A projector! It was actually my husband's idea, he told me to find a picture on the internet that I liked and to project it on to the wall then trace it with chalk. Ok, so maybe this isn't a new idea, but it was definitely new to me. I hadn't heard of anyone doing this and thought it was the BEST idea EVER!!! My husband has a projector, but you could rent one from a computer store or even borrow one from your work or ask a friend. I had this idea in my head that I wanted a cowboy on my chalkboard, so I googled "cowboy silhouettes" and I found tons. I wanted just a black and white cowboy face silhouette. I would fill in the negative space with chalk. My dad helped me with this, I must admit as I initially thought because of my lack of artistic ability I wouldn't be able to do it, but then as we started I realized how easy it was.
Here is the first picture I found online.....this one was unsuccessful as it had too much negative space and the features just weren't clear with the chalk. I didn't take a picture of it on my chalkboard because to be honest it didn't turn out well, we really needed more positive space, to really see the details of the illustration.
Ok so we moved on to the next picture, which I also just found by googling "cowboy silhouette"
I didn't use the writing just the image. I made the image larger by expanding it on my computer and also moving the projector further away from the chalkboard.
My dad simply traced the red negative space of the cowboy with chalk. We added the stars on the bottom of the image and didn't include the writing that was with the image. We even searched google for the "COWBOY" writing and the "WHISKY" writing and also traced this. Since it was our first time doing this it took a bit of time to sort out the projector, make the image the proper size and make sure that the writing was level. But after it was all done it turned out better than I expected!
I wanted the image to stay up on my chalkboard for a while so I my dad told me to use a spray fixative. I found this at a local art supply store. A fixative is usually used for carcoal paintings but thought it would work for this purpose. This is a permanent solution for having the chalk stay in place, so you would have to repaint a coat of chalkboard paint when you want to change the image.
However, if you use hairspray and spray the image with it, this will also keep the chalk in place, and you can simply wipe with a damp cloth when you want to remove the image. The only reason I didn't use hairspray it because it makes the image a bit shinny and splochy with shinny batches if you don't do an even coat over the entire chalkboard. I think I am going to leave this up for at least 6 + months so I don't mind having to repaint it with chalkboard paint.
