cover image Pavement Chalk Artist: The Three-Dimensional Drawings of Julian Beever

Pavement Chalk Artist: The Three-Dimensional Drawings of Julian Beever

Julian Beever, Firefly, $29.98 (112p) ISBN 978-1-55407-661-1

With these 58 chalk drawings, street artist Beever takes us around the world—to Brussels, Istanbul, London, Tokyo—to the public squares and piazzas where he creates breathtaking colored chalk anamorphic drawings—pictures rendered in perspective and appearing three-dimensional when viewed from a particular angle. The photographs of his immense paintings leap off the page, creating a whimsical wonderland of giant insects and animals, superheroes, gaping chasms, and subterranean waterways that ape and then distort reality. Each of Beever's drawings offers passersby a chance to literally step into these imagined worlds—one can balance on the headstock of a giant guitar, climb down a ladder that seems to lead into the sidewalk or sit atop a massive pint of beer. Beever's mastery and unbridled humor are on full display in these dazzling drawings, each accompanied by a description that details artistic techniques, discusses challenges the artist faced, and offers an inside look into his process. (Oct.)