Josh Sommers’ “Escheresques”

Hey everybody! I found an interesting artist on flickr, and have to admit am really amazed by all of his artwork. Most of the photos he shares are edited in photoshop, but the illusion they produce is usually independent from the digital manipulation. It amazed me when I found out he is the author of our previously posted CG Manipulated impossible structures. Josh Sommers is an amateur photographer, and is happy to share and teach others the techniques he uses. If you are interested in how to do something, feel free to send him a message through flickr. His Equirectangular panoramas, little planets and stereographic projections are all created using Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Canon 10-22mm lens, a Nodal Ninja 3 Tripod head, Hugin, Photoshop and Flexify. He is a Photoshop user since 1993. Below are 3 of his photos that took my attention. If they remind you of Escher, its not coincidence!



62 Replies to “Josh Sommers’ “Escheresques””

  1. 1st post!… i think… this is so cool i have no idea how he does it… maybe sit through paper? i dont know

  2. this is pretty good. the first one is very similar to m.c. escher’s pic though. this ones just in color haha. still good though

  3. I’m pritty sure you’ve posted the 1st 1 befor but the 2nd and 3rd are new to me. The 3rd is just creepy though. Nice illusions.

    P.S. not how i dont care if i have first comment. I probably don’t anywayse though lol

  4. I LOVE Escher. I’ve never seen ‘Drawing Hands’ done like this, and the guy drawing himself is Fantastic!, I might have to steal that idea

  5. After a while it becomes more obvious. The first picture is a simple bluescreen effect, while the second is kaleidoscopic bluescreen (only the first two hands are real); the third uses the bluescreen again

  6. First to comment! It’s amazing how he does that, the hand one is ok, but the legs illusion really impressed me!

  7. It actually reminds me a lot of that “incubus – drive” film clip… he uses the escher hands to draw himself throughout the clip.

  8. I love the last one!
    But I can’t help thinking those legs look ridiculously small for his body…

  9. Hey everyone, I’m Josh, and these are my works. I’m glad that (some of) you guys like (some of) them! I got a good chuckle reading your reactions to my work.

    You are correct, the first image is an homage to Escher’s “Drawing Hands”. I used his original image to try to exactly reproduce it with a camera. That one was created with three photos: One of each hand and one of the background. The three images were combined in Photoshop and then parts of each hand were filtered to look like pencil drawings.

    The second image is the “Droste Effect” applied to the first image. If you check out my stream at flickr.com/photos/joshsommers and look in my sets you’ll find a tutorial for the droste effect if you are interested.

    The third one was done very similarly to the first. I sat on a large piece of white cardboard and took a picture of myself. In Photoshop I separated my top half from my bottom half, applied the pencil drawn effect to the bottom half and then painted in my shadows by hand.

    The first and third images were shot and photoshopped in the same night. The second one was done almost a year later.

    All of my tricks are usually done in Photoshop as opposed to the more creative ideas I read above like using a blue screen or kaleidascope or cut-outs…etc.

    Cheers,
    Josh

  10. did the picture means that the guy in the 3rd picture have no legs or they cut out the paper for the guy’s legs to get in ? TELL ME! its weirdo ! somehow, it’s an awesome drawing !

  11. Hi,
    The idea of first picture is from MC Escher, a litho from 1948, called ‘drawing hands’. It would be correct to mention that.
    Richard

  12. theese pictures are sooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing i would love to have a talent like that i would also like to meet him!!!!!

  13. actually the pictures are different n u have a great passion for work but what do they signify and do i need any special camera for things like that

  14. ok, he dose the last one by standing through the paper and drawing from they’re, still pretty amazing though.

  15. wooooow i love the one how one hand is drawing the other hand and that hand is drawing the other and ect… ya sooooooooo cool!

  16. It could be through modern photo shop like adobe or anything, it is impossible to take a picture and produce like that without photo shop working.

  17. I drew a crayon drawing a crayon while actually drawing with a crayon. It looked kind like this only with the hand…

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