Ambiguous figures

Horse in the Snow

Gianni Sarcone

Is the horse walking toward you or away from you?

Video: Alesia Willard (@rudniktheroan), British Columbia, Canada, 2024.


This is a case of “bistable perception“: the image contains ambiguous visual cues that allow the brain to construct two different interpretations.

The dark silhouette against the bright snow removes important depth cues—surface detail, shadows, and clear body contours. Occlusion between the legs also makes their spatial position difficult to determine. The brain therefore fills in missing information through “top-down processing“, drawing on expectations and prior visual experience.

The horse is actually walking away from the camera. The fascinating part is that the same ambiguous image can make your brain perceive two completely different directions.

Exploring Tessellations & Op Art: Hidden Arrows

Gianni Sarcone

This brief tutorial explores an Op Art tessellation that plays with bistable perception, figure–ground reversal and negative space. By combining modular geometric tiles with contrasting colors, the pattern creates a visual interplay in which arrows can be perceived as either foreground shapes or background forms, depending on how the pattern is interpreted.

Experiment 1:

· Preparation — Fig. A: Start with a 3 × 3 square. Divide it along its diagonals into four triangles, then add a 1 × 1 square to the outer side of each triangle, as shown. Color the resulting cross-shaped tile with two contrasting colors, ensuring that adjacent sections are different colors. The construction produces four inward-pointing arrows.

· Preparation — Fig. B: Following the construction shown, subdivide a 2 × 2 square to create five diamonds arranged in a staggered pattern. Use the same two contrasting colors. This produces a complementary tile containing four outward-pointing arrows.

· Assembly — Fig. C: The two tiles are complementary and fit together. Interlock the cross-shaped tiles with inward-pointing arrows and the square tiles containing the diamond pattern to create a continuous tessellation.

Visual result: The alternating geometric modules form a large geometric Op Art pattern in which arrows emerge through figure–ground reversal. And hidden within it are, believe it or not, 100 arrows. Yes, one hundred arrows!

This op art work is available as fine art prints and canvases from my online official gallery.

Experiment 2:

· Preparation — Fig. D: Build a four-armed pinwheel shape from a 4 × 4 square, as shown.

· Assembly — Fig. E: Interlock the four-armed pinwheel shape with the cross-shaped motifs containing the inward-pointing arrows.

· Assembly — Fig. F: As shown, these four-armed pinwheel shapes can be assembled in four or more different ways, producing different geometric configurations.

Visual Result: As seen in the example below, the contrasting colors make the bright blue arrows radiating around the pink central hubs—the pinwheel shapes—stand out, while the yellow arrows, matching the background color, virtually disappear from view.

pattern with pinwheel shapes

Experiment 3:

· Preparation & Assembly — Fig. G: Combine square tiles containing interior diamond arrangements with tiles featuring four inward- and four outward-pointing arrows formed by negative space. Arrange them alternately to create a checkerboard pattern.

The example below shows a 3 × 3 alternating checkerboard configuration that surprisingly reveals 52 arrows in total.

Variation: Here is a striking variation of the tile with four inward- and outward-pointing arrows. The inward arrows extend into continuous paths on a white background, creating the effect of interwoven arrowed ribbons.

Extra 3D Arrow Illusion

Let’s take a different direction from the experiments above and explore a 3D isometric illusion. This construction is inspired by classic impossible figures depicting ambiguous stacks of cubes, whose apparent number can change depending on how you interpret their spatial arrangement.

Start with a hexagonal boundary (Fig. 1) and overlay a triangular isometric grid (Fig. 2). Then draw six interlocking arrow shapes around a central point, folding their tails inward (Fig. 3).

Finally, use three colors to shade the isometric planes, or apply directional line hatching, to give the flat arrows a three-dimensional, interlocking appearance.

Curious about the mathematics behind these impossible 3D arrows? Math lovers can explore the geometry and construction 👉 here.

