You Chalkin' To Me?

This is the process whereby I turned a pencil illustration into 2 metres of chalk on a wall. 

We wanted to craft a chalked quote in our foyer that effectively captured everything we stand for. We landed on this gem from wise man Bueller. A classic.

I started with some initial sketches to define placement of text and hierarchy. Seeing the words on paper gets the cogs ticking and helps me put the quote into context. 

From there I began to work on a refined version of the design. 

The design was getting there but it was “OK”, and we don’t want just “OK”. We want “holy wow, what is that chalky goodness on the wall!?” With that in mind, I went back to the drawing board (pun definitely intended). Elements were reworked to tighten up the illustration. 

Up until this point, I had the luxury of working in a small moleskine with an eraser to clean up my mistakes. It was time to move to The Wall. I prepared a file of the design I wanted; a makeshift effort of elements stitched together from my notebook. To keep the perspective and alignment correct, I projected the image up on the wall and used it as a guide.

After hours of careful chalk concentration, the wall art was complete. 

(Bonus image: for scale, here I am looking mighty pleased next to the design.) 

 
If you’re interested in lettering of any kind, I recommend looking at these talented folk: 
http://ryanhamrick.com/#the-work
http://marykatemcdevitt.com/
http://seanwes.com/
http://theagsc.com/
http://joncontino.com/

Author’s Note: I found many variations of this quote that led me astray in the process. Moral of the story? Never rely on secondary sources to get your Ferris Bueller quotes. Go straight to the man himself.