Sunday, June 3, 2012

It's all about perspective.



While traveling the 'information highway' (ie. the internet) I've been seeing some pretty amazing photos of 3D chalk art that people have been doing in the streets. Ever wonder like me how it's done? 

Inspired by the very clever drawing I came across yesterday ( see above) I decided to do some sketching myself and then experiment with the angle of the viewing plane . With the help of Sketchup and Photoshop I was able to wrestle a drawing I did into a very exaggerated perspective and then toggle back and forth to get a sense of how one might begin to do a large 3D painting in the same style. The short movie I made of the 'sunken garden' scene from two different angles exposes what's happening to make the optical illusion that these clever chalk artists magically create. It is a bit surprising how distorted the images need to be. 

I am sure there are ways to apply this new optical craze and do something similar in stone. I'll have to figure out how to build dry stone features that give the illusion that they are getting bigger as they run off into the distance, perhaps. Maybe build walls that appear to be leaning  past the point of balance or floating above the ground or contorting into some Escher-like configuration. Who knows? Got any ideas?

(If you are using an iphone use Youtube link at bottom of this page to see video.)