planetdan

Monday, June 06, 2005 :::

Use Your Illusion

Neato Graffitto:

This pic was all over the web today so I figured I might as well post it here, too.

Also, check out this eye-trickery:

Click here and stare at the middle.

::: posted by dan at 11:26 PM :: [ link ] :: (16) comments

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16 previous comments:

That is way cool. You rock my world, Dan. My life is immeasurably better since discovering your blog.

By

Anonymous, at 2:52 AM

Thumbs up for using the correct term for a singular instance of graffiti :) And yeah, that is cool as hell.

By

Dan McCormack, at 5:19 AM

I don't understand the "eye illusion" thing.. the gif image with the circle goes around.. and..?

By

Roba, at 2:40 PM

oooh never mind.. i get it now.. th'ats actually quite fascinating.. but ouch my eyes, too much concentration required...

By

Roba, at 2:42 PM

I can't stop staring at this. I can't stop trying to figure out how they did it. What does it look like straight on?

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Colleen, at 3:45 PM

There is some really impressive trompe l'oeil ("truhmp loy," as we used to say in Texas) public art out there.

http://tinyurl.com/3modd

These works appear to be sanctioned, however, so snooty guerilla-art purists probably use a word besides "graffiti" to describe them.

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S&J, at 5:27 PM

It's called an "anamorph," and artists have been playing with them since the late 15th century. Hans Holbein did a famous one in a painting called "The Ambassadors": if you look at the painting obliquely, through a hole in the frame, what normally looks like a smudge of paint turns into a highly detailed skull.

The one Dan posted, like all anamorphs, only looks "correct" from the one vantage point; otherwise it's distorted. And they're actually very easy to construct. Make a slide of the image you want to paint, and project it onto the surface(s) you want to paint on. Use the projected image as a guide. Once you've painted it all in, you'll see the exact image when you put your eye right where the lens of the projector was.

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Christopher, at 6:50 PM

Alright smarty pants, how does the pink/green dots work? Hmmm...?? Acutally, I would really like to know...someone, help me out here.

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Kristina, at 7:34 PM

Whoa! Those were AWESOME!

I studied trompe l'oeil in design school, but 20 years ago it was all archways on walls, nothing like this.

I need to get out more.

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Colleen, at 7:37 PM

Kristina, the thing with the dots was totally lost on me. What was I supposed to see?

Perhaps my pants aren't smart enough.

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Christopher, at 12:37 PM

I think the green dot works due the fact that it takes some time for the image to leave the rods and cones in your eyes.

jasper Johns has done quite a bit of work in this medium.

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BigDubb, at 2:22 PM

I love things like this!
There's this great piece of graffiti on my metro ride that has this really cool use of perspective. The letter R just comes right out at you.
I've heard some schools have added a graffiti portion to art/art history lessons.

By

lynne, at 6:57 AM

Christopher...try and follow the green dot around the circle with your eyes, that's when the creepy happens. Do you see the green dot?
Bizzaro!

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Kristina, at 9:23 AM

Ok, Kristina, that is very cool. I got it! Thank you. Not only does the green dot come and go, but the purple ones do too. If I pick out one of the purple dots and stare at it, all the other ones disappear, and all I see is the one dot I'm staring at -- and that infernal green guy going in circles. That is crazy.

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Christopher, at 9:02 PM

Ahhh. There IS no green dot(s)!

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Anonymous, at 6:11 PM

The green dot apears cuz when something is a color it obsorbs all light but that color. So, the screen is reflecting all colors in the white places, and is reflecting only red on the dots. The mind renders the red as a constant, so when the red "goes away" you actually get more color, that addition being blue and yellow (green). So esentially the red doesn't go away; you actually get a flash of green.

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Anonymous, at 4:09 PM

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