While many of these are interesting, few are suitable for MoIllusions, but this great graffiti project spotted on Bond Street in New York City by Twitpic user Kennycity certainly is.

While any graffiti tribute would take some time and forethought (assuming the artist didn’t want to be arrested in the process), this lenticular portrait took even more time to put together as the creator had to figure out the angle his work would be viewed at and to ensure it went up straight in order for the illusion to work. In case you were curious what it looks like from the wrong angle, her is a side view:

As if all this weren’t impressive enough, the artist didn’t just stop with the face of the late Mr. Jobs, he also created the image to portray a young Steve Jobs when viewed from the opposite direction, giving the viewer a quick look at the aging process of the visionary.

While there are no indications as to who put up the artwork (one of the drawbacks of being a graffiti artist), they certainly live up to Apple’s slogan and “think different.”

Medusa’s evil was so complete that even after being beheaded, her severed head could be used as a weapon. After Perseus slayed the creature, he used the head to turn the man forcing his mother to marry him, into stone. Perseus then gave the token to Athena, who originally helped him with the powerful shield. Athena then placed the Medusa’s head on her shield, the Aegis, where it could then be used to take down even the most deadly of enemies!

Most artists fail to do justice to a creature as terrifying and hideous as Medusa. But let’s face it – it is not that easy to paint something powerful enough that would turn person into stone when he or she looks at your painting! Still, the clever minds behind Truly Design Visual Communication Studio found a clever way to pay tribute to Medusa.

While their painting may not actually turn people into stone, their decision to do the painting in an anamorphic style does make it difficult to actually view Medusa in her entirety. While you might not need Perseus’ shield to protect your eyes from the work, the effect does mimic the hero’s difficulty in only being able to look at his enemy from certain angles.

Paying tribute to the myth in this manner is probably a lot safer than actually painting something that could turn someone to stone. Plus, it ensures their viewers can live to tell others of the great work, which statues are notoriously bad at doing. On the other hand, artists can always state their creation actually works, and that it’s your fault you haven’t turned into stone because you obviously haven’t seen their Medusa from quite perfect angle ;D

Horsemanning is actually an example of everything old becoming new again. While the trend has been exploding across the net, it actually was a big fad in 1920′s photography. The process is pretty basic: arrange two people so one person’s head can’t be seen and the other person’s head is the only part of their body that can be seen. In the twenties, this was a popular way to imitate the headless horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The modern incarnation of the trend started when someone found the image below at a flea market and then uploaded it on to the net.

Being as how planking and owling both peaked in popularity shortly before this image came out, it’s not too surprising that the trend became huge immediately. It even has its own Facebook fanpage and homepage. What do you guys think of the fad, is it fun? Funny? Or just plain stupid?

Also, have you ever taken goofy illusion photos like this at home?

Artist who goes under the nickname of “smsilton” captured this amazing image after about two hours of attempts. All in all, he said that it probably took him about 150 shots to get it right.

If you were wondering what kind of a set-up a person needs to actually achieve something like this, here’s this picture of his Escher-shooting studio. Smsilton used a 60mm macro lens at f/2.8. He shot the image at ISO 640 and 1/250. But figuring out the right settings for the job wasn’t even the hardest part:

The hardest part was focusing. In the set up picture you can see a piece of string above the eye dropper. I would let that hang down off the eye dropper and focus on that, then move it and squeeze the dropper and the shutter at almost the same time. I have like 30ish more pictures with the drop clearly in the shot but the sketch behind it isn’t in focus, this was the clearest one I got.”

Personally, I’d think the hardest part was being patient enough to shoot water drops for two hours just to get the one magical shot, but that’s why I’ve never had any interest in being a professional photographer.

I have to say, I think the girl illusion above is way stronger than the boy one below. The man with the beard on the boy’s cup is much harder to see than any of the other characters, mostly because of his weirdly wrinkled brow.

Of course, if you require a little inebriation prior to being able to see your illusions, you might consider skipping the glasses and going right to the bottle. This Before & After beer can help remind you just what might happen if you down a few too many bottles.

Here’s to hoping none of your night’s events end up looking quite so drastically different by the light of day!

One of the most famous non-divine examples of this phenomenon was the Old Man of the Mountain located in The White Mountains of New Hampshire. If you were wondering why I chose to say “was” instead of “is,” it’s because the Old Man is no more after the face fell from the cliff side in May of 2003. Even so, the face is still remembered by all of the world and it was such a major part of New Hampshire’s identity that it was used as the image on their state quarters that were released in 2000.

Here’s a composite image of the Old Man of the Mountain before and after the rock face crumbled.

If you’re looking for a similar natural illusion that is still standing, you can always head to Ebihens, France and explore the much less famous Apache Head in the Rocks pictured here.

Do any of you guys know other places where you can find human faces in nature?

It’s a little like this striped Garfield picture Vurdlak posted back in April. A good knitter could even make a scarf from that, although Garfield would undoubtedly appeal to an entirely different crowd than the alien from this scarf.

