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Sand Drawing is a free online sand art game that runs in the browser with no download and no sign-up. The tray is not a canvas you paint on, it is a depth you dig into: every stroke lowers the sand, and the colour that appears is whichever of the four buried layers you have reached. Three rake widths and a smoothing tool are the whole toolset. Play the Zen tray with no target and no timer, or take on eight patterns where the outline is drawn for you and the score is how closely your raking overlaps it.
How to play Sand Drawing
- Drag anywhere on the tray to rake it. The sand lowers wherever the rake passes, and the colour underneath shows through.
- There are four layers. A light stroke stays in the top sand; going over the same spot again digs to the darker layers beneath.
- Pick Fine, Medium or Wide before you draw. A fine rake is for outlines and a wide one for filling an area quickly.
- Smooth reverses the rake, pushing sand back over a stroke. It is a gentle undo rather than an exact one, the same as smoothing real sand.
- In Pattern mode a faint outline is drawn on the tray. Rake inside it and the Match percentage in the header climbs.
- Match counts how well your raked area and the outline overlap, so raking outside the shape costs you as much as missing part of it.
- Reach the target percentage to complete a pattern and open the next one. Zen Tray turns the outlines off entirely.
Tips
- Outline first with the fine rake, then fill with the wide one. Filling first almost always spills over the edge, and spill costs score.
- The Match score is an overlap, not a coverage. Raking the whole tray scores badly on purpose — leaving sand alone is half of the drawing.
- When the score stalls just under target, look for what you raked outside the shape rather than what you missed inside it. Smoothing that back is usually the fastest gain.
- Deeper is not better in pattern mode. A cell counts as raked once it is halfway down, so a single confident pass scores exactly the same as five.
- For the spiral and the lotus, follow the outline with the fine rake all the way round before touching anything else — those two have the most edge per area, which is where matches are won.
- Zen Tray is worth using between patterns. With four layers and a wide rake you can shade an area rather than just line it, which does not help the score but is the nicest thing the tray does.
- Level the Sand refills the whole tray. It is a fresh start on the same pattern, not a different one.
FAQ
Is Sand Drawing free to play?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download, no account and nothing to buy. The Zen tray and all eight patterns are here.
How do the colours work — am I choosing them?
No, you are uncovering them. The tray has four layers stacked under the surface and the colour a spot shows is simply how deep you have raked it. Going over the same stroke again takes you to the next layer down.
Why does my Match score go down when I rake more?
Because the score is the overlap between what you raked and the outline. Sand raked outside the shape counts against you exactly as much as shape left untouched, which is what stops "rake everything" from being a winning move.
Is there an undo?
Smooth is the undo. It pushes sand back over the stroke rather than deleting it, so it recovers a mistake without being pixel-exact — deliberately, because that is what smoothing sand does.
Is there a timer or a way to lose?
Neither. Nothing runs down, nothing fails, and the Zen tray has no target at all. The patterns simply stay open until you reach their percentage.
How is this different from the other sand game here?
Sand Art Studio is about pouring coloured sand into a bottle in layers. This is the opposite motion: the sand is already there in layers and you take it away with a rake.
Does Sand Drawing work on a phone?
Yes, and a finger is arguably the better rake. The tray scales to the frame and every tool is a full-size touch target.