Mighty Optical Illusions » Body Paint

Best Optical Illusion EVER!

Vurdlak — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:03:41 +0000

Reading the title, and understanding it came directly from me, I suppose adds some weight to the actual Leopard Illusion you see below. It’s hard for me to explain how this illusion came to be, without revealing the actual solution, thus ruining the surprise-effect for you. There is much relevant info and background for it, but for now I’ll retain myself just on revealing the author behind it – the magnificent Craig Tracy. First thing you’ll notice is that it’s not some photo of an actual animal, rather a realistically painted picture. But you’re still far from seeing the illusion. Only tip I can give you, is that leopard’s eyes were painted on a concrete floor. I suggest you examine the picture more closely before seeing this final hint. I’ll monitor the forthcoming ratings, and am eager to see if you agree with me that this must be one of the best optical illusions ever created!

China’s “Invisible Man” to Wow Paris

Vurdlak — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:36:49 +0000

Consider this post as an attachment/update to previous Liu Bolin series. By now, we all know Liu’s incredible talent to camouflage himself. In the previous sets we’ve seen him in focus, but this is the first photo I found where Liu is photographed from a greater distance. It’s almost impossible to notice him. Check out the gallery beneath for additional sessions Liu participated in. The artist dubbed the “invisible man” is bringing his mind-bending pieces back to Europe. Liu will exhibit his unique photographs, in which he paints himself so as to “disappear” into his surroundings, at the YU Gallery in Paris in October. Liu, 36, has been known to spend up to 10 painstaking hours at each location — adding fine detail to his entire body until he is virtually undetectable. The chameleon experienced resistance from his own government, and in 2005 his Beijing studio was forcibly shut down over his political works.

We all know Liu's incredible talent for camouflage. It is almost impossible to spot him from such a distance.

Some of the Liu Bolin’s camouflages you might have missed:

Emma Hack’s Camouflage Art

Vurdlak — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:12:16 +0000

Emma (Jane) Hack is an artist whose biography we mentioned more than few times on this site (check Emma-related posts here). Her main interests include: bodypaint and camouflage. If you are new to this site you may find this extremely original, but if you’ve been following us for some time – you’ll find this approach familiar, yet these photos were never before posted on this site. Which of the following photos is your favorite one? This time I haven’t included gallery approach, so let’s see if you like this better. Another “good news” is that tomorrow I’m back to Zagreb, thus you may expect new illusions appear more often…

The Invisible Man: Liu Bolin

Vurdlak — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:39:41 +0000

Probably you read me by now… As hard as I force myself to put new illusion each day (mostly because of the widget’s name “Optical Illusion of The Day“), you have to take into account I’m still on my vacation. Thus in reality, new post is written up every 1.5 to 2 days. I hope you’ll live this through for few more days before I return home. Anyhow, today I’m giving you this monster gallery of Liu Bolin’s art installations. This month, one year ago I posted 9 photos of Liu Bolin’s incredible camouflage artwork. It appears that in the meantime Liu was very active, so today I bring you 10 new photos of his disappearing attempts. I know how some of you don’t prefer our galleries, but trust me – this is the best way to bring page-load time to the minimum, and lower the cost of our bandwidth (more pages, more ad impressions). Please reply which camouflage was your favorite!

Liu Bolin is able to blend into any surroundings - no matter how complicated they might be!

Liu Bolin’s Camouflage-artwork Gallery

Russian Living Statues Collection

Vurdlak — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:56:39 +0000

Probably you grew bored from all those Ultimate Galleries I’ve posted during the past week, never the less – I’m sure you’ll love this one. At least if you have nerves going through each photo in this gallery. But before we continue, I’d like to show you an interview I did for Environmental Graffiti website. The interview can be found here. If you have a spare minute, I welcome you to read it and you are invited to post your comments here (you may even see a nasty photo of me). Now let’s explain what all those photos are doing here. If you visited any major Europe city over the past decade, I’m sure you’ve came across all those people who pretend to be a statues, standing on the street somewhere in downtown, during the summer. They are usually painted in gold, standing so still that you hardly can believe they aren’t statues at all. By freaking out the passers by, they earn some spare coins. English Russia reported that all those performers came to Russia recently, more precisely they visited city of Sochi to participate in the biggest Living Statues Contest, the world has ever seen. Now these bring our Body Paint category to the next level, don’t they? Which of these “living statues” you think did the best disguising job? Which one did you favor the most? Tell me, tell me!

