From close by, it is a collection of cleared patches in snow. From above, Marilyn Monroe looks back. The large portrait made on a university playing field in Changchun, China, in December 2015 uses a wonderfully simple idea: the ground becomes the dark part of the drawing, and the snow supplies the light.
Contemporary photo coverage dated December 8, 2015 records students creating the image by clearing snow from a football field in Changchun, Jilin province. The original story identifies the campus as Changchun University of Technology. The archive photographs preserve the finished effect, rather than establishing a current installation to visit.
The image is made from what is removed
This is an example of working with negative space: the shapes left around and between the subject help define it. Here, snow and exposed ground trade roles across the face. A dark patch might describe a shadow, while an untouched pale area becomes a highlight.
The close view is especially useful. The portrait does not need every small feature to be drawn as a continuous line. Separate shapes combine in the viewer’s eye, and the face becomes easier to recognise as the viewpoint moves farther away.
Why the overhead view changes everything
A large drawing on a flat surface can look stretched or fragmented from ground level. A higher viewpoint brings its proportions together and lets the white border work as a frame. The buildings in the widest photograph also explain scale without relying on an unverified measurement.
The photographs do not reveal whether the students used grids, planning software or another method to lay out the portrait. What they do show is the effective use of two tones and a clear viewing angle.
A small design exercise to borrow
Try the same visual principle on paper first. Choose a simple subject, draw only its darkest shapes and leave the rest white. Then look at it from across the room. If it becomes clearer at a distance, you are seeing the same relationship between separate marks and a complete image.
A small version in a suitable private snowy area can use cleared snow as the drawing medium, without adding paint or chemicals. Keep the design away from routes that people need for safe access.
For work that builds upwards, compare the Bartz brothers’ giant snow octopus and our animal-inspired snow sculptures. For another cleared line that reads differently from above, watch the winding path in Janitor’s Revenge.
Removing material supplies the darkest parts of the portrait
The portrait depends on contrast between the snow and the exposed ground. Instead of adding black pigment to a white page, the makers reveal the darker surface beneath. From close range, those patches can appear disconnected; the overhead viewpoint assembles them into a recognisable face. The scale of the work makes that change of viewpoint essential.
Look at which features carry recognition. The arrangement of eyes, mouth and the mass of hair can suggest the sitter even when many fine details are absent. This is different from filling every part of the field with information. Large light and dark areas allow the image to remain readable from a distance.
The playing field gives the portrait a border and a familiar scale. Buildings in the wider view help the viewer understand that the face occupies an ordinary campus space, temporarily put to another use. Move between that view and the closer patches of exposed ground: the same marks alternate between physical traces of work and parts of a recognisable image. That change is the pleasure of the piece. The ground artwork is temporary, while the photograph preserves the particular angle from which its scattered dark and light shapes come together.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Huffington Post
- Viral Nova
- This Looks Like Footprints In The Snow, But When You Zoom Out… WOAH.
- Raised Footprints in Snow
- Cryoconite Holes on Glaciers
- No These Aren't Crop Circles, Wait Until You See What This Artist Does In The Snow.
- At First, It Looks Like Aliens Invaded Us. But Zoom Out And Learn The Truth… AMAZING.
- Contemporary photo coverage dated December 8, 2015
- the Bartz brothers’ giant snow octopus
- animal-inspired snow sculptures
- the winding path in Janitor’s Revenge
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