Optical Illusions

Optical Illusion

• An optical illusion is an image that deliberately deceives, or tricks the viewer.

• Have you ever seen an optical illusion? Do you know of any artists who design optical illusions?

How do optical illusions trick the eyes?

• Optical illusions do not actually trick the eye, but our minds, which change and distort the image so that it

makes sense.

How Do Optical Illusions Work?

• Many things can happen between the eye to the brain and back. An optical illusion is something that tricks the mind.

• See the eye is a strange thing! Our brain is so used to the light coming from the sun, or in other words it's used to seeing light coming from above. So if the ground glowed the shadows would be in different places so your brain would think the object is different because it's used to seeing the shadow on the ground.

Does everyone see the same thing in an optical illusion?

• No, if you show two people an optical illusion (or a picture of one) the two people may see a totally different things, that's what an optical illusion is all about. For instance, there is one illusion where I first saw a duck. But when I showed my friend the illusion she saw a bunny. That’s what makes it an illusion.

What do optical illusions relate to?

• Optical illusions relate to perception, and how your brain percepts the picture that you see. Optical illusions also relate to shape consistency. For instance, if you look at any doorframe you can see that it is rectangular. But if you were to sketch the outline of the doorframe from the angle that you are looking at it, most likely you would sketch a trapezoid. Your mind adjusts the door so that you perceive it as a rectangle from whatever angle you look at it.

M.C. Escher

• M.C. Escher is a very famous optical illusion artist.

• He lived between 1898-1972 as an artist, illustrator, and graphic designer.

• He created over 448 art pieces.

M.C. Escher and Circles

• One of the easiest ways to make an optical illusion is to use a circle. Escher knew this. Look at some of his optical illusions using circle.

Circle Optical Illusions

• The following pictures are all optical illusions using circles; check them out.

Project!

• You will be designing an optical illusion using a circle as a base.

We are going to do it step by step together.

Your finished art will look something like this: