Just about every parent under the sun breaks out sidewalk chalk for their kids at some point. But it was only about a year ago that BJ Wilkinson — a kitchen repairman and dad of three living in Alabama — decided to pick up the chalk himself.
"I hadn't done anything artistic since high school," admits BJ. "I just started doodling on my driveway."
Thinking it would be fun to involve his 9-year-old daughter Ava in the process, he started making room for her to star in his drawings. Then he snapped some photos and posted them on Instagram under the name capn_awesome77.
"That's when things blew up," he says. Since then, his artwork has garnered hundreds of followers and invitations to various chalk art festivals around the world, which he has declined.
"I just do this for fun," he says, adding that he creates about one image per week, and that they take a couple hours to make (and sadly they wash away as soon as it rains). "I'll stop when my daughter outgrows it. Eventually she won't want to participate, like her two older siblings. So, I'll take it while I can get it."
And we will, too! Need some inspiration to seriously up your sidewalk chalk game? Check out some of his drawings to see the humble art of sidewalk chalk in a whole new light.
Wow, #3 and #9 are such trippy optical illusions!
Image via capn_awesome77/Instagram
Lunchtime!
"This Peter Pan crocodile was the first piece of chalk art I did," says BJ. "We'd just moved into a new house and we had this patio out back which would be perfect. I just posed Ava just right, leaned out of our second-story window and took this picture."
Got Your Nose!
After watching Frozen, "I decided to expand his chalk art into comic strip form," says BJ. The resulting skit of his daughter Ava convincing reindeer Sven to cough up Olaf's nose "is probably my most popular piece of chalk art."
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A Charlie Brown Christmas
This Charlie Brown Christmas tree drawing was a challenge to pull off, since his daughter Ava was standing, but the drawing was flat on the ground. "I watched a lot of videos online, and practiced on paper first," BJ says. "Snoopy may only look 2 feet tall, but on the sidewalk his head his 7 feet!"
Ava and Hobbes
"This picture of Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite," says BJ. "I read this strip daily when I was a kid."
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Cartoon Crossing
"For my daughter Ava's birthday she asked for a Lilo & Stitch/Beatles party," says BJ. "You can't just go down to Party City and get that stuff! That's how I came up with the idea of doing the Abbey Road album cover with her favorite cartoon characters."
Lion ... Queen?
"This is my wife's favorite," says BJ. And for obvious reasons: "She's a huge Lion King fan."
Harry Potter Spell-off
And what sidewalk chalk collection would be complete without a Harry Potter magical battle scene? "It didn't turn out as good as I wanted because it was too long," he says, adding that this drawing was 18 feet. "You can't see the details of Voldemort's face unless you're up close."
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Green Thumb
This comic strip featuring the Piranha plant from the Super Mario Brothers video game came about for one simple reason: "I had a lot of green chalk I needed to use up," BJ explains.
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Nigel
This chalk drawing of Nigel — the pelican from Finding Nemo — is another 3D image that was a challenge for BJ to create. While the pelican may look around three feet tall, "he's actually 34 feet from his feet to the top of his head," says BJ.
'Your Wish Is My Command'
Odds are you recognize the genie from Disney's Aladdin … but what about that donut? "It's Homer's donut from The Simpsons," says BJ. The Instagram caption — "two wishes left" — "is just something silly I came up with."
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