By Vurdlak on October 23, 2011, with 251 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.
(76 votes)
The first is easy and nice
The second took me a while before i recognised the beutifull leggs! Great!
The third I do not get.
high heels?
1. They’re sitting on pencils
2. They’re wearing high heals
3. Sinkhole?
I dont get the last one
While this stuff gives people a great chance to crow that they saw the illusion and you didn’t (na na na), it’s really more of a spot the difference competition than a real optical illusion.
I guess DADT was an issue in Civil War times as well. I don’t see anything in the 3rd picture.
first has pencils… second has high heal shoes.. I think the third is the guy in the middle is out of place, and the wagon in the background.. all the other guys are from a different era.
wheres da illlusion???
LOL to the second one!
I don’t see the first one or third one but in the second one they are wearing high heels
the first one the sticks are pencils
What is it in the Third image? I can’t find it!!!
The first on is the pencils looks like logs, The second is, the Men are wearing women’s heels.
It is not really an illusion it is just out of the ordinary. But I can’t reveal to you the answer here.
the first 2 are ez but I dont see anything in the 3rd.
pretty cool…you have to go to the painters official website to see what the illusions are. The only one I don’t get is the third pic.
I can make out the first two but I’m not sure what the third one is!!!
Pencils in the first
the men are wearing high heels in the second one!!
Love these!
I love the second one, when you see it you wonder how could you miss it before! LOL
Quite “pythonesque” indeed.
Thank you so much for introducing me to this artist. I LOVE his paintings. If anyone is aware of where to buy prints, please let me know!
I actually LOL’d at the one of the military guys in high heels.
I don’t see what is unusual about the third one.
I get the first two but the third one stumps me. ???
on the third picture loook at their arms
I see the first two, but not the third.
I see the first two. But I don’t see anything in the third photograph.
First one is obviously pencils.
In the second one, all the white men are wearing highheeled shoes. The third one I can’t quite make out.
Nicely done though. :)
The pencil logs in the first one…. men in high heels in the second one…I don’t get the third
The first pic, the logs of lumber are actually sharpened pencils. The 2nd, the fine military officers are wearing some fine pairs of high heels. :o) as for the 3rd..I’m not sure what the odd detail is…are those bricks lining the wall within the dropped out hole?
1) The raft is made f pencils
2) The seated men are all wearing stilletto heels
3) The hole in the ground is brick lined (tho’ I’m not sure if that is the point of that one.
Loved these, mre please
the logs look like pencils, and everyone is wearing high heals in 2nd pic. not sure on the last one.
On the first one the wood trunks are actually pencils
on the second one they wear woman shoes
on the third one I still haven’t found it :/
The first photo the men are sitting on pencils.
The second photo the men are wearing womens high heels.
The third photo?
Ok, so i get the guys sitting on pencils and the generals with high heels… what’s with the last one? it’s gotta be pretty simple, but i just don’t see it…
So I got the first two (pencils and high heels), the last one I don’t see. Hint?
I see the pencils in the first one, the shoes in the 2nd, the last pic in don’t see anything.
I get the first 2 illusions but the red one escapes me. Pun intended!
DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE WHAT I SEE HIDDEN!!
1st picture- OBVIOUS-pencils (even flat ones) and shavings, NOT OBV- the curve in the man’s leg on left of the screen, his leg curves around 3 pencils of different depths and is resting on a pencil that is behind at least 2 of them. Also his right foot is on his left leg. The guy on the right has two different sleeves. The one in the middle has his foot on top of his shoe. And his leg that is on the ground is at the same level as the first guy which is sitting with his foot on a pencil. And he has a gigantic chest. As a whole the picture turns pinkish as you scan it.
2nd picture- OBV- shoes, NOT OBV- the sleeping face in the background. The jackets of the first and last men sitting in the chairs wrap around them and the chairs which should be impossible for the first man seeing how he is sharing a chair. Also the first guy sitting in a chair has his leg crossed to a degree of impossibility while another is sitting next to you. The man standing up is missing his left leg. The dimensions are all wrong. The guy in the middle would have to be over 8 feet tall to have his chair so far back yet have his body closest to the viewer. His arms are too short for this as well. His chair frame, what isn’t wrong with that! I don’t know if anyone else can see this but I see many faces in the trees. There is a partial of a photographed face near the top of the left hand corner. They are all surrounded by water. I’m cutting this one short on to number 3.
3rd the boards on the ground and there relation in size and space to everything around them. The leg of the 6th guy from the left is not positioned correctly and where is his hand going? Is that a picture in the background to the right? The black guy’s hands are white. The whole structure is an illusion. The 3rd and 4th guys share an in illusion- which one has their hand on the plank of wood. Shouldn’t we see some more of guy number 2? He is the one holding onto the plank. The 1st guy’s arm would not be proportion if it belonged to him.
I think you totally overanalyzed this and still didn’t explain the third one.
