From the boardwalk it looks like a plane has landed on the sand, or that a stone well has opened up in the middle of the beach. Walk a few steps to the side and the illusion collapses into a field of raked lines and scraped shadows. These 3D beach drawings were made by the New Zealand group 3DSD, using nothing more than sticks, rakes and the wet sand left by a falling tide.

3D beach drawing made with different shades of sand – 3DSD

The technique is called anamorphosis, and it is far older than Instagram. What is new is the canvas: a public beach, a crowd of passers-by and a deadline set by the sea.

A perspective drawing on a beach creates the illusion of a raised imaginary structure
A perspective drawing on a beach creates the illusion of a raised imaginary structure. Gallery attribution: 3DSD.

3DSD: the beach artists from Mount Maunganui

3DSD began in Mount Maunganui, the surf town on a peninsula north-east of Tauranga in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. The suburb is known for its long ocean beach and for Mauao, the 232-metre volcanic cone at its tip. The founding trio were Jamie Harkins, Constanza Nightingale and David Rendu, three artists from three different countries. Nightingale is from Chile and Rendu from France, and the two later continued the work as a duo.

Their drawings spread worldwide through photos and video. Subjects range from sporting icons and famous emblems to surreal landscapes: tunnels that seem to run out to sea, ladders that drop into pits, aircraft that cast a shadow on the sand.

Nightingale, who also works under the name Constanza Tagini Nightingale, documents dated pieces on her portfolio. They include two works at Raglan on the west coast of the North Island in December 2014, drawings at Waihi Beach, and pieces at Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula in January and March 2015, among them Hole to an Other Dimension.

How anamorphic sand art works

Anamorphosis is a deliberately distorted image that only snaps into shape from one viewpoint. Leonardo da Vinci sketched an anamorphic eye in the Codex Atlanticus, and Hans Holbein the Younger hid a stretched skull across the bottom of The Ambassadors in 1533. In modern times Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever made the idea famous with pavement chalk drawings.

On a beach the principles are the same:

  • A fixed viewpoint. The artists pick the spot where the camera or the crowd will stand. Shapes are stretched away from that point, so the far end of a drawing is much longer than it looks.
  • Light and dark sand. Raking roughens the surface and makes it read darker; smooth, damp sand reflects more light. Those two tones become the shaded and lit faces of a box, a wall or a hole.
  • Drawn shadows. A shadow cast on the “ground” is what persuades the eye that an object stands up from it.
  • A human for scale. Each finished piece includes people, who appear to climb, jump or peer into the scene.
3D sand drawing of a plane with its own drawn shadow – 3DSD
Lifelike anamorphic drawing on beach sand – 3DSD
Anamorphic sand illusion by Constanza Nightingale – 3DSD

Tools, tide and timing

Nightingale describes the kit as a stick and a selection of rakes, used to build texture, contrast and perspective. Everything is drawn on the firm sand of the intertidal zone, the stretch between high and low water, which holds a crisp line far better than dry sand.

That choice gives every drawing a short life. The work is ephemeral by design: once photographed and enjoyed, it is covered by the incoming tide and wiped clean. Timing, communication between the artists and a clear plan for the viewpoint are part of the art.

Detailed 3D drawing raked into beach sand – 3DSD
Perspective drawing of a ladder and well on beach sand, with a person appearing to jump above it
Sand drawing of a tunnel that appears to head out to sea – 3DSD

Watch the 3D beach drawings come together

The video below shows the drawings from the intended viewpoint and from the side, which makes it easy to see how much distortion each illusion needs.

Try a simple anamorphic drawing yourself

Start on paper. Draw an open box on a sheet, stretching its far edges, then photograph it from a low angle at one end of the table. Adjust until the box seems to stand up. On a beach, pick a gently sloping stretch of firm wet sand, check the tide times, and mark your viewpoint with a stake before you start.

For other ways of playing with perspective, see Rich McCor’s paper cut-outs, then compare these flat drawings with Carl Jara’s sand sculptures, where the sand really does rise into solid forms. The 3DSD participation feature shows more of the group’s pieces with people inside them.

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