2. Now use tracing paper to make a sketch of the image’s main elements, and draw a grid over the image:

Tracing paper, pencil, marker

3. Draw the grid on the sidewalk (sufficiently multiplied for a larger space) with chalk, and sketch in the major elements according to your diagram:

4. Color in large areas with fat “sidewalk chalk” to get a nice base layer down:

5. Then go back in and add details and shading and fine-tune the colors with denser chalk pastels:

That’s it! Chalk art can take a while–this was about 150 minutes from start to finish–but it’s fun to be outside and creating. What Flickr Commons image will you chalk?

For best results, choose an image that’s already pretty simple and high-contrast — as I did below with the portrait of Portuguese actress Beatriz Costa (from the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian). Or just make an outline stencil of something more elaborate — this  baseball action shot would be well suited to that approach. Architectural features are also interesting to stencil. Think about the image a bit before diving in — which parts will you cut out?  Which parts will remain the color of the t-shirt?

Working with images like this — really sitting down and studying their composition, cutting and painting with them — is a great way to engage with the riches of the Flickr Commons. And when you wear a piece of the Commons, you’re inviting conversations about the photo, how you found it and why you chose it. So choose wisely, and enjoy the opportunity to share what the Commons project is all about.

Printing out the stencil onto freezer paper.

The stencil after cutting.

Ironing the stencil onto a t-shirt.

After first of several rounds of spray paint.

The big reveal peel!

Cooler than a Hannah Montana shirt, right?

For my examples (above), I used the Field Museum Library’s wonderful World’s Columbian Exposition set, which includes prints, photographs, and ephemera related to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the “White City” where the first Ferris Wheel appeared, among other wonders. (Across the Commons, the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian Institution have also posted images from the World’s Columbian Exposition.) But the idea can work for any images you like, so do explore the possibilities.

1. First, lay out two sheets of images: one for your backgrounds, and one for your foregrounds. For the background sheet, I copied and pasted the images of tickets from the Commons, in a collage pattern. Change the sizes as you see fit, and adjust the colors and contrast so that they’re mostly black-and-white (save your printer ink). For the foreground sheet, I copied and pasted an image of the Ferris wheel four times.  Choose a strong image that won’t be a huge hassle to cut out, and (again) you can adjust the contrast and colors for your purposes.

2. Print out each sheet onto white cardstock. Your pages should look like these:

3. Cut each sheet into quarters. If you stop here, you have eight postcards:

4. Cut the background rectangles slightly smaller (your printer probably left white edges — cut those off).  Now add a bit of color with ink pads, markers, pencils … whatever’s handy. Darker in the corners and edges, lighter toward the center, will usually give a good effect. Or you can leave the backgrounds alone and color the central image instead.

5. Cut out the central images from the foreground rectangles.

6. Use a gluestick or double-stick tape to mount the backgrounds to folded cardstock (I used some dark green and red scraps here), then add the central image:

That’s it! You’ve made four cool cards without a trip to the art supply store, thanks to Flickr Commons.