2025 Pasadena Chalk Festival Day 1 - 2025/06/14

It's time for the 2025 Pasadena Chalk Festival! I'm excited! We've got a fun mural this year. Last year we asked the question "What if Pokemon went to Disneyland?" 

This year, we wondered "What if Grogo went to Hogwarts?" 

I asked the kids what time they wanted to get started the night before. They said, "9 or 930? But we'll get up earlier for you if you want to. Since it's Father's Day."

I do want to get an earlier start to the day for sure. I know that working in the sun during the afternoons can be brutal, so it's easier to get a lot done in the morning when it's cool. By 7am, I was at our spot and getting the time-lapse camera set up and T and the kids were there a short time after. 

And we're certainly not the only ones here. Curt and Charlotte arrived at 5:45am to get started. Curt is sketching his outlines by hand. 

While Charlotte has gone high-tech! Using an Oculus 3 VR headset, she's referenced points on the ground and can project her image onto it! With one hand she can control the opacity of the image and see through it. With the other, she can sketch the basic outline of it with all the correct proportions! Pretty awesome!

Our site was prepped with a white tempera base from the night before. I brushed it off, and picked up this gal and moved her along her way. Don't want to squish her!

Our method of getting our sketch onto the pavement is the same as it has been since we started. I print a 1:1 size copy, made from 3'x4' blueprint drawings from Staples ($10 each), and we tape them together to make our mural. 

Once taped together, we cover the back in a neutral chalk color (not too dark, not too light) and a color that we don't use too often. The entire back turns into a giant piece of "carbon paper". Whatever we trace on the front, will transfer to whatever is on the back, in this case, our pavement! 

By 8am, everyone has made good progress. 

But it's officially time to start the chalk festival and go to check in. 

At the check-in desk, Natalie gives us our artists badges. I was impressed at how many people she knew by name! We walked up and she said "The Flowers Family! Here you go Joe!"

Inside we received our artist T-shirts. 

I really like the tote bags this year. Inside are 3 different boxes of chalk, with all the colors we could need. A 48 pack, 24 pack, and 12 pack of different colors. 

It was pointed out to me later, but we're in the Chalk Newletter. I can't believe it's year 10 for us! I mean, I know we've made a lot of fun murals, and the kids have been coming here since they were little, but 10 years? 

One of the sponsors this year, Siete Chips, has proved a ton of chips, not just for the artists, but for everyone visiting the chalk festival. 

Next we turned in our paintings. The proceeds will go to the Lightbringer Project. 

And then the kids made use of the breakfast table and all their goodies. 

8:30am and it's super busy at the Paseo with all the artists hard at work. 

Time to get started on ours in earnest. We taped down our print, so that nothing would move once we started tracing things out. 

Then, everyone grabbed a ballpoint pen and started going over the entire outline of the print. Grogu might be little on screen, but he's nearly 6 feet tall here. 

After a once-over to make sure every line was traced, it's time to remove the paper. 

Did it work? Yes! It did! The process was a success.You can see we've got an exact outline now of our picture on the pavement. Now we just have to fill things in! 

Which is easier said than done. 64 sq ft is a lot of ground to cover. Luckily we've got a lot of hands to help out! The kids got started coloring in the solid sections on the edge. 

T has started on the colored parts of Grogu's wizard robes. 

While I hopped into the middle to do the ears, mouth, and other lighter areas. The way we draw, with distinct separate colored areas, it's better to do light colors before dark colors. We've found that when it comes to rubbing the colors into the pavement, if you have just a smidge of black or other dark colors, it overwhelms the brighter and lighter colors. Best to put the black on last and keep them from mixing with the other colors too much. 

Alli's got her section and is working hard. 

Ian doing a castle spire near the top. 

How's our chalk neighbor Ruston doing? Great! It's the 45th anniversary of his favorite movie ever Xanadu! His mural is a tribute to that, plus it's an advertisement to other fans of the movie. In August, him and his friends have organized a whole Xanadu Experience! There's a Tribute Concert, Film Screening with guests from the film, and a picnic at Pan Pacific Park! 

I felt we were making pretty good progress as the morning went along. 

And when a new color arrives, you see a giant jump in progress. 

11am and time for a stretch break. Curt is moving right along on his. It's a play on The Brady Bunch, called The Bot-y Bunch. All sorts of different robots from a whole world of sci-fi. 

