What do you see in the pencil sketch below?  Do you see a bearded elf or two birds in a nest?

The artist, Humberto Machado, cites this ambiguous drawing as one of his personal favorites.

Impossible scenes are always welcome on this site.  We have previously featured impossible items such as triangles, stairs, nuts and tennis courts.  The following photograph represents an impossible chess board.  The modified board appears to be a flat surface.  But something is odd about it.  The pawn in the lower left corner looks as if it would have to climb a series of stairs in order to reach the other side (the top?) of the board.

This photograph was taken by Erik Minnema.

Some of the best ambigrams deal with words that have some sort of polarity to them.  Two perfect examples of this would be the words good/evil and love/hate.  These designs are inherently more meaningful than those that would present two words completely unrelated to one another.  The example below, created by Michigan State University professor Punya Mishra, deals with the words “heaven” and “earth”.

Regarding this ambigram, Punya Mishra notes that:

Heaven on Earth was not one that came easily. I had to play around quite a bit to make it work – but I am quite pleased with the final result.

Looking at the man on the horse below, can you tell whether he is riding away from you or toward you?  Does the dog walking along side of him give you any clues?  What do you think?

This illusion is very similar to The Photographer that was featured previously.  It should be noted, however, that the poster above predates it by a good number of years (the copyright mark indicates that this poster was published in 1904).

Tang Yau Hoong is a visual artist and graphic designer from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who loves simplistic design.  Many of his works incorporate elements of illusion and surrealism.  In his impossible design below titled “D for Deceive”, the person walking up the staircase will be shocked to discover that they did not ascend upon reaching the top.

More works by Tang Yau Hoong can be found on his portfolio website.

This mural is located on the east side of the Lani Nalu Plaza building in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The entire scene is painted on a flat wall.  The stairs, children, and wave are all part of the illusion of depth.

To see more of John Pugh’s mural works, visit his website Art of John Pugh.

The round inset in the middle appears to move.  This illusion, created by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, is a variation of the Ouchi Illusion and yields a really interesting effect.

More motion illusions can be found on Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s site.