By Vurdlak on October 23, 2011, with 254 Comments
If you ask yourself why I have decided to feature some “ordinary vintage photos” on an optical illusions blog, think again. Work below is just a fraction of Spanish artist Paco Pomet’s portfolio. If you inspect the photos more closely, you’ll soon realize they’re in fact stunning oil paintings that are “just” a reproductions of vintage photographs. Not only do the works use a monochromatic palette and photo real style (which in itself I find quite impressive!) — but each of Pomet’s paintings includes something out of the ordinary that isn’t always recognizable at first glance. His illusions transform the vintage photos into something quite unexpected. What he does, he changes real people and places into surreal landscapes and portraits by tweaking tiny details that go unnoticed at first. Some end up more illusory that others, and these few I have decided to showcase. How long does it take before you discover hidden oddities? For more of Pomet’s incredibly detailed, well-rendered works, check his official homepage.
(83 votes)
Nop3. 2nd one: they are on a big table
Lol theyre not on a table they wearing highheels
This might be a dumb idea, but could the third have something to do with the underground rail road? The black man is standing right in front of them but none of the men seem to be looking at him and he’s looking at the painter.
In the third, I see several sharks in the mud circling the men. The hole also looks the open mouth with teeth of a large shark. Anyone else see this?
the 3 one look like sharks
i think that the third pic has the black man with white hands and the first 2 are obvious
i get the 3rd 1! it looks like they r standing in the middle of water!
ok they are easy just focus and think about what is unordinary.
ok
how much crack was Marcy smokin to come up with that answer?
My best guess for the third picture is:
There’s a wall in the hole. . .
as opposed to a hole in a wall.
1. pencil as logs, everyone seem to agree
2. not just high heels, but lady’s legs with high heels
3. while everyone is looking at the hole, the black person is look at you.
The river looks like wood in the 3rd
THE THIRD ONE IS THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE’S HEAD IS BLACK AND HIS HANDS ARE WHITE.
My third try; I hope this site doesn’t crash again while I’m writing.
Please view the upper right-hand corner of the picture: an image of a man, his lower face obscured by a bandana, sits astride an old-fashioned tractor, or perhaps a plow or some other farm apparatus.
He is in a plowed field, the right edge of which terminates at the picture’s edge. The left edge terminates at a vertical board. To the left of the board are the men inspecting the hole in the ground, which I believe is a distraction. They are standing on ground very different than the farmer’s plowed field.
Plowed fields don’t end so neatly in vertical boards so, for whatever reason, the upper right corner is completely different than the rest of the picture. Do you see the differences?
i get the first and third one… but what about the seccond?
There’s nothing wrong with it, but check out the stylin’ shoes!
I think in the third its the beam where the third guy leans on, it seems straight but somehow connects with the low pole in the water.
In the third, as the background liquifies, it seems as though small plants, and is that a dog paddling?, are getting sucked into the hole all the figures are wondering about…
The third one is in the fence. It’s an impossible object considering the heights and placement of its posts and the way the guy to the right leans on the railing. I guess…
For the third one, I think the illusion is with the angles of the posts and beams.
These are great. The third one was more difficult but I believe they are standing across Niagara Falls or a similar waterfall; yet, they seem to be standing on land looking into a well.
I may be wrong but in the third picture I see a giant clothes pin on the ground in between the bent over man and the last man on the right. But like I said, I’m probably wrong and the first two pictures are obvious, pencils and heels
what you censor my comment because i say something negative?
said the same thing as Astrid – just more elaborate.
Also mentioned LHOOQ – if you enjoy these – you’d like that
but none are illusions
the first is pencils… mmmkay w/e
the third has no illusion – except some bad perspective around the fence
but the second
What if these men actually were wearing high heels
its not an illusion – just a bunch of tame cross dressers!
actually – the black guy; the only one with legs apart is in normal shoes
the rest are all rather ponsy… specially the first and the one standing in the back
are we sure this isnt some social critique?
(thats what DADAism is – mentioned in the censored post)
The third picture is a dirty joke. The second has all of the men acting effeminate and wearing heels, and the first one they’re sitting on their pencils.
Another thing which doesn’t look right to me on the first picture is that the mens legs appear unnaturally long.
Well, Vurdlak, you did your job!
These pictures intrigued me so much so that I went on line and researched as much as time allowed. Found this website which is pretty good:
http://pacopomet.wordpress.com/
The enlargement of Los Socavonistas is very interesting where the bottom edge looks folded down and next to the far left pole looks like more wood like the hole.
Atlas was pretty intriguing.
