Charming Chalk Characters Come Alive by Cleverly Interacting With the Environment

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If you're ever walking through Ann Arbor, Michigan, keep an eye on the ground—you may just find something delightfully unexpected. Artist David Zinn uses his creative talents to add charming chalk drawings to sidewalks, staircases, and other niche corners of the city. Each of these cartoonish characters playfully interacts with the environment in such a way that will bring a smile to your face.

Zinn's art is easy to spot for its distinct style. He renders a range of animal and mythological characters including foxes, dragons, dogs, and creatures straight from his imagination. Despite their stylized appearance, many of these illustrations appear to have three-dimensional depth, which Zinn achieves through the use of perspective and shading. In this way, these artworks look as though they are standing or placed underneath the surface rather than drawn on top.

Some of the clever places that Zinn places his original creations include a crack in the sidewalk where a green weed becomes the body of a verdant doglike creature. Another piece of chalk art imagines a wooden staircase acting as a couch for a sleepy squirrel. Because each of these pieces is made using chalk, they are, by nature, ephemeral and will wash away with the elements. This vulnerability, however, makes the artwork a precious find; you know that Zinn made a special effort to bring life to a small part of the city, even if its lifespan is only for a couple of days.

If you’d like to learn how to draw like Zinn, he has a book called Chalk Art Handbook that contains all of his “tricks and secrets.” It’s now available through Bookshop. To purchase more from Zinn, be sure to check out his online store.