I was asked back this year to make another chalk art mural at the Earth Fest celebration of Earth Day. Once again I found myself fighting to try and “force” a comic book character into the street art idea. And again, I rejected a number of them pretty quick.

I though of maybe showing Marvel Comics character The Incredible Hulk holding a small tree frog in his hand with the catch phrase “Go Green!” How about DC Comics character Superman flying over the earth with the tag line “Protecting the earth is SUPER important.” OK, so I never really even considered that one. Sorry.

And just like last years chalk mural (you can find the post on it here) I went with a straight forward nature image. The mountain gorilla has such character to it face, and that expression is classic. It is as if they are thinking “C’mon, what the heck are you doing?” Not unlike Smokey the Bear saying that “Only you can prevent forest fires”.

I found some reference material and proceeded to make my own image in photoshop using leaves, the gorilla, and a tree frog which was a hold over from my unused comic idea. Once the composition was complete this chalk artist went to work. The day was the hottest we’ve had all year, and the sun was in full force from morning until night. I worked for just over eight hours on this street art mural and thought that the result was my best effort yet on using a more realistic style (except for the frog, but you’ll see that in the gallery.) However, I paid a high price in the form of a killer sunburn on my arms and legs (mental note: double… no, TRIPLE check that I have sunscreen in my materials bag next time.)

Enjoy the images, I’ve got to go peel now.