Anamorphosis

One day a friend sent me pictures of pavement drawings made by the artist Julian Beever. They are amazing! They were drawn on sidewalk and are naturally flat, but when viewed at one certain angle, they look three-dimensional! That's how I got interested in the art of anamorphosis.

The web link above to Phillip Kent is a very good site about all things anamorphosis. Normally we look at art at 90 degrees, straight on. However, with anamorphosis, the drawing is made at an angle different than 90, more often at a very odd angle such that when viewed at 90 degrees it looks out of proportion, at least as we normally take it.

I cannot mention anamorphosis without providing a link to Julian Beever's web site, so here it is, http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm . My favorite is the Batman and Robin drawing. If I ever get to meet Beever, I will bow to him while chanting "We are not worthy!", in the fashion of the dudes in the Wayne's World movie.

Also great is Kurt Wenner's drawings, http://www.kurtwenner.com/street/. In my mind, they are both great. How in the world do they visualize the drawings? Great sense of perspective these artists possess. Not only that, it take days to draw as the artist meticulously fill in the artwork square by square.

Not one to have the talent or the time to draw anamorphosis art, I gave Phillip Kent's Anamorph Me! software a shot but so far the outcome has been disappointing. The more I used it, the more I thought, "Hey, isn't there a filter like this in Photoshop?" I think Anamorph Me! can be great at making cylindrical anamorph, but first I have to get some mylar sheets to create the cylinder. So far in my office's neighborhood in Jersey City, NJ, no store carries it. I am tempted to just buy one of the fun book mentioned by Kent, but eventually if I want to give away anamorph and cylinder I still have to be to make them myself.

Oh, yeah, Happy New Year!