Wild at Heart Illustration: Sweet Chalk Festival 2013

Hello!

A week ago I had the privilege of creating art for a special event in Lockport, NY.
Sweet Chalk Festival was held on August 17th-18th. Artists of every age arrived and created masterpieces and originals on the pavement with chalk pastels. The festival took place in front of Sweet Rides along the canal.

Towards the end of July I got a phone call from a woman named Monnie asking if we can meet up to talk about this event. Her mother had seen some of my pieces in Hair Chateau and particularly liked my first lion "The Kind King." I was then invited to create another piece as a featured artist after meeting with her and Ellen at Sweet Sixteen Cafe in Lockport. The Niagara Gazette released an article about all of us.
http://niagara-gazette.com/communities/x389855976/Sweet-Chalk-Festival-hopes-to-draw-crowds-to-Lockport

I chose to do another lion for this event. I had 3 weeks to prepare.

I started out creating the "canvas" I had a 6x4 foot space to use for my piece. I grabbed a bunch of drawing paper and put it together then I started with the grid. Grid work helps lay out the subject to ensure proper size proportions. This "canvas" took up my entire living room floor in my apartment! I chose to do the drawing before the event because of the time crunch.The drawing itself took me about 5 hours with a lot of erasing I knew I was almost done when I got the amazing chill factor when his eyes stared up at me from the paper, so incredible and its one of the reasons I love drawing-that feeling!

I had a window of 9am to 3pm on Saturday the 17th to finish my piece. (I went to the Jason Alden concert with my sister, Grace for her birthday that is why I didn't stay until 5pm.) I did a trace of the drawing itself lining up the grid work to take with me to the pavement on the big day. In true Jessie fashion I waited until the week before the event to start drawing, squeezing it around studying for the State licensing test to be an Insurance Agent for work. Talk about being busy! Here are some work in progress photos:

I arrived at the event carrying all my supplies and these giant folded up papers prepared to rock it out. It was a GORGEOUS day. I am fair skinned so I worried about being sunburned. I brought my sunscreen though and sprayed every hour. Unfortunately I missed spots...

Anyhoo! Usually with a trace you use graphite impressions to copy onto paper. That was not something I could do with this type of artwork. So I used my simple line drawing as a stencil. As I drew the lines I got the pieces away working until there was no tracing paper left. It was an effective way to work. I was able to transfer my drawing to the pavement in about 45 minutes.

I started the color process with the eyes first. Because it was black road pavement I only used oil pastel twice-black and an olive green. The surface was so rough it was tricky getting the pigment to look smooth for oil pastel. Thank goodness for blending sticks. I used chalk pastels for the rest of the piece. The music outside of Sweet Rides was so catchy and I worked right along. At one point the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" played and it was pure perfection.

People were stopping to see me work and were surprised by how fast I was laying the color down. I loved answering questions and talking about my inspiration. I had a photo with me to inspire the color placement and it was kept with the piece and my bio. Yeah that's right! I had a bio. Several friends stopped by and took pictures of the work in progress with me and I have a few here.

Ellen brought us a terrific lunch. OMG everyone should try the roast beef sandwich from Sweet Sixteen Cafe. DELICIOUS, I am ruined forever for all roast beef sandwiches, hers are the best. I got to check out how the other artists were doing as well as talk to some kids, our little chalkers!

Carolyn Schultz of Orlando, Fla. our headlining artist did the

Monda Lisa and it took two days to finish. It was insanely awesome to see.

The teens and kids had some great pieces and messages for the festival walkers.

There were so many drawings, too many to put on here. If you got to go to the event you saw the amount of budding talent we have in Niagara County. What made me tear up and get a lump in my throat was that my drawing inspired more lions. That right there is why I LOVE LOVE LOVE art.

A true form of encouragement, expression, and the spirit.

My husband, Tim and Ruby came out to visit me and see the finished work. Ruby wasn't the only fan.

A poodle with a lion like hair do posed for a pic too!

The finished work! The Lion of Lockport.

I took pictures of the other works from local artists as well when they were finished.

The voted for fan favorite on Sunday August 18th, 2013 was the angels.

A recreation of the famous artwork “The Seduction of Psyche.” The artist is Joe Mahley.

The finished Mona Lisa by Carolyn:

We are in Lockport and what happened to be down the street? Lake Effect Ice Cream at their new location. OH YEAH!!! I got the sponge candy flavor if you can't tell by the picture. It was heavenly.