Mighty Optical Illusions » Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner’s 3D Wonderlands

Jill Harness — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:07:08 +0000

We’ve featured the work of Kurt Wenner before, but not nearly enough given the amazing talent of the artist. In fact, in many cases, Wenner’s art appears to be even more realistic than many of the other 3D chalk artists we feature because he frequently opts to include a back wall into his works, giving them even more dimension. Take this installation at the Waterloo Station in London, for example. Sure the man on his couch watching television has a lot of depth, but by adding a truck full of 3D animals crashing through the wall, it’s easy to feel just as shocked as the man in the artwork.

Here’s another example incorporating a back wall to the artwork. Sure he could have stretched the piece over a long space of sidewalk to play with our perception, but by creating this ad for Celebrity Cruises with a back wall, the drawing looks right no mater what angle you view it from.

Of course, he doesn’t incorporate backdrops into artworks that don’t need them. In fact, adding a background to this reflecting pool illusion might actually distract from the amazing likeness of the actors portrayed in the sidewalk.

If you need further proof that Wenner is certainly one of the masters of his craft, consider the fact that he was the first 3D chalk artist to conceive of an interactive chalk drawing as seen in this photograph from 1987.

Zip-lining across a city street can be fun, but it’s nothing compared to flying across wild terrain. For those that don’t have the time or money to get away from it all though, Wenner offers a grand compromise with this gorgeous canyon advertising the beauty of wild British Columbia.

For more great works by Kurt Warner, don’t miss this piece in the Telegraph, or just visit his website.

Kurt Wenner’s 3D Money Vault

Vurdlak — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:08:00 +0000

As the vault doors swings open, loads of cash fall out and money notes flutter through the air. Millions of pounds spilling out of a vault at London’s Waterloo Station stopped many commuters in their tracks. But (as you might have guessed) all was not quite as it seemed. Jay Kleinrichert pointed me to this new “Sidewalk Drawing” created by renowned American artist Kurt Wenner. We have already featured Kurt in one of or previous posts, and one of his murals is still used as thumbnail representing our illusion application for Facebook. Wenner is former illustrator for the U.S. space agency NASA, who began street painting in Rome in 1982 and translated anamorphism – the technique used by artists to create the illusion of height – into a new way of painting to give depth. The art form became known as anamorphic, illusionistic or simply 3D art, and has gained huge popularity around the world. The drawing Kurt created was commissioned by company called “Compare The Market” to represent the £16 million their customers have saved this year so far. The vault took Wenner four days to create. This picture has to be viewed in 3D to get the full effect…

Kurt Wenner’s Waterloo Station Street Art

Vurdlak — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:32:00 +0000

I just came home from Greece yesterday, so you’ll pardon me for not posting for the last two days. It was beautiful and joyful trip, but now I’m back to take care of the site once again. If you missed the whole deal about my trip, read last few articles, and you’ll get the full insight I think. Let’s continue with new optical illusions now!

Paul Margrave found these two photos at BBC, and immediately remembered of our little community. Seems like BBC news, is pretty regular resource for our illusions. Hehehe… We already published their spinning fan, senses challenge (test) and BBC experiment. What you see in the first image, is Tara Hicks relaxing on a 3d street painting by street artist Kurt Wenner. The artwork, at Waterloo Station, uses perspective tricks to make it “pop up” in 3D when viewed from a certain angle. It was commissioned by satellite broadcaster Sky to advertise its high definition service. You can check the second photo (shot from different angle) just to make sure the chalk drawing is really flat! Few hundred more awesome 3d street chalk drawings can be found in the right category in my sidebar. Go ahead, check them here! Most of them were done by Julian Beever!