Mighty Optical Illusions » Rob Gonsalves

Anne’s Transformations

Vurdlak — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:50:09 +0000

Anne Schneeberger is a conceptual photographer living in New Zealand. As her portfolio reveals, her work must’ve been influenced by great works of M.C. Escher and Robert Gonsalves. The obvious difference between Anne and Rob’s works is that Anne uses real life photography (enhanced by the power of Photoshop), while Rob traditionally painted his paintings. I really like what Anne sent us, specially the one showing great mountains transform themselves into a ship. This must’ve been a homage to Rob’s Ships and Arches illusion. Can you see the illusion motive in all of the photos below? Only one I still have trouble with is the one with mountains covered in fog. Which one is your favorite?

Few Ships and Our New Fan-Group

Vurdlak — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:58:29 +0000

Triggered by some of your comments (from this particular post), where you slowly started to complain about our optical illusion quality as of late, I decided to run a social experiment. I’ve set up a Facebook fan-group, where everyone is invited to join, and hopefully share optical illusions we haven’t already posted to this site. Members have already started sending their stuff, and the group is growing rapidly. If we manage to exponentially add our friends there, we’ll get bunch on new material to choose from. Best illusions will regularly be posted to this site, and additionally I’ll run some contests (hint) where we shall reward the most active users – those bringing in most interesting stuff, and inviting most friends. Let’s see how this goes, and maybe I’ll move the “Submit your illusions” story completely to our new Facebook fanpage.

In the mean time, Rob Gonsalves has created another interesting tessellation. Boats were his motive once again, only this time they don’t fade into arches, but transform to trees instead. How many ships can you see in this picture? Can you spot where they stop being ships, and start behaving as trees? I love Gonsalves, and hope you share my view…

Dancing Wind Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:20:23 +0000

It was a long and busy weekend for me here. Just to keep you informed, I’m thinking of moving my office (where Mighty Optical Illusions website is maintained) to separate location from my own department. So even though there wasn’t much work on the site itself (for the last 3 days), the work being done still involved this site.

Anyway, for today I dug one of the Rob Gonsalves’s surreal paintings we missed posting before. In the same way Rob managed to fluidly transform his Ships into Aqueduct, as well as seamlesly merged Camels with Palm Trees, this time he pulled something simmilar with dancing couples. How many newly wed couples can you count in the picture below? On the other hand, how many pairs of curtains do you see? When you add all the courtains and all the couples together, is the number corresponding to the rel sum of white objects in this painting?

Ships and Arches Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000

This one’s classic. Still, it can be very amusing trying to spot where the ships start changing into aqueduct and sky. Rob Gonsalves is the author behind this piece of art, but what I still can’t determine – is Rob the author of “Camels in the Night” as well? Both of these illusions look too SUSPICIOUSLY simmilar, not to trigger some questions. If you think this post is somehow familiar, you’re right. I already posted this illusion 2 years ago, but it was so pixelated and low in quality that I simply had to post an update.

Oh, I forgot to tell you I booked a hotel in NY, Manhattan and will be there in October with my girlfriend. Are there any New Yorkers here that can advise me what to see, where to go out, and how to get those hard to get tickets for NBA/MLB etc? Anyone wants to be our guide when we arrive?

Can you spot where the ships become arches, and vice-versa?

Camels in The Night Illusion

Vurdlak — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:05:00 +0000

A classic one! Sorry guys and gals for not posting new illusions for the last two days. I was on a vacation, and didn’t have spare time to do “business”. Never the less, I found quite cool and classic optical illusion for all of you. The picture is simple, probably done by the same artist that did original “Ships Illusion“, and the influence of Escher is more than obvious (Lizards on Paper!). Can you spot where the camels turn into space between palm trees? Is the transmutation fluid? You comment!

By the way, how do you like new “Random Illusion” button inside each post, beneath each optical illusion? Do you find it handy, or spammy? Thanks for your comments.

Rob Gonsalves Magic Realism Illusions

Vurdlak — Sun, 21 May 2006 14:23:00 +0000

Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian painter of magic realism illusions. I couldn’t find Rob’s homepage, so if you know what’s the adress, be sure to post it under comments. I included a set of 36 pictures Rob Gonsalves produced, and you can see all of them if you jump inside this post. I would appreciate if you commented which of these you find most beautiful and puzzling?