Personally, I’d love to wear a something like this, knowing I was the only one who would know about the illusion for the most part. Would you guys wear this or at least one with a similar illusion knitted in?

P.S. Here’s another example that found it’s way through. Thank youTrevor for sending this in!

As for this first top ten list, I thought tattoos would make a great topic -after all, you have to really love an illusion to get one tattooed on you. This first tattoo is my personal favorite because it’s such a classic illusion subject -multiple meaning one. These work really well as arm  tattoos because you never know if someone will view it while your arm is raised or not, making it the ideal location for such a piece. This specific design was done by David Page. On the left, you have a queen, but when you flip her upside down, you have a king.

Next, the skull illusion tattoo involves one of my favorite types of illusions. What’s so great about skull illusions?  Let’s face it, they’re just so cool! It’s also a great idea for a tattoo since skulls are one of the most classic tattoo designs, but this interpretation brings the concept from cliche to chic.

Here’s another excellent skull illusion tattoo, this one involving two clowns holding hands while drinking. The tattoo, by Kate Hoogland, just might contain the most romantic skull illusion I have ever seen.

On the right, we have a brilliant rendition of M.C. Escher’s Drawing Hands illusion. The piece, done by Cheryl Volling, has some absolutely stunning shading, giving it the life-like appearance of the original Escher drawing.

This ambigram tattoo is great in that it incorporates some of the most important aspects of philosophy into an ambigram. It’s also particularly nice in that it is easy to read and doesn’t look strange from either direction, which is one of the hardest aspects in making an ambigram.

This saint/sinner ambigram is also easy to read, but rather than focusing on the arts and sciences, it focuses on religion. I think it really seems to denote the true duality of man.

Here’s another cool religious optical illusion, albeit in a a totally different style. If you don’t see the illusion, just back up a few more inches and then you’ll see that the image comes together to make the face and beard of Jesus.

On the right is another Escher tattoo, this one is on Flickr user’s alan.maia profile and features fish transforming into birds (and vice-versa) artwork. Maybe it’s just me, but I really love how worried that last fish in the tattoo looks.

We’ve featured a few of Del-Prete’s illusions before, but this impossible object tattooed on Flickr user bonstance and seen in the book Masters of Deception is still new.

Here’s a great tattoo with a double meaning. Is it a face or a cartoonish man playing saxophone?

Bonus: While it’s little anamorphic, this one might not technically be an illusion. Even so, the details are amazing enough to make it looks completely realistic.

Now, before I sign off, I thought I’d ask you guys about your own tattoos. After all, if you’re a regular reader of Moillusions.com, you just might be the type of person who’s willing to get an illusion tattoo. So, do any of you have illusion tattoos? And if you do, do you have any links to the pictures online? I know I’m not the only one who’d love to see them.

Also, I’m a big fan of giving credit where it’s due, so if you know who did any of the tattoos that aren’t labeled, please leave their names in the comments. Thanks guys!

The lead artist behind this work is Tracy Lee Stum, who happens to hold a Guinness World Record for the largest chalk painting by a single individual (as opposed to the largest chalk drawing by a group, which is featured on Moillusions here). Yeah, she’s pretty impressively talented whether working with a group, like she did on this Mouse Trap project, or working alone, like she did on the record-winning Last Supper piece below.

Anamorphic art requires the viewer look at the piece from a specific viewpoint or using a special tool in order to actually see the artwork in its proper display form. By the end of his career, Dali was a master of this skill, creating paintings like the one above that required cylindrical mirrors to see the work in its true form, and by painting spectroscopic images that required 3D glasses to take in the full effect.

His most famous work of this type is the Mae West Room in his Theater Museum that was based on his famous painting, The Face Of Mae West. As you can see in the pictures below, the stage appears to be nothing more special than a lip-shaped sofa with a strange fire place and two paintings. When you step up to the viewing platform and look through the lens though, everything comes together into a bizarre portrait of the legendary actress.

The first two photos are my own, but the final image is courtesy of Flickr user asirap.

As for my interest in illusions, well, I’d say that stems from my fascination with art. After all, to some extent all visual art is an illusion being as how it is really just a pictorial representation of something else. Art revolves around one’s perception of the world around them and illusions are nothing more than selective use and distortion of perception.

That being said, I am a particularly big fan of mural art and when public works of art become illusions, the effect is simply fascinating. These particular examples come from the Bayview subway station in Toronto. They were created by Panya Clark Espinal. The most impressive aspect is their anamophic properties that ensure they can only be accurately perceived from specific angles.

That’s probably enough of an introduction for now, I’m sure we’ll get to know each other better as my time on the site goes on. I am greatly looking forward to sharing more great illusions with you and if you have any you’d like to share with me, please feel free to email me at contact@jillharness.com.

Also, a special thanks to Andrew Willman for the photos of the stair and ladder illusions.

One of the most popular artists (building his career around this effect) is Istvan Orovitz. Check the #Orovitz tag, and you can see some of the works Istvan did in the past. Many of them we already showcased. I’m not particularly sure whether all of the examples in this video belong to Istvan, but the ones exhibited are worthy to see…