Pushing For The Next Level

It's spring and the chalking season is on.  It seem that chalk festivals have exploded in popularity and now there seems to be one every weekend.  This year I'm taking it kind of easy.  I just went through four months of physical therapy and I'm trying to save my back by working smarter not harder.

The second event for me this year is the Haines City 2012 Chalk Festival.  This is the second year they have done it and is pretty cool.  Is a small event, and the people there are very friendly.  I have to say they treat their artist very well wish is very appreciated by the artist.  They also had a large amount of young kids coming out and trying out the experience.  I like seeing kids having fun with art. Maybe because I teach for a living, but is always fun to see students trying to figure something out and having fun in the process.  

As for my self I didn't do to bad.  I decided that I wanted to try to earn my Master chalk status.  In order to do this I have to meet certain requirements.  This included doing animal pictures, master reproductions, among other requirements. So I decided to start with animals.  I've learned a lot in the past two years I've been doing these festival and I want to step up my game.  So after my last festival this year I decided I would try something new other than my own images.  

For this event I wanted to do something that is a reproduction, an animal, and is close to me.  So I picked a golden Koi fish.  I've always loved fish, especially koi fish. One of the few things I want in my future house is koi pond or a big fish tank.  I'll take that over a fancy kitchen any day.  But anyway...  

I found an amazing picture on line by Victoria Sanchez.  The picture feature a koi fish underwater.  The picture has everything I was looking for and more.  The picture by it self is stunning, has great flow, rhythm, amazing contrast, and just a vibrant color pallet. With proper planning the image became easy to do and easy on my back while still holding it's charm.

I started at 8 am and ended around 2 pm. That is 6 hours with several breaks. That is pretty good. I can't complain. In fact it gave me a chance to goof around and make a second one for fun.  This gave me a chance to enjoy the lake view, talk to the other artist, and even free hand another piece.  

My chalk painting 7 ft by 4 ft.  6 Hr total.

The festival brought some great people out.  This Include a 10 year old boy and a 70 year old woman, who were chalking their hearts out.  This reminds me how good these festivals are for the community. There were several winners, but sadly I wasn't one of them.  Oh well is just part of playing the game.  But I should have picked a masters piece to reproduce or a portrait for this small event.  Usually these small events have judges with limited art education and don't understand anything that is unique.  So just like last year the portraits and the master reproduction pieces won.  No shocker there.  The exception were the student work and the First Timer Chalk artist division. 

Is like the last chalk festival I went too. The only reason the winner won was because it was kind of a 3D piece.  The artist didn't do the perspective, she just asked the judge to put on the 3D glasses and have the red and blue lines pop up.  Literally. When I asked the judge for the feedback, they say it was unique because it was 3D.  It just blows my mind. I guess all other art principles and fundamentals needs to be tossed out.  Beauty and art is in the eye of the beholder LOL.

Extra Chalk Painting I made for fun.  Only 2 hr.

To be fair there were some very nice piece in this show.  I will never take that way from the artist, and I'm very happy for them.  Some may say that I'm bitter, but I simply say is an obvious pattern.  After two years of doing this type of work and going to local art festivals is just a pattern I see over and over again.  There was another artist out there that agrees with me because she's a illustrator like my self not a traditional artist. Illustration work is not always understood by may people.  

In the end I have to say it was an amazing experiences. I pushed my chalk technique and now I feel confident to continue to push forward. It will take me a few years, but I'm sure if I keep pushing I can reach master chalk status. I can't wait to try my portrait skills next year at this event.

I have another festival next weekend. Let's see how I do.  I'm scraping my own image and just going with an animal piece for this. Cross your fingers for me.