A Chalkboard Art Venture!!!

Sooo, I had a chance to work with known San Diegan chalkboard artist, Ben Dehart.  He creates chalkboard art/menu designs for bars, restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, etc. Unfortunately for me… I bombed during his chalkboard test!  I was given the choice between three logos to recreate on his chalkboard wall.  I chose, for some reason, a text-heavy design.  So I’m more of an illustration guy, not typographic dude… sheesh.  I also thought I’d “go big” & use much of his wall.  Realizing, in retrospect, that much of his menu board work is done on a more… 18″x 24″ scale.  So, in the 15 minute time-frame, I chose to draw out this huge typographic logo.  Nice going, Jason.  Needless to say, I did not finish, &  it looked rather sketchy.

But leading up to this interview I was all-in, immersing myself in the chalk arts.  I bought expensive, professional soft-pastels (as opposed to oil pastels).  I got a chalkboard, & started practicing.  I did a mock-up for the local bar, JT’s, which I realized after, has the wrong happy-hour information on it, nice going again.  I got chalk dust everywhere!  On the carpet, on my clothes, all over me, on the couch, on the coffee table.  A couple times, I blew chalk dust off the board, only to have it fly in my face & in my eyes.  I could taste the chalkiness in my mouth!… in my mouth!!!  Then I noticed something rather peculiar in tiny lettering… fine print, if you will, on the box of expensive pastels, & on each individual pastel that I bought:

“WARNING:                       This product contains a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer.”

Sweet bro, brochacho… brochachilo… is what I thought to myself.  But, alas, I’m sure it refers to exposure over time… not just for a couple weeks leading up to the interview… yeah, that’s it.   

I’ve googled professional chalkboard artists/graphic designers since & I’ve found they use cheap, regular ole’, non-toxic, classroom chalk to create their work.  Works by Dana Tanamachi out of Brooklyn, & Valerie McKeehan have awesome pieces.  Pinterest, YouTube, Vimeo, Google them.  They are pretty awesome.  

Anyway, these pics represent a few of the finished chalk art pieces I had been practicing… I also incidentally, did practice the regular writing of lists, like say for a listing of beer, or ingredients…  if you were wondering… which I know you were.