Mighty Optical Illusions » Gallery

Gregor Wosik’s Otherworldly Art

Vurdlak — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:42:49 +0000

By now, I think it’s safe to say that most of you prefer when we feature realistic chalk drawing illusions. Below you may see a collection of otherworldly images that trick the eye. Author is #Gregor Wosik, a street artist from Poland. Although he is not as well known as #Julian Beever, #Kurt Wenner or #Edgar Mueller, his quality work is quickly earning him an admirable reputation! If my memory serves me well, he was the one who created those Jack Daniels anamorphic drawings. While the pictures work form a specific angle, they look distorted from every other angle. Whether the art pieces are composed of natural scenery or fantasy, they are always quite a sight to see! Some of Gregor Wosik’s works can be seen below, and more inside the attached gallery…

Few more examples of Gregor Wosik’s work:

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:

Oleg Shuplyak’s Illusory Paintings

Vurdlak — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:54:36 +0000

As it has been confirmed over and over again, sometimes there is much more to the eye than you can initially perceive. This specially goes for the items that have been featured on Mighty Optical Illusions website. Today’s featured artist comes from Ukraine, and is widely recognized because of his illusory oil paintings. His name is Oleg Shuplyak. The gallery you’re about to see hides a surreal world once you take a look at it more closely. Through carefully placed objects, characters, coloring and shadows, there is a second image in the painting which creates an optical illusion.

I’m not sure whether this artist was more influenced by Sandro Del Prete’s opus or works done by famous Octavio Ocampo, but those of you following this website for some time will immediately notice the resemblance! Just like Sandro, Oleg’s works usually feature a portrait of famous personalities. Go through the gallery below and see how many of them can you recognize. Van Gogh, Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali are just few among dozens.

With works like these, it’s sometimes hard for the author to balance the weight of both images. Personally, I’m more fond of illusions where the “constructed”, 2nd image is more subtile. Oleg on the other hand, does quite opposite – The second image is so easily observable in some paintings, that you can actually miss the first one consisting of harmless landscape or characters in different settings. What you have to do then, is observe the painting more closely to actually see the initial setting and not concentrate on the faces. True skill of such artist is then evaluated by the fact how well did he construct the illusion, and whether the parts of landscapes constructing the illusion have useful part in the original setting. Artists often trap themselves by forcefully adding elements needed to construct the illusion, which don’t actually play their part well in the original setting. In my opinion, Oleg has mastered the technique just like Sandro did, and each part in his paintings seamlessly works in both images, the first “apparent” one, as well as the “hidden” illusory one. So, how many faces did you recognize? Which of his paintings did you like the most?

Mannheim Street Art

Vurdlak — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:37:34 +0000

Ellen K. Smith found an interesting outdoor illusion painted on the barred-fence located somewhere in the streets of Mannheim. After sharing her find, I did some research and figured out that the artist behind this “constructive vandalism” goes under the name of ZebraThing. I’ve inserted additional gallery where you may find more of his work, as well as some shots of the same installation shot from a different angle. And if all this isn’t enough, be sure to check Zebra’s fb page where he exampled another dozen of similar works. If you remember we had something similar already showcased on our site before. Enjoy!

Photo © by PolyPix

For more examples and side-views check out the gallery below:

Pavement Warefall Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:34:04 +0000

Just when I wanted to complain how Edgar Müller’s pavement drawings, (even though being extremely professional and realistic) all form some kind of giant holes in the ground, I received his Waterfall project. Yup, it still has some kind of descending implemented, but this one should also stand proud next to his previous projects. It may be useful to mention that Waterfall pavement drawing was in fact Edgar’s first project. I have added few more photos inside this post, but even more can be found inside the gallery beneath. With about 270 m², this painting was exhibited on the occasion of the Prairie Art Festival. Check Edgar Müller tag for more of his works!

You can see Edgar’s Waterfall from different angles:

Mysterious Caves Project

Vurdlak — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:59:35 +0000

Scientists have been baffled by the appearance of a mysterious cave at West India Quay, London. It is believed that a light earthquake unearthed the cave which is estimated to be over 10 million years old, but scientists cannot explain the intense glow of green lights emitting from its depths.

