Josh Sommers' "Escheresques"

38 comments

Hey everybody! I found an interesting artist on flickr, and have to admit am really amazed by all of his artwork. Most of the photos he shares are edited in photoshop, but the illusion they produce is usually independent from the digital manipulation. It amazed me when I found out he is the author of our previously posted CG Manipulated impossible structures. Josh Sommers is an amateur photographer, and is happy to share and teach others the techniques he uses. If you are interested in how to do something, feel free to send him a message through flickr. His Equirectangular panoramas, little planets and stereographic projections are all created using Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Canon 10-22mm lens, a Nodal Ninja 3 Tripod head, Hugin, Photoshop and Flexify. He is a Photoshop user since 1993. Below are 3 of his photos that took my attention. If they remind you of Escher, its not coincidence!








38 Comments

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  1. Anonymous Norm 

    Lovely! Thank you!

  2. Anonymous jesse 

    dang, i'd kill for talent like that! pretty freaking amazing stuff!

  3. Anonymous Anonymous 

    1 comment!
    very intresting.
    acctually,the last one could be done without any editing software.

  4. Anonymous Anonymous 

    ok... that's kewl but slightly creepy...


    wind
    in
    my
    hair

  5. Anonymous Kat 

    Way cool!!

  6. Anonymous Anonymous 

    ESCHER! haha we are doing his work in school right now!

  7. Anonymous Anonymous 

    1st post!... i think... this is so cool i have no idea how he does it... maybe sit through paper? i dont know

  8. Blogger soccersquirt 

    WOW!!!!!

  9. Anonymous Anonymous 

    the second was the worst

  10. Anonymous Anonymous 

    this is pretty good. the first one is very similar to m.c. escher's pic though. this ones just in color haha. still good though

  11. Anonymous Kyle 

    I'm pritty sure you've posted the 1st 1 befor but the 2nd and 3rd are new to me. The 3rd is just creepy though. Nice illusions.

    P.S. not how i dont care if i have first comment. I probably don't anywayse though lol

  12. Anonymous Person 

    how the hell.....

  13. Anonymous Anonymous 

    Wow, that last one is screwed up! Nice illusions.

  14. Blogger Fink Productions 

    That last one is trippy

  15. Anonymous Anonymous 

    that's really cool!!! i love the one where he's drawing his own foot!

  16. Blogger KYLE 

    I LOVE Escher. I've never seen 'Drawing Hands' done like this, and the guy drawing himself is Fantastic!, I might have to steal that idea

  17. Blogger Peppy " The Hot & Happening Dude " 

    Superb !

  18. Anonymous Anonymous 

    I love this!
    Here is M.C. Escher's original "Drawing Hands".
    http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7046/drawinghandsrz9.jpg

  19. Blogger Narcissist 

    that's pretty sick!

  20. Anonymous Anonymous 

    how does last one possible?

  21. Anonymous Jezzer Sprout 

    After a while it becomes more obvious. The first picture is a simple bluescreen effect, while the second is kaleidoscopic bluescreen (only the first two hands are real); the third uses the bluescreen again

  22. Anonymous Robby 

    those are sick. it's amazing what photoshop can do

  23. Blogger JeriDynamist 

    Reminds me of Rene Magritte.

  24. Blogger Summermoon 

    Hey, thats really good. Very cool.

  25. Anonymous Kizz 

    First to comment! It's amazing how he does that, the hand one is ok, but the legs illusion really impressed me!

  26. Blogger David 

    That's really good. :D

  27. Anonymous Anonymous 

    the third picture is much cool, more original

  28. Blogger Milan 

    Awesome! ;)

  29. Anonymous Anonymous 

    hey thats cool. that kinda reminds me of the music video 'drive' by incubus.

  30. Blogger Janae 

    I like the second one the best, but I like things like that.

  31. Blogger Xaver 

    photoshoped, anyway it's a good work and I like it!

  32. Anonymous Cheese 

    OMG THAT IS SO COOL!

  33. Anonymous U2freak 

    wat is wrong with u guys... the last one is amazing, and extremely artistic!!!!!!!! I love it!

  34. Anonymous Anonymous 

    It actually reminds me a lot of that "incubus - drive" film clip... he uses the escher hands to draw himself throughout the clip.

  35. Anonymous URL (optional) 

    I love the last one!
    But I can't help thinking those legs look ridiculously small for his body...

  36. Blogger uvalntine 

    I like!!! the last one is the coolest, and the most original.

  37. Anonymous Josh Sommers 

    Hey everyone, I'm Josh, and these are my works. I'm glad that (some of) you guys like (some of) them! I got a good chuckle reading your reactions to my work.

    You are correct, the first image is an homage to Escher's "Drawing Hands". I used his original image to try to exactly reproduce it with a camera. That one was created with three photos: One of each hand and one of the background. The three images were combined in Photoshop and then parts of each hand were filtered to look like pencil drawings.

    The second image is the "Droste Effect" applied to the first image. If you check out my stream at flickr.com/photos/joshsommers and look in my sets you'll find a tutorial for the droste effect if you are interested.

    The third one was done very similarly to the first. I sat on a large piece of white cardboard and took a picture of myself. In Photoshop I separated my top half from my bottom half, applied the pencil drawn effect to the bottom half and then painted in my shadows by hand.

    The first and third images were shot and photoshopped in the same night. The second one was done almost a year later.

    All of my tricks are usually done in Photoshop as opposed to the more creative ideas I read above like using a blue screen or kaleidascope or cut-outs...etc.

    Cheers,
    Josh

  38. Anonymous Me 

    WHOA!!! Maybe there are some kind of holes in a table....




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