A Beginner’s Guide To Chalk Art With Rajiv Surendra | Chalk Art for Beginners

[Music] hi i'm rajiv and i'm a calligrapher most of my work is actually done with chalk i do menus at a lot of restaurants and cafes all over the city but here in my home i found a way to use chalkboard paint and chalk to create something that's really unique and special you might have seen my home tour where we featured some of the architectural elements that i've drawn onto the walls and today i'm going to show you how simple it is to do the same in your space this is chalkboard paint chalkboard paint is different than chalk paint chalk paint is a paint you put on the walls that has a chalky effect chalk board paint is painted on the walls usually black or green but you can get it mixed in any color and it enables you to draw on the surface with chalk you might be thinking yeah i've seen that before like in kitchens or in a kid's room where there's a little panel painted in chalk yes you can do that but i am going to show you how to use chalkboard paint to create something that's actually quite sophisticated the first thing you need to do is paint your surface and what i would suggest doing is painting the entire door or the entire wall in chalkboard paint not just a little panel when you do that you have kind of a full surface to draw on now pay very close attention to these steps because they are important you need to paint the surface two or three times if you don't and then you start erasing you'll take bits of the paint off so one coat let it dry two coats let it dry ideally third coat and then you let it dry for a minimum of two full days the paint really needs to cure the wonderful thing about this chalkboard paint is that it is cheap and it is water based so cleanup is very very easy i painted this door with three coats of paint it has been curing for two days and now we're ready for a step that most people don't do and it is vital the can tells you that you have to prime the surface with chalk if you draw on this freshly painted surface with a piece of chalk the chalk burns itself into the paint and you'll never fully be able to erase those initial lines off so that's usually what happens with people when they use this paint they have the intention of creating like a a to-do list or something on a wall they write on it they erase it and within a few days actually it ends up looking kind of messy the way to avoid that is by priming the surface with a stick of chalk i like to use just white chalk or a neutral color there's a real beauty to just the neutral tones of the white or the beige against the black wall and this is what i do whenever i have a commission whether it's a small menu board at a cafe or an entire room where i'm doing the ceilings and the walls you take the broad edge of the chalk right and then you're going to start at the top and you're going to cover the surface with chalk lightly now that we have some chalk on there the next step is to take a cotton cloth and rub the chalk onto the surface i use circular motions to kind of get into all the pores of the paint and that's what this is doing the chalk is seeping in to the surface the great thing about this paint is you don't have to worry about it being put on evenly or smoothly if there's a bit of texture to it it actually adds to the effect it gives you something that's a little pebbly and i like that so don't be fussy about painting the wall this is a dusty job you can really see that the black is disappearing that might scare you you might think oh but i really liked how it looked i like the contrast of the black and what that's going to look like against the chalk don't worry it looks like this now but you'll see how the contrast comes back as we start working on the wall [Music] okay next step this is your best friend when it comes to chalk work on a wall a yardstick it has some thickness to it it has some girth so when i put it against the wall you see how i can hold on to it that's really important so the very first thing i always do with any wall whether it's 18 inches wide or 30 feet long is i find the center point 24 inches so i'm going to mark 12 12 12. i'm going to make a really light line going all the way down the middle now from the center point you can work your way out we can create a border around this we can create a central motif my suggestion for walls and doors is to draw things on them that are architectural paneling or molding or even just like a little recess it's amazing what simple lines can do to something that's just a boring old flat closet door and i use various yardsticks when i'm doing a project because this one if i want a thinner border i'll use this it makes it really easy sometimes i use um a wooden t-square too so first i'm gonna use the width of the yardstick to mark a simple line along all the edges let's end at that handle over there so now i'm going to mark off the corners for a little decorative element so i'm going to measure three inches in from every corner i'm going to mark off these three inch increments with the tape measure makes it easy three inches three inches and now we're going to create quarter circles that makes that line meet that line [Music] okay now we're gonna erase out these bits okay and you have a little panel so you can freehand this from this point or you can continue to use your yardstick but i'm going to freehand this i'm going to go over the lines with the thick side of the chalk and make this thicker now the interesting thing about using chalk is as you use it the edge is going to wear away a pointed edge as you use it is going to become flat and you can use that to your advantage as the chalk is wearing away and becoming either pointed or flat you can twist it so if you want a broad stroke you use the flat edge if you want a sharp line you use a pointed edge by knowing this you can twist the chalk to achieve [Music] both so i'm going to take my broad edge and i'm going to go over my panel the whole thing that's the hard part measuring it out putting in the initial shape carefully so i'm going to put a narrower line on the inside of this watch how much this changes [Music] then let's mark off oh let's see two inches from the end and i'm going to do another broad line [Music] one more narrow line on the inside there we have a very simple panel now if you want to do something fun you can add some shading with just your finger or the rag i'm going to go in here i'm sort of fading it to the inside see what a difference it makes and it adds some contrast [Music] so you can see how simple and easy it is to take a boring old flat closet door and add some depth to it with just a little bit of chalkboard paint and a stick of chalk if you want to try something a little more ornate you can find these wonderful reference books that have prints of design elements from centuries ago and i use these all the time looking from the page up at the space and then i pick something that i feel will work so let's try doing something fancy on this door [Music] so what do you think would you try this at home please let me know in a comment below and if you liked this video subscribe for more just like this one you

Channel: HGTV Handmade

Views: 154,721

Keywords: Chalk art, diy chalk art, chalk art for beginners, chalkboard art, easy chalk art, chalkboard drawings, chalk art, cute chalk drawings, cool chalk art, chalk mural, chalkboard calligraphy, chalkboard artist, chalk paintings, easy chalk drawings step by step, chalk calligraphy, art tutorial, hgtv, Handmade, diy

Id: 4rmwQIL4W0Y

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021