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Amazing 3D Sand Drawings by Jamie Harkins, Constanza Nightingale, and David Rendu Give Beach a New Dimension

By Jenny Zhang on May 5, 2014

Constanza Nightingale

New Zealand artists Jamie Harkins, David Rendu, and Constanza Nightingale transformed the beaches of Mount Maunganui into eye-popping works of art with their amazing 3D sand drawings. With creativity and a sense of playfulness, the artists etch large-scale shapes and lines in the sand, producing imaginative scenes such as a lively pier, a skatepark, and even the Pantheon.

Viewed from a distance away, the sand drawings come to life, giving the illusion that they're actually 3-dimensional. To create these fun scenes, the artists use anamorphosis, a visual technique that sidewalk artists also use. Anamorphosis is a distorted 2D image that, when viewed from a specific vantage point, achieves a 3D effect.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Harkins was inspired by 3D chalk drawings on the sidewalk. “We've seen other people doing stuff on beaches, but it's always been geometric, flat shapes, like a pattern, so we thought we'd get into the whole 3D thing,” he says. “And I kind of like the fact that it disappears at the end of the day when the tide comes in. It makes it impermanent.”

To see more of the group's fantastic 3D sand drawings, check out their Facebook page 3DSD (no longer active) and the artists' individual pages, linked below.

Constanza Nightingale