I love the work of Rob Gonsalves.  Each of his paintings presents a subtle yet magical transformation.  When the viewer finally realizes what is going on, he (or she) cannot help but be impressed.  His painting below, titled “The Phenomenon of Floating” presents a woman floating on her back and looking at the heavens in a secluded lake surrounded by trees.  At the same time, it also appears that she could be floating in space and looking up at Earth.  Such transformations are a trademark of all of Rob Gonsalves’ works.

To order prints of Rob Gonsalves’ work, please visit Huckleberry Fine Art.

Exceptional Eye Tricks, by Brad Honeycutt, is a collection of optical illusions designed to amaze, confuse, and fool the viewer.  This book contains a variety of illusion types including composite images, trompe l’oeil, tricks of perspective, and the physically impossible.  The cover of the book features a motion illusion from Fiestoforo that appears to spin in a circular pattern.

Ask for the book at your favorite bookseller or order it online at Amazon.

Leon Keer and the Streetpainting 3D team completed this anamorphic sidewalk chalk drawing at the 2012 Sarasota Chalk Festival.  The drawing depicts a claw/crane amusement game full of teddy bears and dolls waiting to be grabbed.  In the video, you can see the image take shape.  Even more interesting are the views of the image from other viewing angles.  I really love how big the claw had to be drawn in order to get it to appear 3D.

According to Leon Keer:

The image is a metaphor for the forgotten playfulness in life, never forget to explore your creativity by keeping your inner child close.

Below is an ambiguous picture of the face of Harry Houdini.  Is he facing you or are you looking at a profile shot of him staring to the right?  Try covering up the right side of the image with your hand or a sheet of paper and he will seem to be looking directly at you.  Then do the same on the left side of the image and he will be looking to the right.  Kind of creepy, isn’t it?

In 1804, an interesting effect, known as the Troxler Effect or Troxler’s Fading, was discovered by Ignaz Troxler.  He noticed that something strange would happen if you fixated your eyes on one particular point (see the red dot below) for about 15-30 seconds.   When doing so, images in your peripheral vision (the blurry blue circle below) would fade away and eventually disappear altogether.

The painting below, by Russian artist Igor Lysenko, depicts a woman in a yellow dress and hat standing outside next to a bush.  Hidden somewhere in the painting is the face of a man.  Can you find him?

The hidden face can be found by rotating the image 180 degrees.  When inverted, the landscape and the woman reveal the face of a man.

In the late 19th and  early 20th centuries, it was a common practice for cigarette companies to include cards with their products to help advertise their brand.  Ogden’s Cigarettes, a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co. (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd, released a series of 25 optical illusion cards in the 1920s.  Number 13 of this series is presented below:

The following is presented on the back of the card:

This illusion represents two archways, the entrances to which can, at will, be imagined either through the openings AAA (looking down on the arches) or through BBB (looking under the arches).

Which opening on this ambiguous archway did you notice first?