Day 28 - One extreme to the other

Canada Day wasn’t 100% successful on my end like I had hoped.

I managed to get a few nice shots.. but the chalk art? Man.. I was so embarrassed I packed it up early and left. I tried a new approach to this sort of work.

I picked up a sheet of oak finished plywood that passed my little chalk smudging test at the store.

I then coated it with an eggshell white and a low pile rollert (9mm). I figured that would give me a great base to work with. Like pencil drawing on paper. It too seemed to pass my little smudge test. (take a bit of white then pinch of black then see how they blend for shading) I sketched out a modified antique French poster to reflect elements of Canada Day and event sponsor, Bacardi. It looked fantastic!

I was quite excited about this new technique and figured if successful I’ll do these quite often.

sketching out a piece on location freehand or grid method takes up valuable work time and when busking people don't ’usually show much interest in what you’re doing until they see “eyes” or something pop.

I also thought maybe I could sell the pieces afterwards or have a draw.

Well… I start chalking and find the blending doesn’t work at all past a 3rd application (layer) There’s just not enough texture to hold enough chalk. Basically it’s like water colour paints on wax paper…

The colours just float and smudge to extremes. Detailing was impossible. I tried to switch from detailed to a more artsy sketch but It’s just not my style and I hated it more as time went on. There were some kind givers, tossing money into change bucket.. but I really don’t believe it was because of my quality of work. I couldn’t have that. It’s the first time I feel I failed at a mural and I couldn’t sit there and except contributions for crap work… So I left.

It was such a wild change of scene to where I first started the day.

I went to Parliament Hill 1st to cover queen arrival and some of the Canada Day celebrations.

I was in The vip area where everything was much more secure than usual. I’ll post a few pix below.

But it was strange going from that to street busking. LOL

I was VERY disappointed not to see Michaëlle Jean… It seemed quite strange she wasn’t there.

Her last Canada day in office plus queen was in in town? After all.. the governor Generals position is the only office politically associated with the monarchy in Canada.

And no video greetings either.. ? Very strange.

My favourite shot, even over the queen was of Canadian Olympian figure skater Joannie Rochette.

She was doing a spot with ctv and following that I asked her to pose for a shot with tower in background. I think many figure skaters in general have a pleasant nature about them.. but Joannie just freakn radiates a strong beautiful soul.

I kind of like my SnowBirds shot too, but They’re going in wrong direction.
I think they screwed up or something because they seemed really off course for the typical North to South fly over.
All the media were anticipating a specific shot and then they show up far left… I’m doubting any spectacular Snowbird shots in media. I positioned myself about 20 feet to the right to get “Canada” centred on piece tower so I at least got the South to North shot.
Ok that’s enough for today.. I’m pretty burned out from yesterday.
.

share on:facebook