Optical Illusions (Artwork That Tricks The Eye)

I love optical illusion art.

Here are some of my fun creations:

My Optical Illusion Mural (Trompe-l'œil)

My attempt at a trompe-l'œil optical illusion mural.

I always wanted to paint one of these murals that tricks the eye into thinking that it's 3D.

This painting was done inside a slightly recessed archway which helped to give the illusion of depth. Towards the bottom, the wall comes forward almost flush with the surrounding bricks and it forms a little shelf — unfortunately this catches the light and ruins the effect a bit.

I'm really happy with the perspective of the wooden floor — this was the last part to be painted and it 'popped' when it was done.

Life Drawing With Projected Light!

A model covered in lines drawn with light

This has to be the craziest life drawing I have ever done. I was literally drawing with light onto the model!

Here's how it worked:

We created a completely black image in Pixelmator.
Used a projector to project this image over the model.
Then used a Wacom tablet to draw white lines on the image which became light over the model.

It was such an amazing experience to draw with light. The room started out dark and got lighter with every line — so there was a real build-up to the completed drawing. You also noticed every slight movement made by the model.

I would love to try this again.

See more of my life drawings.

"Looking at the sun through closed eyes"

The morning I drew this was one of the first noticeably cold days of Autumn. I stood in the backyard with my eyes closed soaking up the sun. This is what I saw.

This artwork was drawn in Photoshop with the mouse.

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— Matthew James Taylor