In Between the Strokes

Gianni Sarcone

These two minimalist Zen compositions exploit our brain’s tendency toward pareidolia and the Gestalt principle of closure: we instinctively connect isolated strokes, filling in what is missing until a familiar presence begins to emerge.

A few seemingly unrelated brushstrokes can be enough to suggest something—or someone—we recognize.

Can you see the hidden figures?

☞ For further exploration, visit my Subliminal Faces gallery.

How minimal can a drawing be?

Gianni Sarcone

How far can you strip away a design and still leave it readable? Take almost everything out, and your brain will still fight to make sense of what’s left.

Here are two experiments in pushing that boundary:

  • 24 Configuration: The curve of the 2 flows straight into the diagonal of the 4. The brain uses the Gestalt principle of closure—filling in the missing pieces so you see two distinct digits sharing a single outline.
  • 45 Configuration: Standard typography is stripped back to raw vertical and horizontal lines. The crossbar of the 4 turns directly into the top curve of the 5, relying on your memory of numbers to decode the abstract shape instantly.

When you remove the noise, viewing becomes interactive. You aren’t just looking at a drawing—your mind is actively completing it.

👉 For more patterns, and mathematical curiosities, explore these number facts.

Bear-ly Seal

Gianni Sarcone

People often ask where my ideas come from. There is no single answer. They tend to surface quietly, shaped by places I’ve seen and cultures I’ve crossed.

“Seal or Bear?” grew out of that kind of moment. An animal suspended in the vastness of a frozen world—emerging from an ice hole, yet refusing to settle into a single identity. Is it a polar bear? A seal? Or something that holds both readings at once?

Bear of seal?

The idea came to me while traveling through northern Canada, surrounded by the stillness of Arctic landscapes and the deep presence of Inuit traditions. That silence has a way of sharpening perception—of making ambiguity feel natural rather than puzzling.

First created in the 1990s, the illusion went on to become a reference point in visual perception studies and later found its way into textbooks.

More recently, the “Seal or Bear?” illusion will be featured by the NHK Educational Corporation as part of a 2026–2027 educational series on psychology and visual perception.

Impossible Beach Cabin

Gianni Sarcone
impossible house sketch

With summer just around the corner, I find myself drifting back to the shores of time, to this delightfully impossible little structure perched on the beach.

A drawing concept created for a children’s coloring book on optical illusions. Over the years, I’ve explored this theme through many curious and playful variations.

impossible house
Available as fine art print from my online gallery.

Are the kids engaging in creative activities inside the cabin or outside it?

The roof insists we’re looking at the exterior, while the floor pulls us firmly indoors. Both readings feel correct, yet they cancel each other out. So, there’s no clean resolution here—just a quiet visual paradox.

Curious to see more of my optical illusion book concepts, impossible worlds, and mind-bending creations? Take a stroll through my author page.

impossible house poster

The idea itself is far from new and has inspired countless artists, architects, and photographers. It even exists in three dimensions. A notable example is Roy Lichtenstein‘s House I (1996), an ingenious sculpture that appears to be a solid house but is actually a concave construction made of angled steel planes. As viewers move around it, the structure seems to rotate and reshape itself, turning perception into part of the artwork.

IF: The Two-State Threshold

Gianni Sarcone

I’ve always been drawn to impossible objects—those forms that slip between logic and illusion, never fully settling into one or the other.

This piece grew out of an old idea I felt compelled to revisit, almost as if reopening a long-forgotten door. A binary door, in fact—one that leads to two distinct worlds. Depending on how you look at it, it shifts, tilts, and reveals something else.

It starts with pencil on paper. A loose, intuitive phase where the form finds its way. From there, I move into FreeHand MS—an old tool I’ve never quite let go of. It still gives me a certain precision and feel I can’t replace. Finally, I refine the piece in Photoshop, adjusting, balancing, pushing it toward that delicate point where everything holds together.

There’s still work to be done. Something remains unresolved—but maybe that tension is part of what keeps it alive.

