Lena Hoschek: Halloween Chalkboard Art Tutorial

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Halloween Chalkboard Art Tutorial

So, kinda like the chalk paint craze, I am pretty tardy to the chalkboard art party. Last year when I decked out the porch for Halloween, my fish painting bothered me in the background – taunting me with is springy-ness and reminder of summers past. When Honey said he had a great board for it hiding downstairs, I jumped at the chance to get ‘er done.

Now, while I do have a little creativity in me, I will be the first to admit that I am no artist. So, the thought of trying to fill this blank canvas with something lovely was a bit terrifying. With a quick stint on Pinterest, I not only found a chalk worthy quote, but I was also able to locate this great tutorial by Burlap and Denim. I’ll let you hop on over there for all the details, but here’s a quick run through of the process…

1. First things first, you need a picture to work from, if you’re like me. And I’m assuming you are else you’d be free-handing something fabulous rather than sitting here reading my step by step. I created mine in powerpoint. First I drew a rectangle to the scale of my chalkboard and then I settled on my fonts, spacing and images. I added the grid lines to equal every 6” on my chalkboard.

2. In addition to the to-scale printout of your art, you’ll need a yard stick (or ruler depending on the size of your board) and a wet rag or some baby wipes. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I can’t imagine a day without baby wipes in it. Baby or no.)

3. Use your yardstick to mark off the same 6” grid on your chalkboard. Then, use your picture as a guide to draw square by square. It’s a little tedious but I found it strangely fun and exciting to see it come together. (This coming from the non-artist.)

4. As I finished each square, I used a baby wipe to erase my guidelines. For the tiny little spaces, I wrapped it around my pointer finger and just dapped away. You can always add back chalk if you erase too much.

5. After I got everything complete and erased from my guide image, I went back and freehanded some swirls to fill in some of the empty space. I like it so much, I might leave it up until the new year with a new quote for Christmas!!