Amazing Sidewalk Chalk Art

Art to share with your friends and neighbors! Great after school project for a couple of weeks.

If you have a swath of pavement and a box of sidewalk chalk, you can learn to make this impressive, huge piece of outdoor art! I think this project is appropriate for all ages, though young kids will probably need some guidance (not too much, parents!). This would also make a great sibling or family project. It's easy to divide up into sections.

This is a lengthy project, so plan plenty of time. It takes many hours of work to cover the amount of chalking required for this incredible mountain stream. Especially if you have some weather...It's all part of the process!

Note that you can do this project with just chalk if you want.

Below is the list of what I used:

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Washable tempera paint in a few colors - I used blue, green, and purple

Chalk! Big driveway/sidewalk chalk in assorted colors and white chalk in any size

You can also add smaller colored chalk and pastels for details if you want

A piece of fabric for blending - optional

A big paintbrush, water, and container to mix in

Optional knee foam or pads

Optional gloves - this is messy

An under painting is a very, very light painting without any detail that blocks out the areas you plan to chalk. It also gives you a bit of a color base, which will add to the color intensity without using as much chalk.

Mix a very thin, light mixture of washable tempera paint and water. I used about a tablespoon of paint to a cup of water. The ratio can change a lot depending on the tempera you’re using. You can test out the color on the pavement if you want, but make sure to let it dry 100%. It will get MUCH lighter.

NOTE: You don't have to do the under painting. I find it very helpful to save chalk, keep track of what I'm doing, and even let people walking by see my plan.

WARNING: Not all paint washes off, even if it claims to. So test the paint you're using. And only create an underpainting in an area that some staining would be okay, or plan to pressure wash.

Starting with blue, since the stream will be the largest, most central part of the artwork, begin painting the pavement. Use a large, sturdy brush. I used a 2” house painting brush. It will look very dark at first, but don't worry, if your paint is well diluted it will lighten tremendously.

Begin at the top of the stream and paint a skinny, wiggly triangle - like a wizard's hat that got really stretched out. Pointy at the top. Fanned out at the bottom. Streams are a very organic shape so get zen with the concrete. Fill in the outlines I added a line below the bottom to remind me that I wanted the water to pool at the bottom of the stream.

I used diluted purple tempera to block out some giant mushrooms. (I loved these mushrooms, but unfortunately you won't see them later on because they got rained away and then my husband reclaimed that part of the driveway). Anyway, to get a nice mushroom shape, use a big sweeping arm motion when you paint the curves. Start by making the tops rounded, and then add a little top bump. Details will go in later.

Foliage will hang over and line parts of the stream. First paint in some branches, big to small. Then add green leaves to the end of each small branch. (This particular branch suffered the same fate at my mushrooms.) Block in bushes by painting cloud-like green shapes along the top and sides of the stream.

Add any other plants or flowers you think belong with your stream.

Paint boulders where your stream has curves or jagged spots. Make a line of rocks at he base of the stream.

And I mean bone dry, so you can see what you've got. If the paint isn't showing up, go over those areas again with a slightly less dilute paint mixture. And let it dry again. Bone dry.

Now get your cheapest chalk - I used white Crayola school chalk - and outline your painted areas.

Now is the time to be more precise and to add details. You'll see how helpful the under painting is if you hit an area you forgot to paint! Add spot to the tops of the mushrooms and gills to the underneaths.

Outline branches and leaves. Draw in the rocks by making jagged shapes. Draw some water flow lines in the stream.

Pick a medium shade of blue chalk and fill in some of the water. Make strokes only in the direction the water is flowing when drawing the moving water. Add some blue to the water pool under the rocks.

Draw light brown on the tops of all the rocks. You can add some to the sides, but leave spaces or you'll just have big tan blobs. These are very irregular, angular shapes.

Water is created by layering and blending different shades of blue, purple, and white in the direction of the flow of the stream.

Choose a section and add strokes of darker blue. Add strokes of pale blue. Blend in the direction of he water using your gloved hand or a rolled piece of old cloth. Something sturdy, like denim.

Begin chalking in the base colors for plants. Mushrooms and flowers can be any colors. For leaves and bushes start with a medium green.

Use the colored chalk to fill in leaves and branches. To make the flowers look attached to the stem, draw a ball at the top of the flower with green chalk. Bring a few triangles of green over the the flower.

Flat topped stones are really fun and easy to draw. First draw a top boundary with rust or medium brown chalk. Leave most of the light brown showing.Then use a darker brown to color on the fronts and sides. Leave some of the light brown showing.

Add borders and cracks with dark brown or black chalk.

Rocks in the middle of the stream can be seen partially under the water. To create this effect, blend the brown chalk from the bottom of the rocks into water in the direction of the water flow.

This is a good time to make sure you like your water. Deepen the dark areas with dark blue and a touch of purple. Lighten the highlights with light blue and white. Blend in the direction of the water.

To draw the spray that splashes up when the water hits the rocks, take white chalk and hold it sideways. Lightly rub the side of the chalk around the tops of the rocks. Press harder when you draw closer to the stone edges.

Some of the foamy water may run through the cracks between the rocks. Use white chalk with a gentle touch. Note that the water is not 100% filled in - this can be filled in at any point.

Continue to deepen the dark areas with dark blue and a touch of purple. Lighten the highlights with light blue and white. Blend in the direction of the water.

TIP: You see that white rectangle? That's a piece of packing foam (not styrofoam) that works great for kneeling on while you chalk. If you need more cushioning, pile a couple up.

The bushes at the top of the stream are seen from a distance. There won't be much definition, but they should have nice highlights and shadows. Add dark green shadows and yellow-green highlights by drawing scalloped shapes (like the letter m) and blending them into the medium green. The foliage can overlap the stream.

Continue along the sides of the stream.

Fill in more water areas and plant life. Draw in a few rivulets of water that run over the rocks.

Some of these images may seem out of order, but actually I moved around a lot, from one section to another. Sometimes because areas were easier or harder to reach, sometimes to work in the shade, and sometimes because I worked on all the highlights, or shadows at one time.

Add highlights with white or other light colors to the tops of rocks and plants.

Add some contrasting color to flowers and blend. Add light and shadow to stems.

Under the bottom rocks is the pool. Fill it in with medium blue. Use horizontal strokes. Then add and blend white highlights.

There will be white foam on the water where the water crashes into underwater rocks or more water. Use the side of white chalk to add a few horizontal foamy spots.

A huge surprise storm hit when I was close to done. I taped down a large drop cloth and then parked a car over everything. This kept out a lot of the water, but not all. And the wind blowing the plastic smudged most of the chalk.

This is how I lost all the artwork outside of the plastic, including the mushrooms. Bye bye mushrooms.

Back to the drawing board. Or driveway, I guess.

Paint in some diluted green tempera to designate an area where grass will border the pool.

Paint in some diluted purple tempera where flowers will be drawn at the bottom of the drawing.

I chalked a very simple fish poking out of the pond. Don't forget some round white bubbles!

The kids passing by loved finding the fish :-)

Start with a green you want to use for the main grass color. Draw very well separated vertical lines over the green painted area. Then pick a second shade of green that will contrast well and draw lines in-between the first lines. Pick a third green and add more lines, but in a more random pattern. Add a fourth green and use it even more sparsely.

NOTE: The top of the grass should be drawn to overlap the pool.