Chalk It Up - Star Wars

By Christopher Moshier
February 27, 2008 - 13:04

Eric Maruscak does it again. This time his chalky work of art is presented at the 2008 Toyfair held in New York City. The following are posted at the Comic Book Bin with Eric's permission. Enjoy!

First time for everything. I have to cut through carpet to make a place for my mural.

...and cut through the foam pad underneath. Now I have smooth cement to work on.

A little blue painters tape around the ragged carpet edges and I am ready to start working.

Usually I create the underdrawing before getting to the show. Since we didn't know the final size until the last minute, I had to wait and draw it on the floor.

I work on the figures trying to get quick approximations. I leave it rough as I want to get to the color as soon as possible.

Hey, its me in my lucky hat. Here I begin the background color and a little work on the lighting.

The door around Luke comes into view. I can see my first light source which always gives me direction.

At the end of day one I have completed the full sketch, and all of the background color. The last thing I make are the Tie Fighter and X-Wing shadows.

Day two begins and I start the figure color. The original McQuarrie art print I go by is very brown in tones so I do a lot of color mixing to make subtle shades.

The Luke figure is almost done. Nearing noon on day two I think.

I begin to color Vader. It is a little tricky to make him look both dark, yet well lit at the same time. I am sure many artists have had to deal with this before.

I finish the chalk on Vader. As always, I am saturating my colors more than the original to make it pop better off the dark paper.

The end of day two, I throw some quick flat color onto the child in the corner. I know the lighting here is important so I save it for the final day.

The shading on the child comes into view, for the first time I can really see what the finished mural will look like.

I color the toys and the desk, adding a woodgrain effect and finishing the shadows. By the way, he is making sound effect noises with his mouth and does NOT have some nervous tick.

My traditional "signing the finished mural" photo. The work is done!

Still on the floor, the finished art before I spray it with a coating to protect the chalk (as best I can anyway... it still smudges).

On the wall... finished mural 4 feet tall by 10 feet wide, approx. 20 hours. Thanks Mr. McQuarrie for your legendary art.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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