Cascading Ribbon Chalk Banner Design
Create this chalk banner for a delicate design. This chalk banner uses shading techniques to resemble a flowing piece of ribbon.
By Valerie McKeehan
July 2018
Cover courtesy of Workman Publishing.
InThe Complete Book of Chalk Lettering: Create and Develop Your Own Style, Valerie McKeehan guides readers through the art of chalk lettering. All readers can learn to master the designs found in the book with over 60 lessons, a review of basic tools and tips, and a practice space to try some of these lessons out. An additional 12 projects are included in the final chapters for readers to practice everything they learned. The following excerpt is from Chapter 5, “Banners, Borders, and Frames.”
- Begin with three sets of wave banner lines and finish with a small tail. (I drew these to decrease in length with each banner.) Be conscious of the space between the banners.
- Enclose the sides of each banner with straight lines.
- Connect the three banners by pulling the curved ends to the middle points (or close to the middle points) of the banner below and above it. The connecting strips should be of similar thickness.
- To create the top tail of the banner, close the loop with a straight line connecting to the main body. Add another line to close the smaller loop above it.
- Use shading to bring out the look of the newly created bends.
- Add shading to the connecting portions of the banner to complete the realistic ribbon appearance.
- Smudge them with your finger in a sweeping motion.
More from The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering:
Excerpted with permission fromThe Complete Book of Chalk Lettering, by Valerie McKeehan. Used with permission from Workman Publishing. Published by Workman Publishing, © 2015.