Didn't Charlotte do Cinderella last year? 

She did, but last year her chalk mural and her painting were of different things. She painted this creation last year. This year, she's making it out of chalk! 

Wandering around to stretch our legs, we'd heard that Chick-fil-A was going to be here! I was curious if they were going to be doing give-aways or what, but it turned out they were just a food tent. I was not the only one who was surprised by their prices. $9 for a sandwich, or $10 for a spicy sandwich. $4 for Waffle Chips, which we've taste tested before. $3 for a 12oz can of soda? 

They had a meal "deal" for $20 with a sandwich, drink, chips, and cookie. Yikes. I think we'll find something else for lunch today. 

Checking in on our paintings at the silent auction, it looks like there is a whole table dedicated to Star Wars! They've separated all three of our paintings, so they'll be bid on individually. 

It's Jamie Leake! He's always got a humorous cartoon animation. We'll check in with him a little later to see how it's going. 

Back at our mural, Theresa and the kids really focused on the grays of the robe, while I did the green of Grogu's face. Those greens are really making it pop! 

Time to break for lunch. We all walked to the Ginger and Spice Noodle Grill, where we found teriyaki bowls, spaghetti, and chicken tenders. 

It's the day of the No Kings rallies around the country, and Pasadena was no exception. We saw multiple people marching and chanting while on their way to the central meeting areas. 

It's also the day of the Pasadena Classic Car show! And they're holding it right beside the chalk festival again! There's plenty of cool looking classic cars, but there's one that is always my favorite. 

The car that went Back to the Future. 

The amazing gull-wing DeLorean! 

Wandering back towards our chalk mural, I ran into a familiar face. It's Charlie Sanchez! I've known Charlie going all the way back to our very first year chalking in Pasadena. I recall meeting him as Ruston and I were heading to the nearby library to get a print-out of our mural. 

His YouTube channel tells his story. Here's a few videos from his coverage this year of the festival. 

Along with our mural, there's a couple "props" we have around. The kids saw this plush Grogu as a prize at Chuck E Cheese and just had to get him. He didn't stay clean very long, and he will be our chalk baby going forward. 

I wasn't present for it, but someone was walking around and loved seeing Grogu. He pulled out this 3D print he'd made and gave it to the kids as a gift! I love it! 

It's 2:30pm and things are starting to move along. 

Once you start doing the black lines, thing all start to come together. Now things are really going to stand out and pop! 

Alli continuing the massive yellow background up the side. 

While Ian starts at the bottom and works his way up. 

They're leaving me a space in the middle to be able to reach Grogu's face without smudging anything. 

Oh yeah! 3:30pm and we're 80% finished! I think we'll leave a little bit for tomorrow though. 

Ruston is starting to wrap things up on his Xanadu mural. He's done for the day! 

His hands after working. 

Curt is 4/9th of the way through his. It's very easy to see how much more he's got to go. 

Checking in with Jamie, his kids have arrived! Jamie's mural setting in an art studio, and there are "paintings" hanging on the wall of the art studio. He's made it so his kids and wife could draw the "paintings" while he does the main mural below. I love that idea! 

So many people would see our mural as they were crossing the street and squeal with delight. "Baby Yoda! Grogu! He's wearing Harry Potter robes!" 

Other artists would say "Boogie Boards! What a great idea! You can lay out on the ground and still draw!"

Yes, we've been using those boogie boards since year 1! 

By 4:30pm, I'm putting the finishing touches on the snitch in the upper corner. 

It's gotta look golden and bright. Grogu loves balls, so I'm sure he'd be immediately drawn to the golden snitch. 

By random fortune, our chalk neighbor Jordyn is here for her 2nd year of the chalk festival, and she's doing the Mandalorian and Grogu. It was serendipity. Coming along great Jordyn!

At 6:30pm, we covered everything up with a plastic tarp, set up cones, and laid down our umbrellas in an effort to keep people from walking on it overnight. Let's hope it looks the same tomorrow morning! 

And even though we're all a little tired, sweaty, and sore, I think we can still go visit a new Chuck E Cheese nearby. We've made a lot of good progress today! Tomorrow we'll have plenty of time to finish!

And just for fun, I set up a time-lapse camera to take pictures of our progress. One photo every 10 seconds from 7:30am to 6:30pm. 

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