9 November 2016 - CHALKBOARD ART

CHALKBOARD ART

G'day folks,

Here is an interesting post for you illustrators, and those of us who cannot draw for peanuts, compliments of Leilani. You may recognise some of his work.

In a country where most of our schools have whiteboards and computer screens, it is difficult to appreciate chalk art. As a former English language instructor in rural Japan, I was delightfully introduced to the kokuban art, blackboard art, through my students.

Between each period, we would enjoy a 10-minute break, and in that time, they produced drawings of their favorite characters from Pokémon, Kuroko's Basketball, and other TV shows. They would also create imaginary scenes or draw me. Now, these were nothing like the stick figures I was capable of, but something I would have been willing to pay for if I had a chance to keep them.
Today, an art teacher based in Nara has blown the competition out of the water with his drawings. Hirotaka Hamasaki, also known as Hamacream, has reproduced work by Hokusai and Leonardo da Vinci.

We're curious about how anyone could take such a temporary art so seriously, but perhaps there's a beauty in the transience. After all, there are florists and pastry chefs, artists who create pieces that'll soon disappear.
Check out some of Hamacream's work below.

Clancy's comment: Bloody brilliant, eh?

I'm ...