Sidewalk Chalk Art - what sort of materials do I want?

ElJeffe

So my mom is going to be staging a charity sidewalk chalk art festival thing in a few months. She has, because she is a crazy person, told the sponsors buying up the squares that she will be providing the chalk. (Technically, she also told them she will be providing the artists if need be, before bothering to see if she could actually find a substantial number of good artists. She is terrible at this. Whatever.)

Anyway, I am helping her research what sort of chalk to use. What I have found ranges from this, on the high end, to this, on the low end. I have worked with the latter, briefly and non-seriously. It was... fine, but I am unconvinced I could get from them those the kind of awesome, professional-looking results you see from people who know what they're doing. The former look nice and quality, but if my mom is dropping $35-70 per artist on chalk, she will be completely boned.

So, anybody here familiar with this sort of thing? Can a good artist get decent results from the cheap stuff? Is there a happy medium somewhere that is nice yet non-exorbitant?

Nappuccino

I think the best solution would be to have her provide plenty of the cheap chalk. Then, have her tell the artists that they are welcome to bring their own chalk if they have a preference.

ElJeffe

That was my first thought, but I wanted to avert a situation where she provided something that was actively insulting or clearly unsuitable. Like going to an art class that says they'll provide materials and the professor hands out packets of crayons from IHOP, or something.