With Wizard World Chicago (now re-branded as the Chicago Comic Con) fast approaching, I thought I might take a few moments to catch up on some old posts regarding chalk art murals I made at previous Chicago Conventions. Two years ago I was asked to make two murals in the four day span of the show, one as an outdoor chalk mural on pavement, the other as indoor chalk art on paper at a booth on the show floor.

The outdoor mural was to be for the now hugely successful video game Bioshock, as it was releasing a short while after the convention. 2K Games sent me artwork for the release, and I used the logo for the game as the focal point for the mural. The game revolves around a Utopian underwater city that falls into ruin when the degradation of it’s society is brought about by unchecked scientific exploration in the area of gene manipulation (and no, I did not take that off the box, that is just how I would describe it). I had two logos for the game, one was bright and shiny to represent the city when it was at it’s zenith. The second logo showed the title rotting and rust stained from lichens and water erosion representing the ruined city at the bottom of the ocean. I greatly preferred the second version of the logo, and that is what I went with.

Unlike a great number of my comic book chalk art murals, this piece focused mostly on words, a tag line for the game, the release date, and a number of logos that were required by licensing to appear in the mural. In addition, I worked up the idea of a hole in the pavement filled with water and reflecting of one of the main characters from the game called a Big Daddy, a giant beast encased in an old fashioned diving bell style suit.

I only had two days to finish the piece outdoors because I was due to create my second one indoors for the last half of the show, but in the end it turned out pretty cool and response was fantastic. Below are some photos of the progression and complete mural which was in the car turn-around in front of the Donald E Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. They were kind enough to set up saw horses to keep people from driving over the art, or ME, while I worked on it. Above the Bioshock chalk art mural, you will also see a smaller Alpha Omega chalk art drawing, this was a second advertisement piece which I was requested to make only a day or to before I got to the show.

Enjoy the photos, and as always comments are welcomed and encouraged.