Dia de la Abby #50: Chalk Pastel Skull

The design of this piece was inspired by Nazca skulls. This is also a reference for the skull sculpture I'm making for the "Skulls" exhibition of our Skull Appreciation Day event at Gallery 5.

Recently, I went on a vacation with my family. During a stop in Savannah, GA we saw beautiful artwork by the SCAD students, in Forsyth park at the Sidewalk Arts Festival. The use of artist chalk to create the vivid designs, inspired me to make something of my own. Mine is not as vivid, due to using a different quality of chalk. In making mine, it was neat to work with my hands using a medium that I'm unfamiliar with. I used black cardstock, so the white of the skull would be vivid and the shadows darker than they would be on white paper. I wasn't able to find a video tutorial that was similar to how I made my piece. It's an easy medium to work with, so I recommend just experimenting with it. The chalk blends very easily. If you don't want to use your fingers to blend the chalk, you can use a cotton swab. I prefer my fingers as a blending tool. However, a damp cotton swab can be useful to remove unwanted chalk. And, a dry one, to blend small areas. The finished piece has to be be sealed with either hair spray (the cheaper, the better) or a spray matte varnish (like Valspar brand). As normal, I used my handy skull model as a reference for light and shading.


Every week in the 4.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook.