At first glance, this drawing looks like nothing special, just an odd design of lines, but then you notice the two bolded lines. They look like they are different sizes, but are they? No! They are the exact same length. Tricky… very tricky. To learn how to create this optical ...more
Optical illusions don't require fancy techniques; this one relies entirely in the details. Gather up a pen/pencil, paper, and a pair of scissors. Draw a parallelogram to be used as the template for both tabletops in this sketch. By varied angling, leg lengths, and color, the t ...more
Create your own optical illusion using MS Paint or other drawing software. Make an optical illusion with MS Paint. Click through to watch this video on tricklife.com
How do you make a plastic bottle sit on top of a Rubik's Cube without a Rubik's Cube? It may seem like a brain teaser, but it's more like something you would see in an Escher drawing. An optical illusion. A three-dimensional world trapped in a two-dimensional image, which is ...more
UPDATE: Here's the latest on the optical illusion disaster waiting to happen: the "warning illusion" has been installed, and now you can now see it in action below. No car accidents have been reported yet, but it's only a matter of time... Unexpectedly, the illusion appears t ...more
How does it feel when you draw? What do you want to draw? Watch this instructional drawing video to begin drawing optical illusions. Draw a photograph to begin understanding the optical illusion of depth.
My mind is playing tricks on me! Discover Magazine systematically dissects five fantastic optical illusions. The scientific explanations are logical: "our brains are programmed to see the world in three dimensions instead of two" ...or... "illusion arises when cells in the ...more
In this video tutorial you will learn to use Photoshop to create your own skull face optical illusion. After you have completed, ask your friends to stare at the middle of the image for about 30 seconds. When they look away, the skull will appear before their very eyes on the ...more
This will show you how to take negative afterimages to another level. By introducing a negative color photo and then immediately incorporating a black and white version of the same photo, you will perceive the black and white photo in full color (the way the color photo was me ...more
Learn how to take advantage of a psychological defect humans have regarding the height and circumference of a pint glass.
Want to trick your eyes? Follow the step by step instructions on how to create a polka dot optical illusion using Adobe Photoshop. Create an optical illusion with Photoshop. Click through to watch this video on tricklife.com
You don't have to go the boring route with Christmas lights this year. Try hacking them, or better yet see if you can replicate this Tron-themed optical illusion made by WonderHowTo favorite Brusspup. Good luck... looks like it took some serious time and patience to get it rig ...more
Check out this video to make an optical illusion paper toy. Don't be dismayed by the intricacy, just read the text on the bottom of the screen!
Wow. Really fantastic fire illusion by WonderHowTo favorite, BrussPup. Hang in there, the magic starts to happen at 0:34. Previously, Jerry Andrus and His Impossible Box. Create Fake 3D Objects with Camera Illusions. Artist With Waaay Too Much Time and Money, Paints Pointless ...more
This video is about an optical illusion of a straw going through a safety pin. It is a simple illusion that any one can do. First, you need a safety pin, a toothpick and a straw. Cut the straw to the size of the toothpick, and using the safety pin, pierce straw and the toothpi ...more
Imagine this scenario: Late for work, you jump in the car. Going your usual 10 or maybe even 15 miles over the speed limit, suddenly a ball tumbles into the road, closely pursued by a little girl! Scared sh*tless, you slam on your brakes. Except it's not imaginary. It's real. ...more
In this how-to video, you will learn how to make an animated optical illusion with paper. First, start off with one ball and copy it five more times so that it goes in a line to the corner. Make sure there are six balls in total. Next, create a striped pattern shown. There are ...more
It's jewelry, it's an illusion, it's your very own cool creation. Here's how to make a flower ring that will bloom before your eyes.
Make an amazing paper toy that can take on multiple shapes and appears to turn inside out. This how-to video will show you just how to make this perfect paper puzzle that will amaze anyone.
Learn how to make a paper cylinder that can take on many different shapes.
Optical Illusion Nails - Stripes or Checks ? Check out this surprisingly easy nail art design in this step by step how to tutorial and create one yourself ! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg_7sEO2_pM Video: . For Nail art tutorials - http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperWowstyle ...more
The holiday season wouldn't be the same without decorations. Ornaments and fancy lighting brightens up a neighborhood and helps spread the holiday cheer. While decorations and Christmas lights are fantastic, why not get a little more creative and some fun in the process? One ...more
Heads up: the following videos and GIFs will definitely cause you to zone out and lose focus on whatever it is you're doing. Ouka is an award-winning Japanese entertainer whose made a name for himself with magic tricks and diabolo performances (the latter of which you can see ...more
Artist Felice Varini has been playing with the art of illusion since 1979. This piece takes on the incredible scale of an entire Swiss village. From Core77: "In Cercle et suite d'éclats, Varini...superimposes perfect circles on the town of Vercorin in the Swiss Alps. From i ...more
Every year, some overly ambitious neighbor down the street amazes the crowds with his DIY illusion costume. While these costumes certainly require more work than pulling a mask over your head, they do have that wow factor that others lack. These costumes illicit lots of doubl ...more
Does size matter? When it comes to optical illusions, it does. The size of a human brain's visual cortex determines how he or she sees the world, meaning not everybody observes optical illusions in the same way. Via io9, Dr. D. Samuel Schwarzkopf, a researcher at University C ...more
This is a demo of how to draw M.C. Escher's impossible cube. It's a pretty cool design we're sure you have seen before. This is a rough demonstration of how to draw this incredible illusion.
It's time to discover how fun art and drawing is! Learn how to draw young lady or old hag illusion. Drawing is a way of creating and expressing ourselves, and therefore the result is always beautiful. Drawingnow.com brings you step-by-step drawing tutorials on many different ...more
This is one water bomb that's more postmodern art than scary - though fun - splashy summertime weapon. Using intricate tessellated origami folds and a drawn-on grid you'll learn how to create this interesting shape. The resulting shape can be modified; you can scrunch it toge ...more
Let's take a look at the softer side of illusions! Check out the images below and see if you can crack what's really behind these photos. This type of optical illusion is usually referred to as an ambiguous image. Your brain tries to make quick sense out of the information com ...more
"Mind Your Step" is a gargantuan street illusion staged in Stockholm's most public square, Sergels torg. Created by artist Erik Johansson, the illusion will be up until June 12th, so swing by if you happen to be in Sweden. Erik has documented his entire creative process here, ...more
LIGHTFAKTOR is a Cologne artists collective experimenting with the "possibilities yielded by bulb (long-term) exposure and painting." The technique employed has been coined "light writing" - Wikipedia's definition: "Light writing is an emerging form of stop motion animation ...more
Every industry has its own jargon, acronyms, initializations, and terminology that serve as shorthand to make communication more efficient among veteran members of that particular space. But while handy for insiders, those same terms can often create a learning curve for novic ...more
Tony Ross demonstrates how to create optical illusions in Flash. In the first video he creates a spinning illusion of circles with cycling gradients using Motion Tweens and Rotation Options. In the second video, create a tunnel illusion using Motion Tweens and Masking. The las ...more
Try this natural, optical illusion, which tricks your eyes with motion, instead of with colors or distortions. This Rober Krampf video comes from Yellowstone National Park. Make everything magically rise via waterfall effects. Click through to watch this video on blip.tv
Looking for a cool trick to impress your friends? Check out this tutorial from Stephen Ablett. In it, he will show you how to stick a pen through a dollar bill and take it out again, leaving the bill totally intact! This trick is an optical illusion and once you've mastered i ...more
Is your farm looking a little bland in FarmVille? Using a basic optical illusion, you can make what appears to be hills! This video tutorial shows how to make your farm look 3D in FarmVille. With a little visual trickery, you can make a hill. Just the thing to show off your h ...more
Illustrator Michael Weisner takes us through the steps on how to draw realistic people. Needed:PaperDrawing Utensils 1. Draw the Head using sharp lines, in a vaguely oval shape 2. Fill out the neck and torso and shade using overlapping lines to create the illusion of 3 dimensi ...more
Optical illusions are thrilling and abundant, and this one is both cool and novel. All you need are two pieces of twisted metal wires like those show in the video. Slide them together, then untwist to created a really cool illusion.
Watch this video to learn how to draw backgrounds for anime and manga. "Miki Falls" manga creator Mark Crilley presents a tutorial on how to draw and color backgrounds for a manga-style illustration. The emphasis is on using color and linework to create the illusion of depth.
