Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
  • art & stories
    • black horses
    • Sea Ponies of Chincoteague
    • Just Animals
    • playing with water
    • Tradigital illustration
    • environmental education >
      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
      • animal alphabet and counting murals
      • Assateague ponies
      • the salamander room
      • more touch room ocean
      • more: touch room forest
      • wetland
      • wetland art
      • greenleaf
      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
    • just animals: photography
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • That Darn Elf, a musing or two
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • Skyfire
      • Leyover and Bardic Circle
      • Following Raven
      • The Merrow's Cap >
        • Merrows Cap credits
      • Manannan's Horses
      • Fins
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
          • Hi Yo Silver
        • black panthers and night furies
        • tales of Middle Earth >
          • Mirthwood
          • Loth-LOL-ien >
            • Im-LOL-dris
            • Smirkwood
            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
        • catz and doges on fandom
        • Faithful Sidekicks
    • murals
    • scribblings
    • coloring pages
  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
      • merfolk on the Chesapeake
      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • back to the islands 2021 >
      • Ponies 2021
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague Carousel
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • photo your toys >
      • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
      • Lokigator and Throg's Epic Adventure
      • Sam and Bucky's Excellent Adventure
      • Mando and Grogu
      • paint and wet snow pants
      • Legolas and Hwin, snow
      • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
      • Wonder Horse repaint
      • wild Breyers >
        • printable prints and downloads
        • water horses
        • beach Breyers
        • Lotus Legolas and Arod
        • teeny tiny Breyers
        • backyard Breyers and Schleichs
        • vintage breyers
        • Hartland Horses
        • Black Horses
      • educational display
      • Schleich and Safari Faeries
      • North beached
      • more model horses
      • beach party
      • advenatureData
      • Finding Hank
      • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
        • Hounded in Baskerville
      • how to photograph your dragon
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • ModPodge rules
    • paint pours
    • flour salt clay
    • chalk paint
    • rock it: paint rocks and use or lose them
    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
    • sea horses
    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
    • autumn light
    • cats
    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
      • dogsled
      • dogsledding: running on snow! >
        • Groundhog Day
      • kids and dawgs: first sled run
      • Klondike Derby
      • Sled Dogs and Pirate Ships
      • Christmas Day Run: Rail Trail
      • Horses and Huskies: when predator and prey share the trail
      • Schipperke doo dah >
        • Runnin' with the Big Dogs
        • Hobbit Husky
      • women who run with the wolves
      • Play Time
      • wubba wubba
      • New Year's Dog Day
      • Team Swordwhale
    • trains, sleddogs, and horses oh my!
    • butterscotch and sprinkles
    • horses >
      • horse reference for art
      • ponies small but mighty
      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
      • between thunder and lightning
      • Goliath, Nevada Mustang
      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • Planet fish tank
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
      • Planet Stream
      • Planet River
      • Planet Marsh
      • Planet Ocean
      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
      • Planet turtle
      • Planet water snake
      • planet amphibian
    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
      • kayaking 101
      • kayaking Assateague and Chincoteague
      • how to train your dragonfly
      • Chasing Raven
      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
        • more Eastern Neck Island
      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
        • how to be a kayaking Gramma
    • beached
    • dive in! (SCUBA) >
      • Gourd of the Rings
    • mid Atlantic seashells
    • longship company >
      • December sail
      • Sae Hrafn at Oakley
    • pirates and privateers >
      • Sailing 101
      • Schooner Sultana 1768
      • Capt John Smith Shallop
      • Pride of Baltimore II
      • Kalmar Nyckel
      • downrigging 2010 >
        • Chestertown autumn
        • Downrigging Weekend 2014
        • Downrigging 2015
        • Downrigging 2016
        • Downrigging 2017
        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • horseshoe crab spawn 2021
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
    • surfboards and watchtowers: Cape Henlopen >
      • beached
      • Watching Whales >
        • Watching Whales...again
    • Seadogs: Newfoundland water trials
    • wind hounds
    • wild things! >
      • baltimore aquarium
      • there's a hummer in the garage...ceiling ...
      • critter cam
      • sky walking
      • leaf-fall
    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
    • framing 101
    • watercolor: how to
    • sip n paints
    • acrylic painting 101
    • wildlife art class
    • Santa, You're Doomed
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
      • ponies in motion
      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
    • dogs and wolves
    • go ahead, draw a pirate ship
    • anthropomorphism (cartoon animals and stuff)
    • the Little Kids Page of Big Ideas
    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
      • stuff you need
      • drawing (mural)
      • drawing mural 2
      • painting
      • mural jungle
      • mural bat cave
      • mural cats
      • mural ocean
      • mural arctic
      • mural leaf smacking
      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad

Chalk Paint
​

(the stupid easy way to throw color at something)

also wabi sabi

Picture
First I should mention that I work in an arts and crafts store, a dangerous thing for any artist or crafty person (OMG, look at that!!! I could...). Mostly I commit artlike substances, and write... but craft paint has weaseled its way into my life along with tule and some other random things.