By now, you should have guessed that intro is nothing more than a fiction, with its sole purpose of making this optical illusion little more interesting. What you see below is a 3D Chalk Drawing, created by world-class pavement artist Edgar Müller, whose works we posted on many occasions before. If you remember Ice Age chalk drawing, or maybe that Lava Burst optical illusion – Edgar was responsible for both! His newest creation was exhibited on West India Quay’s Festival in London. It’s hard to imagine you could easily walk over this huge cave, and that concrete pavement is still lying beneath. It took 5 days for Edgar to finish this project. Below is the “Behind the Scenes” gallery, where you can see the work in progress.

Mysterious Caves – Behind The Scenes:

Michael Kai’s “This Side Up”

Vurdlak — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:54:02 +0000

Michael Kai is a German-born, and Australian-based photographer who won the First International Photographic Art Prize - Arte Laguna back in 2008. Below you can see a sample from his photographic collection, entitled This Side Up. Rest of the collection can be seen in the embedded gallery, just below the tennis court photo. Kai’s photographs look normal at first glance, but look again and you’ll quickly realize he has cleverly tweaked the pictures to disorient the viewer. Even though it’s obvious that these pictures were digitally edited, they still make you wonder if you’re looking at them the right way around. For me personally, it’s hard to distinguish where normal view ends, and upside-down view begins.

Body of work is about optical illusion and the manipulated perception of space.- Michael Kai

Liquor in Street Art

Vurdlak — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:41:16 +0000

Today I learned about another talented pavement artist, called Manfred Stader. We had few of his works posted on Mighty Optical Illusions over the years, but I didn’t have a clue Manfred was the artist behind those. So I carefully went through our 3D Chalk Drawings category, and updated belonging posts with correct tag. As you see, 3d street art has been in the spotlight of marketing agencies as of late. Specially for those orientated towards liquors and soda drinks. Manfred has closed some pretty huge marketing deals with major brands, including Jack Daniel’s. Below you can see some of his newest drawings that were done on a flat surface. Many of you requested I should post additional photos, showing 3d chalk drawings from different angle. Because I listen to all of your suggestions, I have included additional gallery beneath these photos, where you can see some of the paintings from opposite angle. Enjoy!

See those Liquor ads from different angle:

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:

Find The Vintage Faults

Vurdlak — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:32:43 +0000

Find the fault in the above picture

It’s time again to plaaay “Spot The Object” quiz! The winner of this fabulous competition wins an exclusive all-included trip to Bahamas at one of the world’s biggest cruisers. Sponsored by Sir Lie-a-lot!

Nah, am just messing with you (like you wouldn’t figure it out). So once again we have few vintage cards for you to play with. There are 5 of them, and each one includes at least one logical mistake. Can you spot all of the faults, in all of these game cards? First one is placed on the right, while the others can be found below inside our small gallery. Normally, I would’ve included one of these per article, but since I find them so easy to solve I’ve included all of them.

If my memory servers me well, we’ve concluded that these were very popular back in the old days when our grandfathers were young. Perhaps not as precious as all those vintage baseball cards, but still valuable. While you are reading this I should already be in NYC for a week, and hopefully drinking cocktails and enjoying my 7th day in Big Apple. Why I’m writing all this in such a way, it’s because I wrote this article on the last day of September and set it to auto-appear today.

I just hope I haven’t jinxed myself revealing all this… If someone has a quick thought what else to see while I’m still on Manhattan, now is the time to comment! I’ll still be able to follow this site and approve content. Now, don’t forget the gallery below. Logging out. Aurevoir!

Few more examples for you to play with:

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:

Lienz Street Art Festival 2009

Vurdlak — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:59:18 +0000

As I already stated, when I discovered Greg Wosik – huge doors to the incredible opus of professionally-made anamorphic chalk drawings opened for me. This year in Lienz (Austria) there was a big street-art festival, and Gregor played a major role in it. As you can see, this time we have some amphibian animals and a giant grasshopper coming out of the crack in the floor, heading towards nearby pond. Since my German language knowledge isn’t that bad, I managed to understand how Marion Ruthardt (another talented artist) helped Gregor with this three-dimensional pavement image. I have also found out that the painting was done in the center of the city. Does it somehow remind you of this painting?

