2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival murals

There were 200+ murals at the Pasadena Chalk Festival with over 600 artists. Presented here, mostly without comment are a bunch of pictures I took.

Shaina Joel putting the finishing touches on Iron Man.

Kurt Cobain.

2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Silent Auction

One of the biggest ways the Lightbringer organization raises money during the Chalk Festival is through the silent auction. During the festival, each artist is provided chalk, drinks, snacks, breakfast, shade, etc, plus a 12"x12" canvas. In return for all that, artists are asked to do something with that 12"x12" canvas and return it back so it can be auctioned off, with the money going to the Lightbringer organization. From what I overheard, the silent auction brings in around $10k!

You're free to paint whatever you want. It doesn't have to be related to your final mural. But in my case I knew we had something good going on. This is going to be nearly identical to our final design.
And it only took Ruston and I a couple hours do to the 3'x4' one in the driveway. How long could a tiny little 12" canvas take?

2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Day 2 and Awards!

Time for Day 2 of the Chalk Festival!
Lots of stuff going on today, including Awards at the end of the night! Make sure you read to the end to see how that went.
Let's get started!

2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Day 1

The day is finally here! Time to reveal our mural and our costumes!
Our mural is going to be a very bright and colorful Disneyland castle. I couldn't think of a better costume to dress up in than a Disney Plaid Tour Guide. They're very recognizable by almost anyone who has been to the parks. The outfits came from Amazon. The name tags and Disney D pins came from eBay. Simple enough! Because the weather was so nice, I was able to convince Ruston to go all out with me and wear long sleeves and dress pants. If the weather didn't cooperate we would have swapped over to shorts and t-shirts instead of these dress clothes. And we're going to wear them the whole day while we make our mural!

2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Spot Selection, Artist Dinner, and how we came up with our mural idea

It's Thursday and it's just a few days before the 2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival. Today artists from all over will come pick their mural location and enjoy an artist party where they get to hang out with all the other artists. Let's dive right in!

Come see us at the 2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival!

Come see Ruston and I this weekend as we participate in the 27th Annual Pasadena Chalk Festival! Our Herbie from last year even made one of the banner advertisements!

We'll be drawing on Saturday and see how far we get. The weather looks great! Will we be wearing costumes again this year...? Check in next time to see!

Star Wars - Galaxy's Edge Black Spire Outpost

After years of waiting, and the loss of our beloved Big Thunder Ranch BBQ, Petting Zoo, and Festival Arena, the replacement is finally open! It's the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Black Spire Outpost.

Our story begins A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

Finally! A Disneyland visit!

Seriously, it's been 6 weeks since we were at Disneyland. It's been so long that perhaps we're going to need a map. Today we're starting over in California Adventure to get a bunch of rides in. And maybe even a couple brand new rides...

Practicing for the 2019 Pasadena Chalk Festival

Normally we wouldn't wait nearly this long to practice for the Pasadena Chalk Festival, but things got busy and now we've only got a week to go! The chalk festival is always on Father's Day weekend!

Ruston, Jacob, Theresa and I have been attending since 2011, but back in 2015 Ruston and I decided to stop being attendees and start participating ourselves!
2015 - Ducktales (Winner - Best New Artists)
2016 - The Iron Giant
2017 - The Jungle Cruise
2018 - Herbie (Winner - Most Humorous)

This year we're keeping with the Disney Theme and making a very colorful castle.
Before the event, we like to get together and do a 1/4 scale drawing to get a feel for how to do everything again, and see where we might run into challenges when the big day comes.

And one of the things I learned is that I need better support for my time-lapse camera, so it's not moving all over the place while I'm trying to film.

Happy National Donut Day!

You know we can't just let a day like this pass by without celebrating it somehow, right?

A really fun week in Michigan

We had a really fun time in Michigan for birthday parties, graduations, and more. Here's some of the stories of what happened between all the other stories.

Giant graduation party for Abby and Aubrey

It's been a fun week in Michigan and this graduation party is the big finale. People have been preparing for this for weeks now, but more on that later.
Now that they've both graduated, Aubrey last night, Abby last week, it's time to have a party!