Don’t think Paco Pomet was into complicated, seems these are very straight forward?
whY Oh whY are they staring into a hole?
i guess that 2nd and 3rd illusion is that they are standing and/or sitting on water.
Ok..3rd..
the left side and back is a waterfall..
Right side?? isnt..
Right OK we’ve all got the first 2 and, apart from some folk who sound like they’ve been on LSD, no one can get the third one. Its three days now. Please put us out of our agony and explain #3.
Where is the original picture for painting #3?
The 1st one the wood is really pencils and the 2nd one the men are wearing high heels.
I’m totally impressed by this artist. As marcy pointed out, there are so many layers of optical illusions in each picture, you can spend a long time looking at each painting.
In the 3rd picture, the perspective of the 2 parallel pieces of wood changed as it transitioned from the foreground into the background. In the foreground, the board the guys are holding is on top of the piece of wood on the ground. As the boards extend into the background, the top board now looks like it’s further into the picture and the bottom board closer to you.
Because #l and #2 have to do with pencils and shoes, I think #3 has to do with the hats.
Too simple?
the water looks like it is coming out of the hole, not going in the hole.
1. pencil wood.
2. men dressed as ladies?
3. it appears there used to be a brick house under the ground, so they dug into it and found the house.
These aren’t optical illusions ,they’re just surrealism.but
1st pic: there are a load of pencils
2nd pic: the guys are wearing high heels
3rd pic: it looks as if they’ve dug a hole in water
Had to read the comments for the third one. Good spotting the hands!
Love the first one.
Behind the black guy is a wall painting thats the illusion.
if you go to the website of the artist’s works, it lists the titles of these pictures, as well as other works by him. the first pic on this page is called “The Cartoonists,” the second one is “Southerners,” and the third is “The Tunnels.” Judging from the other works of this artist on his page, the thing with the third one appears to be nothing more than the white hands on the black man. the artist appears to have a thing about changing features of subjects, such as a tree resting on a park bench, hands or legs turned into rubber-tubing or electrical wires, hands, feet, or noses larger than other features, men wearing heels (repeated more than in the pic #2 here), etc. usually these anomalies (the intro to this page does not say these are illusions, just weird anomalies) from this artist are just simply something you don’t expect. Again, judging from his other work, the hands of the black man seems to be the only strange thing about the third picture.
We really need the answer!
In the first one, look closely at the ends/tips of the “logs” they are sitting on.
I wonder if the extra wood etc, means something in Spanish, since that’s the language of the title. Something OY – hmm.
The first one,all the woods end as pencils
the second,all men wearing pointed heels
couldnt find the third
Is the third one about the odd guy in between?
The problem with #3. The black man’s hands are white
The ground is actually water in the third one.
On the first one the guy in the middle seems that his feet are positioned oddly considering his stance.
I dont really see the illusion in men wearing high heels.
thats funny, i did not know there was a black man in the picture. are you sure that the men on the other side of the tree, aren’t standing on water?
If you click on his website mentioned in the paragraph, you’ll see that he painted the third picture with all the men having animal faces. But it’s not the same on this page.
Hi J! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I kept coming back here once in a while trying to figure out #3 and when I read your post I went to the site and yes! they are animal faces on the site, but not in the photo that is on here! They look like mole faces and I think that is why they are looking down the hole as if they should go live down there! thanks again for your post!
I dont see any illusions, except the first one looks like the wood are pencils. :/ Not sure tho
1st: trees are pencils, symbolizing (i think) that the loggers are re-writing the landscape.
2nd: The posh white military dudes are wearing women’s heels, but the black slave/prisoner is barefoot, which shows society.
3rd: The black man’s hands are white, which shows that he can do the same work as the whites, despite his ethnicity.
IN A FIRST PIC, THE LEGS OF THE MAN STANDING IN THE MIDDLE
THE THIRD ONE!!! THEIR FACES ARE BEAR FACES!!!
I found the first and second one easily, but i took i while to see the third.
In the first one the logs are pencils.
in the second one the men sitting on the chairs have their legs crossed like women and are wearing skirts and high heels.
In the third one the black man has white hands.
pencils. heels. Water. Give me a hard one please!
easy.
1st. pencils
2nd. For all the people saying heels, they are also wearing dresses and holding silly hats.
3rd. They are walking on water, and dug a hole in it.
1st is a pencil( or pencils) 2nd is high heels not sure of third
the 2nd picture depicts different human faces at the background which just look like shades but they are human faces, tree leaves depicts wolves faces
In the first one, the wood is pencils and in the second one, they are all wearing high heels
Dude sitting on pencils has two right feet.