My First Chalkboard Art!

Well. I lay no claims to artistic greatness here. I just got myself a Wallie peel and stick chalkboard  and thought I'd make an attempt at an inspirational chalkboard quote.

I'm fairly happy with the results, considering I didn't use any fancy shmancy stuff like a projector or tracing the text from large prints, I just free-handed it. I'll give you a basic run-down of how I did it here, in case you also have artistic pretensions ;)


I didn't take pictures of this process because I had no idea how it would turn out, but next time, if people are interested, I will!

First what you'll need:

A chalkboard (I got this large size Wallie from the bookstore)
Chalk (not sidewalk chalk, though. I used the chalk that my board came with, along with a chalk pen from the dollar store)
A ruler
A wet paper towel and q-tips (for clean up!)
A dry paper towel


Method:

1) Find a quote and muck about in Word or other program with the text style and fonts. Do a google search for chalkboard fonts. You can download free ones from www.fontsquirrel.com or www.dafont.com  (I've used both sites and haven't had any problems).

Choose which words you want to emphasize, and play around with trying to do that, different fonts, sizes, directions, etc.

You could try using a free design program like Canva to help you figure out fonts and extra doodly thingies. They have a great post on illustrated quotes here, and their free design school has tons of tips on pairing fonts. (I should spend more time there...).

I did mine in Word and printed it out, but here's a not-so-great JPEG version in case you'd like to use it yourself!

In order, mine uses (Although I didn't do the greatest job of copying them out!!) the following fonts:

Bradley Hand ITC
Engravers MT
Monotype Corsiva
Bermingham and Bergamot Ornaments
Monotype Corsiva
Adine-Kirnberg-Script


2) I measured my chalkboard and divided it roughly based on how large I wanted the text to be. With a ruler and chalk, I measured where the centre was in both my sample text and my chalkboard. I also  drew lines across the chalkboard to write on.

3) Then, holding my sample text in one hand, and my chalk in the other, I tried my best to copy it out, making liberal use of my wet paper towel, q-tips, and dry towel.

I think I'll keep this one up for a couple of weeks (it took me about 30 - 40 minutes to measure and write it out, though I expect to speed up over time), but if people are interested I'll do a better job next time of posting my method (and maybe, just maybe a video).

Have you ever tried chalkboard art? 

What are your favourite fonts?

Do you have a favourite inspirational quote?