They Draw on the Ground for a Living (8 Photos)

Chalk, paint and a very precise angle

These are the people festivals, theme parks and brands call when they want a hole in the street. Each piece here comes from a different professional 3D pavement artist or crew, and each only works from one spot. Step off it and the drop turns back into a flat, stretched drawing.

More: 3D Masterpieces (18 Photos)

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🏛️ Roman Bath — By 3D Joe and Max in Gloucester, England 🇬🇧

The paving of a Gloucester shopping street peels back to show steps, stone columns and a blue mosaic pool. A man stands at the rim, one step from a bath that is not there. Joe Hill made it as one of eight 3D pieces on a Gloucester history trail.

💡 Name Fact: Joe Hill chose the name 3D Joe and Max with his friend Max Lowry, who died in 2010, and kept it when he went on alone, Collater.al writes.

More: Amazing 3D Art By Joe and Max (8 Photos)

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🌊 The Waterfall — By Edgar Müller in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada 🇨🇦

Two people sit in painted rafts at the lip of a waterfall that drops through the middle of a street in Moose Jaw. Müller painted it for the Prairie Arts Festival, and the street behind it carries on as if nothing happened.

💡 Record Fact: In 2007 it became the first anamorphic streetscape in the Guinness Book of World Records, Müller’s studio says.

More: Top 10!: Clever Artworks That Made the Ground Disappear

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🚇 The Belgian Underground — By Kurt Wenner in Brussels, Belgium 🇧🇪

A London Tube entrance opens in the floor in Brussels, complete with a Piccadilly Circus sign, a white rabbit and a girl sitting on the steps. Wenner lists the piece, made for Eurostar, in his image library. Two visitors stand at the edge for scale.

💡 Origin Fact: Wenner learned about European street painting while living in Rome and added perspective to it, creating 3D pavement art. He moved to Italy in 1982, after leaving NASA.

More: The Belgian Underground

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🪨 Luisa from Encanto — By Nate Baranowski in Anaheim, California, USA 🇺🇸

Luisa from Encanto holds a stone up out of a chalk gorge, and a visitor takes the pose on top of it. Baranowski drew it in the Downtown Disney District. Before chalk became his job, his first design job was making themed kiosks and signage for Disney and Universal near Orlando.

💡 Process Fact: He now projects his digital layouts onto the ground through a VR headset. “What used to take a whole day now takes me an hour,” he told The Creative Effort.

More: 3D chalk art by Nate Baranowski at Festival of the Arts in Florida

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🧱 LEGO Terracotta Army — By Planet Streetpainting in Sarasota, Florida, USA 🇺🇸

An excavation pit full of LEGO soldiers drew a long line at the Sarasota Chalk Festival in 2011. The Dutch crew behind it was Leon Keer, Ruben Poncia, Remko van Schaik and Peter Westerink, working as Planet Streetpainting.

💡 Idea Fact: Keer said the piece was “inspired by the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China,” Laughing Squid reported.

More: 3D Masterpieces (18 Photos)

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🌉 Bridge and Tunnels for the Idea Festival — By Julian Beever in Louisville, Kentucky, USA 🇺🇸

Brick arches open onto a street far below, with a crowd, hanging planters and a police car, and the festival’s name painted across the top. The British artist drew it in 2009 in front of the Kentucky Center on Main Street for the Idea Festival, while dodging the rain.

💡 Artist Fact: “The difficulty’s getting the shapes right,” Beever told Louisville Public Media while he worked.

More: By Julian Beever – In Chile

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✋ Girl in a Manhole — By Dazer in Marietta, Georgia, USA 🇺🇸

A girl climbs out of a chalk manhole in the middle of the road, clutching a stuffed unicorn and holding up her palm with STOP written on it. Dazer drew it at Chalktoberfest in Marietta, and seen from the right spot, the hand comes straight at you.

💡 Artist Fact: Dazer wrote that the piece takes on “an uncomfortable but very important topic”: raising awareness to stop human trafficking and child abuse.

More: 2 Photos of 3D Chalk Art by Dazer at Chalktoberfest in Marietta, Georgia

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🪜 3D Staircase — By Eduardo Relero

A visitor walks down a staircase that is only paint, into a sunken room where Relero’s figures are already waiting. His signature runs along the bottom edge.

💡 Artist Fact: The Spanish artist has long experience making art in unprotected public spaces, the Chalk Festival notes, and Hi-Fructose described his pieces as “manipulating perspective and inviting viewers to challenge their viewpoints.”

More: Street Art by Eduardo Relero – A Collection

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