Interesting creatures appeared on this year's Strassentheater Festival in Lienz, Austria

More photos from 2009 Strassentheater Festival – Lienz, Austria:

Jack Daniels on Cafe Floor

Vurdlak — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:56:26 +0000

When we talk about 3d chalk drawings we usually talk about Julian Beever, Kurt Werner, Eduardo Relero or Edgar Müller. Well, just as I started to believe I exhausted all the available material on this topic – I heard about Gregor Wosik! Gregor is an academy-educated Polish lad who migrated to Germany back in 1984. Street-art, murals and oil paintings belong to his particular strengths. In Germany Wosik is primarily known as a street painter. This particular art form gives him the opportunity “to live out his passion”, and maintain direct contact with his audience. His works are characterized as high-quality and detailed. The motives of the images range from classical to current issues.

In today’s edition I bring you a small chunk of his opus. As of lately, huge brands recognized this form of advertising to be particularly effective. Still, it looks like mega whiskey brands gave most attention to this form of marketing . Johny Walker and Ballantine’s did it first, but as we see now – Jack Daniels couldn’t resist jumping in this game too. Please comment which of these 3 brands got themselves the best deal, and why? I’ve included a small gallery beneath, where you may see the same picture seen from few different angles (Anamorphosis !!!)

Yes, it's another awesome 3d chalk drawing for another whiskey brand

Check out how this chalk drawing came to existence:

Guido Moretti’s Ambiguous Art

Vurdlak — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:33:36 +0000

Same sculpture seen from two different angles

Guido Moretti is an Italian artist captivated by the beauty of analytical geometry. At the Faculty of Engineering at Padua University he created his first sculptures in plasticine. Little later, his creativity knew no bounds – from stratification he moved on to rotations followed by orthogonal intersections. He created a set of sculptures of orthogonal intersections with various optical illusion shapes and impossible figures.

At the end of this article I have included rich gallery containing some of the most famous ambiguous sculptures done by Guido. But what is special about them, you might ask. Well, check out the photo that appeared in your widgets today. Same one you see on your right. Off course, the “impossible objects” motive you see is put in the second plan. More interesting part is that both of these photos represent a single unique sculpture. How is that? Well, if you remember one of our previous posts where we explained Shigeo Fukuda’s “Encore” sculpture, the answer will come flying at you instantly!

Check the photo below to see this particular sculpture from three different angles, and be sure to view this video and experience the rotation. As I previously mentioned, I’ve added additional gallery beneath, where you can see few more of Guido’s creations.

Guido Moretti’s Ambigous Sculptures:

Irina Kuznetsova’s Impossible World

Vurdlak — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:20:16 +0000

What the hell...?

Posting each impossible object as a separate post was logical in the beginning. When I started this site, all of the impossible objects made a stand-alone unique experience for my audience. But over the time Mighty Optical Illusions website has built a database of over 10,000 optical illusions, hundreds of them representing some kind of impossible object in one way, or another. You probably realized by now, how it makes no sense posting each slight variation of Necker Cube, or Unity Triangle as a stand-alone article anymore. This is why I concentrated on posting bundles of illusions from same artist as one-post gallery. On the other hand, you may see me group similar illusions from various artists under one categorical title (ie. Ultimate Murals Gallery). I’m doing this to spare your time, while giving you extra shots wrapped with single background text. This is one of the reasons why today’s post would make no sense, would it be scattered in dozen of single-photo articles. I hope you share my view!

Irina and her Wonder Table

Irina Kuznetsova is an artist whose name I either spelled wrong, or there is not much info about her to be found on the web. Anyway, Irina is the artist behind these CG (Computer Generated) photos. Even though her pictures are produced digitally, and don’t exist in real world – it doesn’t make her art less worthy. We already proved how these can be produced in real-life (check this and this article).

Irina’s signature can be found in most of her works. She seamlessly integrates a “copy” of herself inside the photo, resulting her virtual interaction with the object. This adds additional complexity to her works, not to mention Sexiness. You can check more of her works in the gallery below. While all of the photos you see are CG, I have to admit I’m not exactly sure whether all of them were actually produced by Irina. Don’t forget to open above two photos in full-size to better experience the effect!