Optical Illusions in 3D Sidewalk

Optical Illusions in 3D Sidewalk
NAME _______________________________________
Even if you've never seen pavement chalk art in real life, chances are you've seen some of the stunning photos circulating the Internet by renowned pavement artists such as Kurt Wenner or Julian Beever. Since sidewalk chalk drawings get washed away in the rain or worn away by time, photographs provide an excellent way of preserving the art for all to enjoy.
Sidewalk chalk drawing is also commonly referred to as: pavement art, sidewalk art, street painting, 3-D chalk art, 3-D pavement art, or anamorphic
street painting, among other terms.
Although some artists might use chalk or paint to create these drawings,
most "chalk artists" use professional-quality pastels that allow for bright colors in a range of hues.
The wonder of 3-D sidewalk chalk drawings is that they can transform a familiar, ordinary
setting into something fantastical and out of this world. A portal is opened and the imagination is unfurled. Possibilities abound... but the artwork only looks "correct" when seen from a
certain angle.
Here's an example. Can you tell what's being depicted in the painting below?
The photo above was taken
from the opposite angle that
you are supposed to view it.
Notice how stretched out the
shapes are in the foreground!
Lego Army by Leon Keer at the Sarasota Chalk Festival 2011
What a remarkable difference it makes when you view the art from the correct angle! It actually looks like td
there is a giant hole in the pavement filled with terracotta Lego figures.
This phenomenon is known as "perspectival anamorphosis", which means that the artwork will look 3dimensional when viewed from a specific angle, but will appear totally skewed from other angles.
"Anamorphic drawing" is another way of describing these types of 3-D pavement drawings.
Anamorphosis was a technique discovered in the early Renaissance, when artists painted ceilings to depict
towering architecture and a floating menagerie of figures, some appearing closer and others appearing to be
higher up, as if they were inhabiting an actual 3-D space. Anamorphic perspective flourished well into the Baroque and Rococo eras.
All information in this handout is copyright protected. Permission to use this information was granted by Thaneeya McArdle /
www.Art-is-Fun.com on October 13, 2012.
http://www.art-is-fun.com/sidewalk-chalk-drawings.html
Some current Sidewalk Artists
Kurt Wenner
Julian Beever
Melanie Stimmel
Julia Kirk-Purcell
Kurt Wenner
Melanie Stimmel
Julian Beever
Julia Kirk-Purcell
Edgar Mueller