The Great Wave off Kanagawa

This is pretty much as close as I'm going to get to a summer-themed chalkboard muralcle. Instead of those little fishermen clinging to their boats for their lives, try to imagine them chilling with their swim trunks and flippie-floppies.

Oh man. It has been a crazy summer and I barely had the energy to do another muralcle, so I'm glad I went with this one. Big, bold colors, lots of white space, a subtle background that even my little chalks could replicate--just what I needed.

I do wish my blues had been a little closer to the original, which are more ultramarine and complement each other better. This is also one of those muralcles that looks better in the photos than in real life (yay...), and until I saw the pictures, I wasn't sure how happy I was with it.

Still, it was nice and easy, sort of relaxing, and now my chalkboard looks sort of beach-y (look! the ocean!). I should do all my muralcles after 19th century woodblocks.

Dave's first-view reaction: Oh I like it. Did Dr. Seuss take inspiration from this? (wha?) Doesn't it look like a scene from a Dr. Seuss book? ... You don't have to put this whole conversation on your blog, I'm just asking.

Seen on iPhone cases and chalkboard walls worldwide

The waaaaave! Ahhh, outlines...

Until I did this drawing, I was only, like, 30% aware of the little people in those boats

More little people!
It was fun giving them energy and personality with the simplest colors and shapes

Mt. Fuji, lookin cool

My attempt at Japanese calligraphy.
In real life it says "Thirty six views of Mount Fuji / offshore from Kanagawa / Beneath the wave"

and "From the brush of Hokusai, who changed his name to Iitsu"