Pastels On 5th Fundraiser

This past Saturday I created a sidewalk painting on behalf of Fairy Gardening for Loveland's Pastels On 5th Fundraiser. This was only the event's second year running but it went off without a hitch and it was well attended. Lots of locals came to watch us work. There was a silent auction, art/crafts vendors and a variety of live performers.

For my first attempt at sidewalk art, I thought it went really well. Fortunately, I was able to find some great advice online about technique and supplies.

First I started out by making a grid, so that it would be easier to transfer my drawing. Then I drew outlines and blocked in all the large areas with base colors (thank goodness Steven was there to help me -- it took forever to make everything look solid).

To get the pastel pigment to sit down in the grit of the pavement, we smudged it and wet it down with a paint brush and squirt bottle. 

Once all the base colors were in, I added highlights, shadows and the details. 

To finish it off we outlined everything in black to make the drawing look more clean and distinct.

For more information about the event, visit the website: http://wp.pastelson5th.org/

Here are a few other squares that I particularly liked:

A nod to Georgia O'Keeffe - it must have taken several layers of pastel to get this color so crisp and solid:

The pop-out perspective style:

My favorite - SO beautiful:

Ice - SCREAM!

There was even a place for kids to participate: