carlsbad artsplash

that time of year again !!! 
DAY ONE

once again doing a small square ! i love the small square it gives me time to play and talk !!!

this year was our 10th anniversary and there were 76 chalk artists !! i arrived late because i had to catch a train.  but i did send a sign as to create excitement instead of a void in my absence ~~

i was greeted at the train station with the news that my pic made the north county times !! this time in the artsplash insert. yay !!!

my square was way down on the end ! but i was next to kyra again (my 'fun with chalk' neighbor) . . . patrick who is 12 was in the square above mine doing a charles shultz tribute:  the great pumpkin patch !!! and yes, somehow i did not get a pic of patricks !!! oh . . . and we were on the end by the family activity area !  the other end was music, featured artists and silent auction (yes the vessels!).


so my plan was to illustrate the 10 year "tentastic" celebration . . . a dragon for year of the dragon . .  . and then last week i found out that TGI FRIDAYs was my sponsor !!  oh and 10 animals . . . which i would get the crowd involved with !!!

so . . . . i chose a mouse as the waiter for FRIDAYs . . . red/white stripe shirt and cupcake !! plus the button of flare on his shirt.  i put a little blue and black on the far side of the dragon as a note of the dark background i wanted.  then i focused first on the mouse . . .  thought it would help the square read better since the dragon would take a bit . . .

the cupcake originally was on a plate but since we are a seaside town (and have an ocean view from the event) . . . i made a hybrid (skateboard/wakeboard/boogie board).

the guenons on the tail and the ringtail lemur on the neck are a reoccurring theme of mine . . . . but all the others were suggestions that took life !  the bat was patrick's idea . . . i made him swooping in on the cupcake.  the cat (in the lemurs arms) was a suggestion from a nice gentleman who loved drawing cartoon characters (out of his head) in his freetime.  someone suggested a bird and since the lemur looked like he was talking to someone it fit in just perfect.  the frog fit nicely on top of the head.  and a fish was suggested several times . . .  a fish without water hmmmm. . . . ahhh the tail has a nice flip how about it launching a fish bowl !!!  oh the panda bear . . . that was the result of a five minute conversation with a little girl where i figured out what she liked by talking and waiting for a head shake 'yes' or nothing for 'no i don't think so'.  her parents were cracking up . . . i guess she usually isn't so shy.  at least see answered (sort of) . . . at least she didn't cry !!!!

everything was out of my head . . . no looking at pics or sketches.  the dragon has about 4 colors to make the red . . .  5 if you count the purple . . . . but the color variations are not picked up by my camera . . . esp in the sunlight.

close up view

so day one had me working into the evening while the concert was hopping.  but had to clean up because it was hard to even see your own hand where we were !  fortunately my son was there to help me clean up.  i did want to finish laying down all the color and characters.  i find it soooo easy the second day to clean up colors and punch the contrast.  the pastels seem to settle in the night air.

oh one interesting thing that happened to me on day one is the kid that ran across my square and came right up to my face and went "ROAR" . . . i moved really slow not wanting to scare him and have him run through the picture again.   besides i could hear his mom behind me . . . a little mortified and very apologetic . . . i knew she could lift him up and out with no problem !!  well i guess my art is entertaining the kids !!

near the later part of the day we . . . artsplash . . . was missing an artist so some of their young volunteers decided to take on the large square.  but they wanted to recreate something.  being just 2 squares down they snagged my book, alphabet kingdom, and chose the letter ‘z’.  they told me what they liked and i drew a quick layout for them.  they broke the box with the wave all their own (but like my book illustration).  first time i had my artwork recreated . . . at least that i know of.

more to share on day 2 plus event pics  !!