It's pretty difficult to see these "statues" are real, live human beings

Don’t be scared by the size of this gallery – Enjoy yourself:

Amazing Obama Body Paint Illusion

Vurdlak — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Now this is something you don’t see every day! Yet another Brack Obama optical illusion for all of you. I believe we hadn’t had simmilar collective body paint examples before (except those fish), but as you see it’s never to late. In my opinion there is no need to dissect and explain today’s submission – rather just look at it, and admire. Hope everyone understands how it was done, and that it works only from a certain angle. This is exactly what Felice Varini does, with addition of humans and body art. Can’t wait to hear your comments. Hope you liked this as much as I did.

Body Painted Shoes Illusion

Vurdlak — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Now this is something you don’t see every day! Body painting with soul… err, I meant sole! Temptu, a company which concentrates on airbrush makeup and cosmetic innovations, painted some smelly feet for the NY Magazine. When New York Magazine needed to recreate the appearance of shoes on actual feet, using just makeup, they contacted Temptu. Body paint artists, John Maurad and Jenai Chin created the results you see below for the article titled “You Walk Wrong”. Their work includes a traditional wing tip for men, a pair of Christian Louboutin heels, and an old-school Adidas Gazelle shoe. Adidas one is so incredibly rendered on the bare foot, it’s hard to believe it’s not even real! The only problem with these, is that I can’t decide whether to choose the slip one, or Adidas one as my favorite. So I think I’ll go with both (but they still aren’t even close to the sexy shoe we covered last month)!

Emma Hack Brings Body Art To a New Level

Vurdlak — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Ok, then more Creative Drawings it is! I’ve asked you in my previous post if you liked it enough to post a sequel, and apparently you did. This may as well be the first time in history we have a post that lacks a single negative comment! As I usually tend to listen to my audience, my tomorrow article will give you the rest of Remy’s submission, but as an “interlude” between posts, today I’m giving you more of the Emma Cammack’s bodypaint. Who doesn’t like bodypaint! We’ve seen her body art before, but it’s a mystery to me weather her real name is Emma Hack or Emma Cammack. She obviously goes by the both names, one of them being a pseudonym or artistic name of some sort. Another mystery for us to solve!

In this set, Emma brings body art to a new level. Using the naked bodies as canvases, and incorporating the backgrounds, gives us the illusion of a flat surface in which the bodies are so well camouflaged against wall coverings, it’s hard to even see them. Be sure to notice some of her “Evolution” collection photos contain actually painted animals! God knows what PETA would say about this…

P.S. I hope you’re all serious enough to see this as “Art”. No need for me to digress further.

Guido Daniele’s AT&T Hand Paintings

Vurdlak — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Guido Daniele, an author behind all those “Handimals” we covered in the past, worked with AT&T on a campaign to sell AT&T’s roaming capabilities. You can see the results inside this post. Most of the images I posted lack the signage, info and logos present in the actual billboards you can see across the country. The animals and imagery painted on the model hands are to symbolize the countries in which you have ‘roaming’ capability. The photo shoot for the nine initial ads was two weeks long. The hand-painting took approximately one full day, with Guido beginning in the morning as co-workers prepared the lighting and retouching on the shots taken the day before. By the time they were ready to shoot, it was already nightfall! I will let you choose yourself which of these photos you like the most. My favorite is the coral one. Enjoy!

More “Handimal” Illusions by Guido Daniele

Vurdlak — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Last two days I was over my head with work, and missed updating MOIllusions. Still, my work involved some “soon-to-be-announced” gifts for you – just in time for Christmas. Stay tuned and expect something big really soon! In the mean time, I give you Guido Daniele’s new Handimals! Before you check these, make sure you’re already familiar with his work. Browse Hand Painted Animals Part I and Part II before you proceed. This time Guido painted more animals, and I must agree they look incredibly real. There are so many to choose from, I still haven’t managed to publish them all. Be sure to visit the artist’s website for more. Here is a short bio of Guido:

“Guido Daniele started working as hyper-realistic illustrator, in co-operation with major editing and advertising companies, using and testing different painting techniques. In 1990 he added a new artistic experience to his previous ones: using the body painting technique, he creates and paints models bodies for different situations such as advertising pictures, commercials, fashion events and exhibitions. Guido is most famous for his “Handimals”, created by secret body painting methods.”