I agree with Jeffrey. I think that you tried to explain things in the 2nd pic that were actually correct but not in your opinion (like the size of the middle guy, the missing legs etc.) and still you didn’t explain the 3rd one -.-
I said the black mans hands are white. and I was trying to say that the structure is an impossible illusion.
I get the first two: pencils and high heels. What is the third?
in the first one the logs are really pencils
in thed second one the white guys are wearing high heels
in the third one i’m not excatly sure what it is
Ok got the first two, but im not so sure about the last one.
Nice. First has pencils, send has gentlemen wearing high heels. Third one I can’t tell. The hole has brick wall, but that is possible if it was make like an underground bunker. There must be something else.
Look at what they are sitting on in the first and check out the “boots” in the second. Not sure about the 3rd
The first painting:
They are sitting on wooden pencils.
The second painting:
All the military personnel are wearing heels.
The third painting:
I don’t know if this is correct, but the black man in the center has hands that are of a white man.
Am I right..?
Pencils, High heels, and I can’t see the last one
Pencils and high heels, not sure about the sepia one.
ahaha..pencils n high heels
The top picture has pencils for logs… The second picture the men are all wearing (women’s)heels. I’ll let you determine the 3rd pictures hidden items :-)
Haha you can also just say that you can’t figure out what the illusion is in the 3rd…
the top one, the logs are pencils, the middle one, they’re all wearing high heels, but I’m not altogether sure what the bottom one has that’s not “normal”
These are not really illusions. First has people sitting on giant pencils. The second has men wearing women’s dress shoes. I don’t get the third.
There is no illusion.Its just an old picture
i see the illusion in the first two .. but i can’t figure out the 3rd one.
Can someone tell me what is wrong with the last one? I got that the first one they’re sat on pencils, the second one they’re wearing high heels, but don’t notice anything wrong with the last one. Help!
Much appreciated.
These aren’t really illusions are they?
They’re more weird stuff in paintings.
“Optical illusions” isn’t the right description. They’re more like visual puns.
The first one: They are sitting on pencils.
The Second one: They are wearing high-heels.
I can’t find the third one.
I see pencils and something with legs
the men are wearing heels
I can see the first two, but buggered if I can see the third…
I see the pencils in the first one and the shoes in the second, but I don’t see anything in the third.
For those of you confused bu the second picture, they have some nice shoes. ;)
1. Pencils
2. High heels
3. ???
Well i dont see the one in the red picture. It took me a while to find the first one, and it was easy to find the second one.
okay, 1st pic was Pencils
2nd pic is High Heel Shoes, and the
3rd pic is…. ummmm… I dunno
I agree with Dan. No illusion without seeing the rest of those 3 side-by-side pencils.
I found this fairly easily, but it seems that people are having some trouble.
The 3rd photo has everything on top of a body of water.
Hope this helps :)
1)is log pencils
2)is high heels
3)is brick hole
i get the first 2 but whats the third????
hahaha… nice one!
they’re standing on water for the last one
What I find odd about the third image is that the sun cuts a very sharp shadow down the hole–with the sun shining from the upper right. Additionally, certain bits of wood are casting sharp shadows from roughly the same source of light. However, none of the men cast shadows. In fact, the man to the far right appears to be illuminated from the center-left. The source photo would surely show shadows for all of the men. (And stop calling me Shirley.)
In the third one they are standing in water
I see the first 2 as others see, Last one looks to me like everyones standing on rushing water, swirling around, maybe flowing in/out of the hole.
in the 3rd 1 i can see the lumber on either side of the hole form a Y.
there is also an X on the planks lining the side of the hole/tunnel
i also can see the figure of a man in the lower end of the post in the foreground.
along with all the other “irregularities” that others have found, none of it makes any sense to form anything to me. Just a lot of unrelated items??
this one is more obviously a painting than the others because of the tool strokes at the opening og the hole.
Foe me the illusion is writing the second comment and returning a day later to find it gone. Would that be called an Optional Illusion?
Did you check every page though?
i saw the first two (see every previous post for them) but i believe that in the third the illusion is that the floor is made of wood, not earth, and that they are actually standing on a giant tree trunk that has fallen over.
The third one has to be the black guy looking at us and not down the hole like the others.
1st pic also looks to me as if it’s a dog slung over first man’s shoulder.
3rd pic looks like the ground is water.
I SEE 10 PENCILS
I think the ‘illusion’ in the third picture is simply that it appears to be photographs imposed on an obviously painted background.
I THINK THE THIRD ONE has something to do with that down the hole it looks like it is made with bricks not earth
I get the first two as does everybody else.
The third I think I got as well.
here is my hint to others….
“YOY” is there a hole here?
# 1 is they are portriayed as pencil pushers, # 2 is prissies, and # 3 nosy politicians.
The only thing I see in the third, is the white hands on the black gun (although that could just be a shading thing, he might not even be black).
The horizontal board behind the “black” guy is waist high on the left where the guys are resting their arms on, but to the right of him it’s being held up by a shorter poll then continues to be waist high again.
At least that’s the best I could come up with.