Mighty Optical Illusions » Body Paint

Craig Tracy’s Body Art

Jill Harness — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:44:37 +0000

Vurdlak has already featured Craig Tracy in the past, along with some of his most incredible body-paint works. In fact, he even named Tracy’s snow leopard image as one of the best optical illusions in 2009. Of course, it’s precisely that amazing level of skill that made me want to display few more images by this amazing artist! So here we go:

“How good is he?”, you may ask. Well, let me put it this way: the image just on the right, if Tracy weren’t such a fantastic body painter, would most certainly be labeled NSFW (*Not Safe For Work). Fortunately, instead you are seeing a gorgeous tiger eye staring at you intensely. If you really want to see what kind of effort goes into creating these exquisite masterpieces, be sure to visit the authors website where you can see an array of photos and videos depicting the creation of these works of art.

In fact, if you are truly inspired by Mr. Tracy’s work, there is even an information on how you can volunteer to become one of his models, thus becoming a part of the creation yourself. Who knows, maybe one of you will be featured on Mighty Optical Illusions one day…

But don’t think for a moment that Tracy’s artwork is solely limited to realistic images of big cats being painted on human canvases. No, his talent ranges from Liu-Bolin-styled camouflage pieces…

to stunning floral paintings (that just happen to be painted on a naked person)…

to detailed depictions of non-feline creatures.

Ever Wondered How Liu Manages to Disappear? Here’s How!

Vurdlak — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:50:55 +0000

Seems we have caught Liu off-guard in those rare moments he wasn’t paying too much attention. In this shocking, revealing photos you will see Liu Bolin as an ordinary man he really is – for example: smiling as he prepares to demonstrate another camouflage art installation, where he’s gonna blend in with all sorts of vegetables displayed on the shelves at a supermarket in Beijing. More important, it seems we have finally revealed his “so called” disappearing act, as well as learned how Liu actually looks like in person when he is not hiding from us. Check the below exclusive evidence of assistants assisting Liu in his witchcraft! Still, there is some good left in Liu – did you know he has started his optical illusion artworks of becoming ‘invisible’ more than six years ago, while describing them as a form of political protest and his way of ‘hiding from the authorities‘?

Artist Liu Bolin smiles as he prepares to demonstrate an art installation by blending in with vegetables displayed on the shelves at a supermarket in Beijing November 10, 2011. Liu, also known as the Vanishing Artist, started practising being invisible by means of optical illusions more than six years ago.

You’ve probably seen most of Liu’s camouflage installations, but just in case you missed some – click on the image below and browse our #Liu Bolin archive:

Liu Bolin Has Disappeared!

Jill Harness — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:09:30 +0000

We’ve featured lots of Liu Bolin’s camouflage paintings before, but that’s just because his talent is so incredibly impressive! I believe there is no reason to ever stop posting such amazing illusory installments when they come out. In my own opinion, some of Liu’s best works include tractor image, dragon series and the camouflage cans illusion because in all of these pictures, Liu appears practically invisible to untrained eye. No matter which of his works are your favorite though, it’s hard to deny the skill necessary to produce these. Specially once you get the chance to glaze through his newest series:

Which one’s your favorite? Do you ever have a hard time finding the person in the pictures?

365 Days of Face Painting

Jill Harness — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:08:48 +0000

What was your New Year’s Resolution? Do you even remember? And if you do, have you even bothered to follow through with it?

Research shows that only 12% of people actually follow through with their resolutions and complete the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year. Everyone else gives up at some point in the year, often before January even runs out.

Fortunately, artist James Kuhn is one of the dedicated 12% who actually completes his goals. And his goal is something we can all enjoy. In 2008, he challenged himself to create a new face painting every day and then photograph them and upload them to his website. Even after the year was over, James kept working on his art project, although not at such a fervent pace. These days, he has over 2000 images on his Flickr stream, most of which are face paintings.

These aren’t your every day spider-on-the-cheek-face paintings, these are elaborate and artistic body paintings that took hours to prepare. The results speak for themselves. In fact, Vurdlak already unknowingly posted some of this artist’s work on the site before. BTW – Let me just warn you that some of the Kuhn’s face paintings in below gallery turned out somewhat disturbing!

The Hand Art of Guido Daniele

Vurdlak — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:00:11 +0000

I see some you have asked whether I have resigned from maintaining this blog, and whether Jill has been assigned as new editor in chief. Whether you like it or not I’m here to stay! It’s just that I was too busy over the last few days organizing a sport tournament, so didn’t have much time to work on new posts. This was only temporarily and this is why Jill’s work has dominated over the last couple of days. Everything should return to normal from now on, as my vacation is over and I’m back to business :D What could be better to start my shift with, other than new works of Milan-based artist Guido Daniele. Guido has created some gorgeous and fresh trompe l’oeil hand art! You’ve probably seen some of his early work on this site before, as well as ad campaigns he worked on! Hope you’ll enjoy these… For more samples, be sure to visit Guido’s official homepage.