This trick is super cool and looks a lot like those found in popular video games. In this tutorial, get a step by step on a jumping illusion that looks like you weighlessly propelled yourself using only water. This trick will take a lot of practice but once you've mastered it, ...more
Mimmo Rubino applies the art of brain melting to the streets with his perspective-distorting, optical illusion graffiti art. The coolest part is Mimmo includes links to Google Maps for some of the pieces, so you can go take a look for yourself (if you happen to be in the vicin ...more
The Illusion Contest of the Year recently announced their top ten finalists, and the overwhelming crowd and jury favorite is Impossible Motion: Magnet-like Slopes by Koukichi Sugihara of the Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences in Japan. Ready? Brain- ...more
Watch this video to learn how to hack together your own Jacob's Ladder optical illusion cassette tape toy.
This is a cool optical illusion that makes your business card appear to be blank on both sides but then you print color onto it with your hand. A magical way to hand out your business card.
Kipkay demonstrates how to make a penrose triangle, an impossible object, out of paper. This is a very well known optical illusion in three dimensions. Make a penrose triangle. Click through to watch this video on videojug.com
Perform an optical illusion trick in which you appear to make a coin vanish from your hand and into a clear cup or glass of water.
And the magic is revealed ten seconds in! Disappointed? Me, too. Such a simple explanation. Those first 10 seconds were so convincing... Previously, Why Are Our Brains Fooled By Optical Illusions? Truly Impressive Fire Box Optical Illusion. Truly Insane Fire Animation. Get Min ...more
Brusspup once again blows my mind (see previously below). His latest project is an extremely well executed animation, using a grid of tea candles to represent classic video games. How did he do it? Most likely simple stop motion techniques (light a candle, take a picture; li ...more
With severed, angled gaps in three out of four legs, it looks like the work of a chainsaw-wielding maniac. But those gaps are clean cut and without blood, despite the redness of the slices, and definitely not the work of Leatherface. Peter Bristol's "cut chair" seems to defy ...more
We all love Tron. The more Tron the better. We learned how to make a Tron suit with the help of Adafruit, but here's a new rendition that substitutes the electroluminescent wire for LEDs. Instructables member sheetmetalalchemist says the LEDs are brighter, sturdier and lighter ...more
WonderHowTo favorite brusspup demonstrates an amazingly simple coin trick with a plastic hanger and a quarter. In fact, it seems almost too simple to be real. Scrounge for a hanger and quarter and try it yourself, then comment below. More from brusspup: Truly Impressive Fire ...more
This video starts off with a neat optical illusion that he uses to demonstrate the effectiveness of force card tricks. He shows a piece of paper with "Paris in the the spring" written on it, most people's mind will skip over the second "the" and will read it, "Paris in the spr ...more
Learning how to draw is a very much about learning how to see. Watch this instructional drawing video to begin to draw the illusion of depth on a flat surface. Most people can see perfectly fine and understand the concept of depth in space. However, drawing becomes tricky when ...more
Watch this two part instructional drawing video to draw the illusion of motion. You can draw lines to appear as though they are moving through space based on their thickness and directional flow. Learn to draw gestures by drawing decisive lines that operate in relation to each ...more
The artwork for Minnesota's Land O' Lakes butter packaging is classic, dating back to 1928 when it was first created by Brown & Bigelow illustrator Arthur C. Hanson. The logo was updated ("modernized") once in 1939, again in the '50s, and has undergone minor modifications here ...more
For some of you out there, today may be a looooong Friday. But have no fear, if you've yet to furtively accomplish shaving off a few extra minutes from the office clock, there is an alternative for getting through the day: computer pharmaceuticals. Relax, moms, we're not talki ...more
Andrew Lipson builds sculptures based off of Mathematical objects using standard Lego bricks. He has built models of knots, Mobius strips, Klein bottles, Tori, Hoberman spheres (using Lego technic pieces), and recreations of M.C. Escher works. Below are a few images and brief ...more
We've seen several examples of light graffiti on WonderHowTo (1, 2, 3), but this one is truly eerily beautiful. Australian photographer Denis Smith pushes the envelope with his project Ball of Light. "The Ball of Light is a mysterious portal into my world. It, and its friends ...more
Pioneered by Rufus Butler Seder in his popular children's picture book Gallop!, and ably demonstrated by WonderHowTo favorite brusspup in the video below, "scanimation" refers to a novel (but distinctly old-timey) technique for cramming multi-frame animations onto a single she ...more