Undersea Chalk Mural

Release the Kraken - Chalk Drawings from Graham Smith on Vimeo.

Watch artist, Peter Han transform a black wall into an undersea world of sharks, jellyfish and octopus, by drawing with chalk, and paint markers, for BLVD63 Apartments.

The mural is on 5193 College Ave, on SDSU campus. If you are in San Diego, California, have a look!

Peter completed this mural in 5 hours, without referring to a sketch. He simply penciled the black tip sharks, yellowfin tuna, Humboldt squid, oar fish, angler fish and octopus with a quick outline, using a white colored pencil, then he went straight in with chalk. A friend from Cottonwood Arts, dropped off a brand new box of acrylic paint markers, so Peter used them, too, having never picked one up.

Understanding your subject is the key to drawing them well. Peter spends many days at the Birch Aquarium, and the San Diego Zoo, drawing these sea creatures from life, creating study after study, to learn exactly what they look like. All that extensive study informs his drawing, making it look "so easy".

When asked by an onlooker how he draws so well, Peter answered, "Practice, man. Practice." You can see him mouth those words at 1:03 in the video.

The chalk was spray fixed with matte fixative, in light layers, once the drawing was completed. Little flakes of chalk fell off from the force of the spray fix, so the drawing was secured, little by little. After a few good coats, the entire mural was sprayed with a clear coat of varnish, to preserve it as long as possible.

Film Process: I filmed the mural's creation process using my low end, Canon DSLR (T4i), the Canon 18-135mm STM, and the 55-200mm zoom lenses, the least expensive lenses Canon makes. iMovie was used to edit the footage together. I like to use the simplest set ups possible, carrying the 2 lenses, and tripod only, then filming by the seat of my pants.