalk. (Suppliers are listed in chapter 6.) It has many advantages over other mediums for live presentations:

1. It requires little set up time.

2. It requires no drying time for under painting.

3. It requires no pre-mixing, or thinners.

4. The colors don't change (as wet mediums may).

5. It can create rough or detailed oil appearances.

6. It has no reflective glare (from any angle).

7. It is consistently opaque (for quick values).

8. It is easy to clean up (doesn't spill or stain).

9. It has a fast finished look in large format.

10. It combines a full range of artistic possibilities.

11. It has a liquid soap binder for easy clean up.

Advantages of Chalk

In the hands of a skilled painter Lecturer's Chalk is truly a fine art medium. Professional artists from many backgrounds prefer chalk.

"Cross-training", or using methods from other types of painting mediums, has unveiled new possibilities in fine art chalk painting.

1. Oils Marbling

Just as thinner paint breaks and sticks to thicker paint in 'wet-on-wet' technique, chalk will break with a marble-like texture when soft chalk is pushed over areas of the paper that are thickly saturated with chalk. Incredible detail can be achieved with just one stroke. It can also be carefully layered to the depth of an oil's "translucence", or foggy, stained glass look, by managing the paper "saturation point", or the place where the paper becomes full of chalk and no more will go on. It can even duplicate "palette knife painting", or using a paint mixing knife to put paint on a canvas instead of a brush, by dipping a whole stick of very soft chalk in chalk dust and painting with it as a palette knife painting is done in oils.

2. Acrylics

The speed and forgiveness of the acrylic "mask", or the way it covers up and hides other dry colors so quickly, is easily duplicated by chalk's opaqueness. Its fresh color is often mistaken for acrylic. I have painted the same picture in both medium with identical results.

3. Water Colors

Chalk can capture the freshness of a water color wash by dry painting with erasers in loose blends. The gentle 'bleed' effects of water colors can be approximated by careful blending and smoothing.

4. Air Brush

Just as the pressure from a compressor can determine the "pixel", or the smallest dot you can see on a picture, spray size of an air brush, pressure on chalk determines the amount of saturation of the paper. Its dry painting technique can be "gradated", or blended to the point that the colors change so slowly and smoothly that they appear to be one color, to air brush realism with scumbling and careful blending.

Many special effects may be produced by specialized chalks:

METAL MARKING CHALK

This chalk is useful for razor sharp lines as well as base coat layering in wet on wet technique. Because it is harder than regular lecturer's chalk it tones the paper (smoothing out the tooth) as you layer. It is sold by many hardware stores in various sizes, shapes and colors at about one third the cost of other chalks. Large sticks of side walk chalk are usually harder than metal marking chalk, but I have used some.

SOFT PASTELS

These work well for fine line details. They are lost (too small) in such a large format.

VISIBLE FLORESCENT CHALK

This has a color other than white under normal light and a bright radiant color under "black light" (ultraviolet - tube type or mercury vapor black light). Regular chalk does not glow under blacklight (except a slight radiance on yellow-green). It becomes a dark purple under tube blacklights and black under mercury vapor blacklights.

INVISIBLE FLORESCENT CHALK

This looks white under normal light like regular white chalk, but it changes colors under black light. Pre-drawn pictures may be completely hidden in a large white area of the paper which can only be seen under black light.

HAND CLEANING

Some artists apply baby powder to hands before drawing. This fills pores and cracks so chalk can’t. Since dish washing soap is the chemical binder in chalk, it is usually one of the best cleaning agent for your hands. Scrub with water only, then use dishwashing detergent. Gloves may be used but I have found them limiting as far as the effects that are possible. Nothing makes chalk come alive like the touch of the human hand.

PAPER

The paper you use is just as important as the chalk. It must be of a special weight, thickness, texture, tooth and density. Paper that is too smooth becomes too rapidly saturated with chalk with one pass and rejects the following layers. This makes blending and highlighting almost impossible. Rough paper builds up more slowly with more adherence and makes several layers of under painting possible. Even humidity will effect the saturation level of the paper! There is a very narrow margin for error for which only one paper is well suited. The specially manufactured "Gray Bogus" paper is the only paper that will make a rich depth of color possible. Also note that there are two sides to the paper. The back side is smooth. The front side has a rough, 'canvas-like' tooth which shaves off and retains the granules of chalk.

DRAWING BOARD

You must have a sturdy, strong, solid, and smooth board at least 1/2" thick. In order for you to be in complete control of the drawing, the easel must not move or shake. The beautiful air brush effects and breathtaking details will not be possible with out a sturdy easel. The paper should be mounted securely with at least 2 extra sheets under it to act as a pad. Any lumps on the board will instantly appear when drawing over them. Practice board can be easily made by bolting the smooth plywood to a wall. The general rule is stick with basics and simplicity.

EASELS

General Suggestions For Easel Design
(Click here for Flight Easel Details)

1. Give at least 6" clearance between the bottom of the board and the chalk tray. This keeps your sleeves out of the chalk while you're drawing the bottom of your picture.

2. Give at least 2" clearance above the head of the artist for the lighting system. Adjustable height is great when you have a low ceiling.

3. Lighting should be from 18-24" from the board and evenly focused on the drawing surface. Use 2 soft-white G.E. 60-150 watt light bulbs, for the best color balance. Be sure there are no obstructions so the light covers as evenly as possible.

4. Use at least one 33 watt florescent tube type black light bulb or mercury vapor spot light for black light effects.

5. Keep the area where the artist stands free of bars, legs or bracing.

6. Design your easel sturdy enough so you don't have to draw on it as it goes by. 

Use a drop cloth at least 2' wider than your drawing area. Limit the use of fans or air ducts near by because chalk dust will travel a long way. Chalk usually cleans up easily with a good vacuum cleaners. Light colored carpets may require cleaning.

Easel design is a trade off between the following priorities:

1. Cost

2. Weight

3. Bulk

4. Sturdiness

5. Ease of set up

6. Obstacles to trip over

Aesthetics

LIGHTING

Balanced lighting will enhance your drawing's color, accuracy, and overall impact. Unbalanced lighting will confuse and wash out color and make realism difficult. Florescent lighting leans toward the purple end of the spectrum. (That's why your skin looks green under it.) Incandescent lighting leans toward the yellow end of the spectrum. That's why your skin looks orange under it. It can make your yellow chalk and your yellow-orange chalk practically indistinguishable. Light that is too bright closes the iris in your eyes and limits color reception. This makes color wash out as an over exposed video image does. The best affordable balanced lighting is 2 soft white G.E. incandescent light bulbs approximately 18" - 24" away from your picture. They are already color corrected for the incandescent yellowing with an imperceptible blue tint.

PROJECTOR

Many of the exercises of this book call for the use of a projector and 35 mm slides. You can use an opaque projector (available from art or educational supply stores). I prefer 35 mm slides for most of the exercises. We will be projecting on a non-white surface most of the time of gray bogus and colored chalk. Opaque projectors usually do not have brightness and loose color and detail.

Resource Files

Picture files are helpful tools. Also collect 35 mm slides or CD ROM Photo discs

1. Public libraries have free picture files

2. Outdated Calendars and magazines

3. Discount and Used Books

4. Posters, Greeting cards, and postcards

5. Bulletin covers and Sunday school material

6. Keep a camera handy

Silhouette files in slides and pictures are useful images. Include figures, animals, trees, mountains and useful icons.

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