Chalk One Up for Inspiration

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Reading about the anonymous students—calling themselves Dangerdust—at Columbus College of Art & Design who have been sneaking in and creating motivational chalkboard art, I had so many questions. The first was, “They still use chalkboards?” I followed that up with, “How can I turn my talents into a renegade art?” Well, I certainly can’t make beautiful chalk art like they do, but it inspires me to be more creative. Here’s a collection of chalk-inspired beauty to prime the creative pump.

Molly Jacques is an illustrator, creating hand-lettered artwork. Her site also lists fonts for sale and she offers in-person workshops on lettering and calligraphy.

Molly Jacques

If you lack the artistic ability to work in chalk, you could use this step-by-step process to create your own chalkboard masterpiece.

Transfer Chalk to Chalkboard

If even using the DIY-with-printer method is too much work, why not just buy a chalkboard art print? The combination of chalkboard and delicious hot cocoa is a perfect combination, don’t you think?

Hot Cocoa Chalk Art

The Bergamot Ornaments font is a neat collection of ornaments that would be at home in any chalkboard creation. This DIY-er created a character map for the font so you can easily pick and choose the elements you need for your creation.

Bergamot Ornaments Cheat Sheet

Tired of trying to work with chunky, dusty sticks of chalk? I don’t think these awesome mechanical chalk pencils would improve anything I would try to create, but maybe they’ll give you the added control when working in the chalkboard world.

Chalk Pencils

Sometimes I find inspiration in not only seeing someone’s work, but getting to know about the artist as well. This profile of Dana Tanamachi’s work led me to read more about this talented artist who found her niche.

Dana Tanamachi

After viewing this timelapse video of the creation of a large chalkboard piece, I know I don’t have the patience for this type of work. Inspiring nonetheless, you owe it to yourself to see the 7 hours(!) compressed to five and a half minutes.

Time Lapse of Chalk Artist

Okay…ready to make your own chalkboard inspired artwork? Here’s a package of fonts that embody the look and feel of hand-lettered chalkboard art and you can optionally download chalkboard backgrounds and extra icons.

Chalkhand Lettering Font

Lastly, if you’re interested in that secretive team, Dangerdust, their Behance portfolio is available. You can check out the renegade pieces they’ve created late at night, and even buy prints from their Etsy shop.

Danger Dust

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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  • yayanejina says:

    Hi…i really want to know what is the name of the font used in the picture of hot cocoa for the word “cup boiling water” and “marshmalow optional”. 

  • Ekwoman says:

    I assume since that is a print that’s for sale, that the lettering was actually done by hand. You might try following the link and see if you can contact the artist.

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