Marvel Comics Superhero Mural Optical Illusion

What you see below is the portrait of Marvel Comic’s superhero, The Thing. I believe he is one of the Fantastic Four. This has to be one of the best examples of trompe l’oeil I’ve ever seen. The mural was drawn by Justen Ladda in 1981, at PS 37 in the Bronx – New York. If you jump inside the article, you can see more examples of Justen’s work, along with “Side View” photos of The Thing and others to see how they were done. In my opinion this is truly awesome. I imagine a projector was used and the spots were filled in, which isn’t exactly easy, but probably easier than manually figuring out what paint goes where. Some guys, like the sidewalk chalk guy, seem to do it from scratch, which is definitely talented!












23 Replies to “Marvel Comics Superhero Mural Optical Illusion”

  1. i want to know how to do those…
    seriously
    ive seen a whole bunch of them all over this site… and they are all incredible.

    Kay has the right idea

  2. Some people can do it with extreme patience and incredible talent. But for the rest of us mere mortals, if you want to have a crack at it then you need to get hold of a projector and project the image onto whatever you’re painting onto from where the final view point will be. Then just trace over the lines!
    Awesome site, awesome page today. Keep up the good work!!

  3. i’m trying to get my head around the first one but i think my brain is will break :( the others seem to be easier to to see whats going on

    i reckon it’s the pesky chairs that are confusing me!!

    great illusions today :)

  4. Oh wow, these are amazing! The top one is so COOL!!!
    And I really like the one of the two figures looking in a mirror, I want to do something like that in my house.

  5. kinda cool….I’m sure I couldn’t do that….nor would I have any need to. But it is better than some others I have seen.

  6. If I saw the third one (walking stick guy) when I walked into a room, I’d be like, OH MY GOD! What is that?! Hmmm… I should put that in my room! It would totally freak EVERYONE out. Someone walks in, and I’d pretend to be hypnotized by that thing. It would be AWESOME!!! Oh, and we should have the fly one in our pool. And don’t forget about “The Thing”! We could have that, hmmm… In my bro’s room. I want the 2 men in my room, and the woman… Coming down from our attic when it is open. That would definitely freak ME out.

  7. these are my favorite! the thing one was a little hard but the rest, easy. i love this website!!! <3<3<3<3<3<3

  8. Not optical illusions. This are Anamorphic illusions that take place when viewed at a certain angle.

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