Don't Call It a Comeback

The Fox Hunt

Happy Winter! Forever! And ever and ever and ever. Always winter. All the time. And it never stops. Won't ever stop. Wiiiiiinnnnnteerrrrrr....

Woah, sorry, blacked out there for a second. Yeah, so, like three months ago I thought about doing Winslow Homer's The Fox Hunt on the chalkboard wall, because of, like, snow, and then it went and snowed every day and now I'm incredibly sick of even the thought of snow, but hey! I didn't have anything else cued up, so The Fox Hunt it is!

I like this painting, even though I'm pretty sure that fox is about to be eaten by some crows. Poor little guy. And I also really like this painting because it's about 70% white space so it only took two hours! Giving me enough time to finish up before MORE SNOW TONIGHT.

I hate winter.

Dave's first-view reaction: Looks good! ("You're sitting on the couch. You can't even see it from that angle.") I can see the little ears! Just like our puppy's little ears! 

Merry Happy January 10!

Better late than never?

For this Christmas, I wanted to do something on the chalkboard wall, but last year's marathon muracle-a-day extravaganza seriously wiped me out. Still, I couldn't pick just one Christmas-y picture to show on the wall, so instead I found 25 of my favorite Christmas movies, songs, TV shows, and stories to feature. (and then I went out of town and forgot to update the blog...)


So here it is, a month late but, if you look outside the window at my as-yet-unplowed street, weather-appropriate. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

DELAYED UNTIL FURTHER CHALK DELIVERIES

Gah. I know. I'm late on the Halloween posts.

Sadly, I'm running low on vital colors (esp. black) and as I live in a remote wasteland devoid of all art appreciation (South Side wat upppppppp!!!!), I can only get more chalks if I go downtown to the big art store. And it's cold outside.

I'm hoping that perhaps tomorrow I can make it to the store to restock, but maybe don't hold your breath for a new muralcle until Monday (but why would you be holding your breath about new drawings? That's just weird).

Until then, enjoy this personification of pastels I wish I had!

Dia de los Muertos

Congratulations on making it halfway through this ridiculous journey of mine!

I'm still out of black chalk and I won't be able to make a run to the art store for a few more days, so I'm continuing my "large swaths of white space" drawings! Today: a skull for Dia de los Muertos!

I remember studying this in Spanish class in high school, eating sugar skulls and watching a documentary about people partying it up in a graveyard. Good times!

This muralcle was a lot of fun. I started with a badass skull drawing by the crazy-talented Thaneeya McArdle, but after I outlined and did the eyes and nose, I decided I wanted to decorate the rest of the skull completely freehand. I got to try out my totally awesome new neon Crayola sidewalk chalks and two hours later ended up with this technicolor beauty. Those eyes...mesmerizing...

Dave's first-view reaction: Spooky!

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Continuing my theme of scary stuff, books, and wildly-inpropriate-but-still-intended-for-children material, here's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!

The book kids read when Goosebumps just wouldn't cut it, Scary Stories was legitimately terrifying. I mean, one of the stories is where a girl wakes up with a pimple and then SPIDERS CRAWL OUT OF HER FACE.

And the illustrations. Oof. So, while I was drawing this, first I laid down the white background, and then I went back and highlighted a few parts again in white, so that the weird skeleton ghost face was juuuuust barely visible. It was the first time during this whole project that something I drew actually terrified me.

Dave's first-view reaction: [silence. walks away. "No reaction? I slaved over this and you don't give me anything?"] Wha?

The Walking Dead

Did you watch? You watched! DON'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED I'M STILL CATCHING UP.

To celebrate The Walking Dead's season premiere, today's muralcle is for the zombies walkers! I LOVE this show, although I just got into it a few months ago. I used to watch it while doing cardio exercises in my living room because every time a walker showed up on screen, I'd start going faster. I am one season behind and saving the next one until Dave and I can actually sit down and watch together.

This muralcle was soooo fun! Also: very long. I started with the white background and lettering, which took me, no joke, an hour. Rick and his guns took half an hour, and another half hour for the walkers. This is, of course, the cover to the very first Walking Dead comic, slightly simplified by my chalks. The walkers, for example, are a lot more detailed in the original image, but here I made them simpler and sketchier, which I actually like a lot.

Okay, I'm off to start season threeeee!!!

Dave's first-view reaction: WOAH. It was a book?