What you will need:
Chalk
An imagination
A large shaded sidewalk (preferably)
Your kid
A phone
Tip 1: Find a large shaded Area
I intentionally shot these images in the middle of the day to try to demonstrate the use of less than ideal light. As you can tell I did not have an area of continuous shade, so I worked with what I had, a tree with spotted shade. When I started drawing I was under the shadiest part of the tree, but by the time I finished and convinced my toddler to participate… Kinda… The light had moved and I had more dappled light than I hoped for. However, that’s real life! If you don’t have a large shaded are you can always draw during the day and return during sunset for your pictures.
Tip 2: Pay attention to the sun’s position.
In the images of my child sitting up I positioned him with the sun to his back and at an angle. This allowed the light to filter through the tree and light the scene, but kept my son’s face in a softer light.
Tip 3: Have fun! (and if you can, use an older child)
I had a blast creating the toy story scene for my child. He was enamored with the alien, but not the least bit impressed with my buzz wings and was so mad when I tried to get him to lay down in my scene. As he’s normally incredibly good natured and loves toy story it made the image that much funnier to me. However, If I had the option i may have opted for a 5 year old that I could have bribed ;)
BONUS TIP
You tube has lots of fun tutorials on ‘'how to draw” anything you can think of! Have your kids look up a new how to draw idea and try something new. See who’s drawing turns out better with chalk!
My Cell Phone Image:
