Street painting, pavement art or sidewalk art call it whatever you like, art has no limits whether on street side or even on toilet papers. It can be done on many surfaces using various materials. It is all started in Italy during the 16th century and was usually for painting religious paintings with chalk, bricks and colored stones. Then Kurt Wenner introduced this art in the United States in the early 1980’s. He was the first to start a street painting festival in US, since then the number of these festivals has grown around the world. Kurt Wenner was able to combine many techniques to come up with what is known now as anamorphic, illusionistic, or 3D street painting. What is so special about 3D street painting is that it looks realistic.
How They Get Started!
First the artists choose an image they will paint with the chalk and make colored photocopies of the painting. Then they pick a street that is not crowded to make it easy for them to start painting. They should then start sweeping and measuring out the area where the painting will be done in.
3D street Painting Techniques
The whole magic is done through techniques and tricks that employ optical illusion and fool the eyes. The artists use mathematics and geometric principles to give the illusion of three-dimensional view of their drawing. One of the tricks used is trompe l’oeil decoration, in which the painter draws a fake window on a building that it seems real for those on the ground. Nowadays, computers have made it easier for 3D street painting artists to calculate these effects and tricks. The painting is done first on a grid of horizontal and vertical lines that divide the surface of the painting into squares then after that the artists draw a chalk grid on the pavement with the same number of cells. At the end the artists erase any trace of the chalk grid and take photos for their work as a record. Here are some magnificent examples of 3D street painting art.
