Sunday, August 4, 2013

Chalk isn't just for kids!

The past few weeks, I have had a wonderful opportunity to work with my fiance AJ on a photo shoot he had planned. He need to come up with an idea to advertise their new line of clothes at his work. An idea came to him to create a back to school theme using a chalkboard backdrop. We don't have very many opportunities to work together on a project (got to love living in two different cities!) so I jumped on the chance to help him. If you are interested in the photography and advertising part of this story you can check out AJ's Blog.

After quite a bit of planning and lots of trips to Home-depot, I made a trip up to San Angelo to get the boards prepped and ready to go. The idea was simple, we used two 4'x8' pieces of plywood and turned them into giant chalkboards. This was a lot easier than it sounds thanks to a really cool product by Rust-Oleum, chalkboard paint, and the best part is it really works. Make sure you read the instructions before using the product though because it is a little different than normal paint. Like all paint make sure the room you are working in is well ventilated or you can just paint outside. AJ would recommend working inside on a hot Texas summer afternoon, but I really preferred the cool breeze to take away the fumes rather than a stuffy room. Where ever you decide just be careful it had a different smell to it that I was a little wary of. Oh and don't forget the primer. We used latex primer like the instructions on the box said and it worked like a charm on natural untreated wood. Just so you know, we used a small can of cheap latex primer and about 1 1/2 cans of chalkboard paint to cover one side of both boards.
One coat of Primer and two coats of chalkboard paint later, I was on the road again back to the Falls. Though not for long. AJ had the shoot planned for Saturday so I needed to head back to San Angelo only a few days later. That is when the real work began. We spent some time discussing ideas before I got my hands dirty, literally. Using a rag and a few pieces of white chalk I coated the surface with a layer of chalk dust. While it seems kind of weird this actually turned out to be an important step. First, it actually helped prime the board and helped the chalk flow better. I noticed a big difference between when I first scratched the chalk on to prime it and later when I was actually drawing. Secondly, it gave the boards an old used chalkboard look. Despite putting three layers of paint on the boards, you could still see some of the knots and grain texture in the wood, and the dust helped even out the look. It also helped later on when I was sketching the layout of the scene and erasing mistakes. If you want that crisp dark black of the paint to show then you definitely need to have a lot of water handy and be ready to use some elbow grease! While the paint allows you to have a clean board again, I don't think I have ever seen a clean chalk board so it was not the look we wanted. Also, I do not think the images would have been as successful against a perfect board.

The layout for the image started out simple and allowed for more creativity if time allowed. One think I have learned while working on murals and projects when you are in a time crunch is you need to have a complete look quickly. It will be a lot less stressful when the time starts ticking away and you still have half a piece to finish. This way you can enjoy what you are doing and spend some good time working on the fun details. My idea was to split the boards into academic on one side and fun traditions on the other. I made sure that both boards could easily work together and flowed from one idea to the next by keeping the overall theme welcome to ASU! In the center of the piece there is a road winding across the boards leading your eye into the piece towards a horizon line that connects the two boards. On the left side "Back 2 School" is written in large letters and is surrounded by everything academic, and on the right a ram stands in the field in front of a stadium and stands in for some of the traditions that Angelo State holds close.

While this project was really challenging it was a lot of fun and I am as pleased as an artist can be with one of their pieces. And it turned out to be a perfect backdrop for AJ's photo shoot. You can see some of the final images on AJ's Blog. I love the way that the models interacted with the mural and it really makes a wonderful and fun background.


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