Carry On

One week on, I've stuck to my goal of reading a YA book a week, and this week, it's the part-Harry-Potter-homage, part-Harry-Potter-satire, fan-fic-novel-spin off, Carry On!

I don't know what magic Rainbow Rowell casts to have such great covers. They're like the perfect combination between whimsical and well-designed (oh man I love that the designer heard "YA Fantasy" and decided "mmm yes two hand-drawn silhouettes in primary colors").

If you looked at this cover and your immediate thought was "Wow! That looks like it would be easy to draw in chalk!" you would have had the same thought as I did and also you would be wrong.

Four colors? Huge empty areas? Beautiful, sign me up. Little did I know that I'd be nitpicking my way around all those letters (ugh. letters. so many letters...). This baby took me about two and a half hours, not counting breaks to watch Dancing with the Stars.*

Dave's Sloan's first-view reaction: What's a Rainbow Rowell?**

More pictures, including me and the dog in silhouette form, after the jump!

*The Halloween episode was pretty good! I am still rooting for Bindi, obvs, because I have two eyes and a heart.

**Today we're getting the reaction from my brother instead of Dave because before I finished, Dave left to go pick up my brother from a 14-hour flight from Hong Kong. They got back pretty late because it turned out my brother's suitcase did not make the 14-hour flight from Hong Kong and they had to wait around to talk to the "compensation guy," Neil, who they described as "a portly guy with a heavy accent carrying around a fat stack of cash." Neil gave my brother $70 for his troubles and, when my brother kept asking if they would upgrade him on his flight back, would only say, "Listen. I'll take care of you." So when they finally walked in around midnight, they weren't in the most chalkboard-receptive state. I'm not sure Dave even knows we have a dining room wall.

A New (Happy) House, a New (Happy) Chalkboard

I'm back! We bought a house, which means I don't feel guilty covering a wall with chalkboard paint, and the baby is in daycare, which means I'm not quite as bone-crushingly-tired as I was six months ago.

For the last few months, our brand-new little chalkboard wall has sat mostly neglected, other than this representation of the fam:

[Not Pictured: Chalkboard drawing of our family.
Because even though I walked by it twenty times a day for eight weeks,
I never once thought to take a picture of it.
It was cute.]

Like a lot of things in the new house, every time I'd walk by it, I'd feel bad and think about how I really should do something with it (and then I'd take a nap). When I launched my book last month, I wanted to draw the cover, but the morning of the party when I'd planned to get my chalk on, someone had to go land herself in the emergency room:

She's fine.

That plan nixed, I still liked the idea of chalkboard wall + book covers. Now that the baby has her own room, I'm finally reading again, about a book a week. And what's better than a new chalkboard drawing every week? I give you: YA Book Covers (in Chalk Form)!

This week, More Happy Than Not, the best-selling novel by Adam Silvera!

I actually met Adam when he was in town for the Boston Teen Author Fest, where I admired his tattoos and introduced him to the second best ice cream Cambridge has to offer.*

I just started the book, which, so far, seems to be like if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and In the Heights had some beautiful, sassy baby. At the moment, though, my favorite thing about it is that the cover is big, yellow, and graphic, which meant that I was able to finish this mural while watching half of Dancing with the Stars,** plus one episode each of Bob's Burgers and The Last Man on Earth.

I'm going to admit to feeling a little rusty. This is my first actual chalkboard mural in the new house, so there was a learning curve. It took me like fifteen minutes to set up the projector, and eventually I had to perch it on Abby's dog food container:

which, you can imagine how she felt about that:

not great!

And the new wall isn't super seasoned yet, plus I sort of forgot how to draw, and also I ran out of the color for the letters by M-O. But! I pulled it off (minus the lovely blurb from John Corey Whaley, because no one got time for teeny letters), and my dining room already looks more literary!

Dave's first-view reaction: "More...happy...than...not..." Who's Adam Silvera?***

More pictures after the jump!

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!