The Invisible Man: Dragon Series

Vurdlak — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:40:32 +0000

Thanks to Andreas P. now we have whole new series of Liu Bolin and his “Invisible Man” – Dragon Series installation to showcase. If you lived under the rock for the past year or so, you missed some incredible camouflage body-paintings from mentioned artist. As we already stated once – Liu Bolin, (a master of camouflage) hopes to portray the richness of Chinese culture and history through his work. He achieved some pretty unbelievable results with this one, if you ask me…

You’ve probably seen most of Liu’s camouflage installations, but just in case you missed some – click on the image below and browse our #Liu Bolin archive:

Hand Painting Billboard Collection

Vurdlak — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:05:45 +0000

Christina Bad has been following our little website for over a year now, and “absolutely loves it“! Some of the hand paintings she sent were already featured on this site, but luckily – not all of them. Old time viewers will immediately recognize Guido Daniele’s style and signature. I really enjoy when such great content gets discovered, and then professionally produced by advertising agencies. In this case Guido’s “handimals” were used to promote Body Art & Graffitti Expo by uShaka Village Walk. Enjoy!

This Isn’t a Painting

Vurdlak — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:00:35 +0000

Few months ago, way back in March, I showed you some incredible works by #Alexa Meade (whenever you see # in front of a word, it means it’s a tag linked to related stuff). Many of you couldn’t believe that her paintings were actually real life people, body-painted in such a way to look as an acrylic masterpiece. The illusion works best when you see the installation up-close. Just in case you don’t believe a word I’m saying, I’ve included few more photos shot from greater distance. Now wasn’t that nice of me…. ;)

Monthly Recap + Urban Camouflage

Vurdlak — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:50:54 +0000

As promised, there are few more camouflage installations by Liu Bolin just waiting to be published, but first I’ll show you another talented urban artist. I wasn’t given any details, nor the name of the talent with this submission, but the photos speak for themselves. Look how professionally did the graffiti artist camouflage his mate to fit the surroundings perectly. If you passed these locations in public, I’m not sure how close you’d have to be to distinguish the hidden persona – very close, I believe!

Concerning our beloved website, I decided to give a little recap of past month and things that kept me occupied. So let’s start with some of the main changes:

iPad + iPhone universal app has been revamped. Description page has also been built from scratch.
Facebook fan-group proved to be great success. Tons of optical illusion submissions and 1,500 fans.
Twitter followers finally started rolling in, and I finally started to understand how Twitter works.
Our self hosted video player gives me freedom to post much more video illusions than I used to.
With Facebook’s plans to take over the Internet, I’ve played along and implemented F-Share.

All I Need is a Bucket Full of Paint

Vurdlak — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:42:13 +0000

Can you spot a camouflaged persona in the first photo below? If you’re heaving trouble, don’t think less of yourself – after all, it is Liu Bolin we’re talking about here. Those of you who missed it, Liu is more known as an Invisible Man, which you can see in our archives if you follow the Liu Bolin tag. This artist has clearly mastered the body-paint camouflage technique, moreover it’s obvious he has taken it further, onto a next level. You can follow the underlined words in this text, and they will bring you to dozen of previous camouflage examples. Which one was the best? In my opinion The Tractor one beats them all! Stay tuned for more photos of Liu Bolin hiding himself…soon!

Hyper-Realistic Acrylic Body Painting

Vurdlak — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:50:25 +0000

When Suzanne Green pointed me to this gallery, at first I thought “Nothing special, must be Photoshopped“. But Alexa Meade is an artist who thinks completely backwards! Most artists use acrylic paints to create portraits of people on canvas, while Alexa applied acrylic paints on her subjects, and made them appear to be part of a painting! Meade is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC area. Her innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships. In weeks to come, I will prepare more of her galleries for you to enjoy!

Second Best Optical Illusion EVER?

Vurdlak — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:24:50 +0000

Remember the Best Optical Illusion Ever article, posted two months ago? Well, those of you who’ve seen it will have no trouble understanding this one. Rest of you, quickly jump to the prequel post before continuing with this one. Ok, now when you know where this is going, there’s still one additional Easter Egg left. There is a gallery included below, which reveals how this optical illusion came to existence. In my humble opinion, Craig Tracy really deserves being included in some sort of Art Hall of Fame. Did I remind you that what you are seeing is a real life photo? Now for that Easter Egg – count how many individuals were included this time ;)

Check how this illusion came to existance:

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…