At some point I noticed the existence of this thing called chalk paint.

THIS IS NOT CHALKBOARD PAINT.

Technically, you can use it to make chalkboards, but usually you buy the black stuff labelled chalkboard paint for that... or the clear chalkboard paint you can throw on any surface including a wall to make your room look like school.

​
Picture
Folk Art "Cascade" and sea glass
This is chalk paint.

It is named for the "chalky" ... matte... very very NOT shiny... finish it has.

My two favorite craft paints are Americana and Folk Art. Both have rich color, lots of pigment, and flow off your brush nicely. You don't need 6349187236 coats like you might with some other brands.

There are about 3640172364 tutorials online somewhere for doing complicated things with your chalk paint. Things like layers and waxes and distressing and dragging your prized furniture behind a Jeep until it looks the way you want and...

​...never mind.

There is also this (by now probably last week's brainfart) thing called Shabby Chic which I pay as much attention to as Martha whatzerface (that is to say minus zero to the two hundredth power).

Never mind all that.

Let's say your living room is 26386402364 shades of brown and the 756023 colors between white and cream... which mine was, because I inherited it from my parents. I like brown in certain places; on humans, horses and other living creatures, in mud, in gardens, at the bottom of the bay, in the woods. My living room looked like autumn and I hate autumn.

Ugh.

I really want a beach house in shades of whites and turquoise and oceanic colors and it needs to look like a cross between Finding Dory and Moana. (I did that in my bathroom). But I am not repainting the world right now so...

​
Picture
I began throwing blue at it.

A blue comforter over the ghastly (but comfy) orange chair, some blue bits in the faerie garden, a lavalava with sea turtles that I already had, a lighthouse flag meant for your Scottish castle's front door that I got stupid cheap at AC Moore (both hung on driftwood I found), some tule on a vine wreath... you get the idea.

There were a lot of big brown items like desks, and smaller ones like baskets that needed blueing.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Turns out the easiest thing to do is literally throw blue at it.

If you want that nice pristine shiny look, you will need normal craft paint or latex house paint or something. And a lot of dropcloths, and brushes and rollers and things and stuffs.

Chalk paint lends itself to quick, easy, rough, rustic. Wabi sabi.

The simplest thing is to drybrush it onto a surface.
  • get a bristlybrush, something from the hardware store, something cheap, something old and a bit worn works too
  • get a palette; any piece of plastic (a lid from your margerine tub etc), or waterproof paper plate
  • glob a couple tablespoons of paint on the palette
  • moosh brush into paint, smash brush around until there is not so much paint on it (dry...brush)
  • slap over surface
  • you can also use sponges, paper towels, you fingers (latex gloves help here), moss, twigs a clump of hay...

You may want to practice on a piece of paper or cardboard or extra wood first. If you do totally screw it up, relax, it's acrylic... it will last longer than the piece of wood you just painted and archaeologists will dig up the paint flecks a thousand years from now...

...but you can paint over it.

...over and over.

You can also paint it solid and smooth, like any normal paint. It's more forgiving, since it is fervently NOT shiny, it tends to hide goobers more.

​You can also paint a different color over it, drybrushed or with wax between layers. If you do the wax thing, the basic idea is paint color 1, dry, rub wax candle over it, paint color 2, scrape and distress.

As to how well it wears, it will depend on what surface you put it on and how you prepared that. And what kind of wear the surface is likely to get: a tabletop? Desk top? Or the side of a cabinet. You can just keep some extra paint for touch ups, or you can put a variety of finishes over it, like the aforementioned waxes, or acrylic clear coats.

I skipped all that.

I wanted some blue accents. 

Now.

I drybrushed the chalk paint on, it dried quickly (turn on some fans and open some windows anyway) adding color to a boring environment with no hassle. I didn't even use drop cloths; drybrushing tends to be not messy.

You may prefer the finished or shiny look as one blogger I read does. If so, go forth and use other paints, seek tutorials and get the look you want, it's your stuff and art is about you expressing your taste.

If you like the rustic or distressed look, the old, the vintage, and see beauty in transience and imperfection, chalk paint may be the way to go.

In Japanese aesthetics, there is a concept called wabi-sabi. 

Wiki has this to say about that...
Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) is a concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics constituting a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete."[2] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō?), suffering (苦 ku?) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū?).
Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

Chalk paint gives you assymetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, modesty... you don't need massive artistic skill to recycle something old and outworn into something beautiful...​
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.