Brilliant Sidewalk Chalk Art

Julian Beever, Pavement Picasso

Julian Beever is an English artist who is famous for his anamorphic art on the pavements of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. Beever gives an amazing illusion to his drawings, so that the objects appear to be three dimensional rather than flat as they actually are.

Art for the people. My art is for anybody, it's for people who wouldn't go into an art gallery. It's art for the people. Art shouldn't be locked away in galleries and libraries and books. Art should be for everybody and not just art buffs, historians and so-called experts.

Julian works in chalk, so his art, which takes up to 3 days to complete, is there only as long as the elements allow. If it rains it means I've done a lot of hard work for nothing, but I usually manage to avoid that.

The important thing for me is to get a photo of it at the end. For me, I'm working towards building a photograph as my end result, and if I get that I'm happy.

The secret is to set up a camera on a tripod and keep it in one spot and check every mark you make. It's really just playing with perspective to make it appear different to what it really is.

The 3D aspect to his work came much later while he was working in Brussels. I decided to get into 3D after seeing the effect of tiles being removed from the street, and later trying to recreate the sense of depth in a drawing.


Make Poverty History The front view is above and the side view is below. This is 40 feet long!



Politicians get sucked into a pit. Who will save them? Once I realized you could make things go down, I realized you could make them appear to go up and I began experimenting.



Today I'm drawing Felix the Cat gate-crashing the Chinese New Year of the dog. He's popping out of the ground in a Chinese dragon costume.
Chinese Dragon with Felix the Cat



There is no hole in this pavement.



Land Use



Canal Street - New Orleans



Rafting - Watch Out!



Hosing down the street - Everything is fake, even the hose and water!



People avoid the hole.



Did you spot tiny Julian Beever on the Top of the Bottle?





Hard to believe that the little boy is standing flat on the pavement!









Julian Deever - Self Portrait