Master of Numbers

Gianni Sarcone

“The Master of Numbers” is an Op Art photomosaic portrait of the renowned physicist, created from a collection of photographs of numbers. Each detail contributes to a visual exploration of mathematics, perception, and pattern. The project took me two years to complete, photographing numbers in the most unusual places and objects, and bringing them together into a single portrait.


And a little secret: tucked inside the mosaic is a tiny portrait of me and my wife—a fun, hidden signature and a personal touch.

Limited edition posters and prints are available through my online gallery.

Creating a New Impossible Cube: From Concept to Print

Gianni Sarcone

Impossible or undecidable figures have long fascinated artists, mathematicians, and viewers alike. Their appeal lies in a delicate tension: the structure appears perfectly logical at first glance, yet closer inspection reveals spatial contradictions that cannot exist in the physical world. My latest work revisits an idea I first explored in the 1990s—an impossible Rubik’s-style cube—now developed into a new series built across several stages, from hand-drawn construction to digital refinement and photographic interpretation.

The project began with a simple geometric framework—interlocking beams arranged to suggest a stable cubic volume. The challenge was to reinterpret an apparently ordinary three-dimensional cube into an ambiguous form that still appears structurally plausible. Through careful adjustments of line weight, contrast, and directional and formal cues, the cube gradually shifts from perceived solidity to spatial uncertainty, so that as the eye moves across the image, the object quietly reorganizes itself, producing a surreal perception in place of a coherent physical structure.

impossible cube
Here is the original version of the project, refined from my initial hand-drawn construction and carefully reconstructed using FreeHand MX

Two of the final images belong to the Op Art tradition, where sharp black-and-white geometry emphasizes visual tension and rhythmic structure. These compositions highlight the cube’s architectural clarity while allowing the paradox to emerge naturally from the viewer’s perceptual processing. The remaining two images take a different path: they present the object in a photographic setting, rendered with realistic lighting and textures.

impossible cube etched
Astraea Paradox Cube: Available as fine art print.
Rubik’s Paradox Cube: Available as fine art print.

Together, the four images form a small visual narrative—construction, transformation, and illusion—showing how a purely conceptual structure can evolve into multiple aesthetic forms. The Op Art versions focus on perceptual mechanics, while the photographic interpretations suggest how an impossible form might inhabit the physical world, even if only in appearance.

Fine art prints and canvas editions from this series are available through my official gallery shop, where each piece is produced using archival materials designed for long-term display.

Collectors and galleries interested in larger formats or special editions may also contact me directly for availability and production details. This series continues my exploration of perceptual geometry, where simple shapes become instruments for questioning how we construct space, depth, and visual certainty.

Seeing Beyond Lines: The Illusion of Form

Gianni Sarcone

We usually perceive lines and shapes as forming a figure, while the paper and surrounding white space recede into the background. Yet, under certain conditions, what we assume to be background can itself acquire form and meaning. In the illustrations shown here, a clear geometric figure emerges—even though no lines actually define it. These visual phenomena are known as illusory figures.

illusory spring
What kind of 3-dimensional shape do you see?

Illusory figures depend, in part, on the presence of regular gaps within a visual arrangement. When such gaps occur, the visual system instinctively tries to resolve them into coherent forms. These gaps can be created by simple elements, such as circles. When solid black circles and partially “chipped” ones are arranged carefully, they produce striking illusory shapes.

The most familiar example is the Kanizsa triangle. Here, an illusory contour is perceived when black disks with wedge-shaped sections removed are aligned so that their edges define a triangular form in the negative space. Remarkably, this illusory region appears brighter than the surrounding page, even though its physical luminance is identical.

Kanisza triangle
Kanizsa triangle

Etherial Cross

A pattern of black dots forms a ghostly ‘X’ shape through negative space. The arrangement of dots creates a subtle sense of motion and depth. The piece combines the Ouchi effect—where contrast between figure and background generates apparent movement—with the Kanizsa illusion, where the mind completes shapes that aren’t actually drawn.

Sarcone's Illusory Cross
Fine art prints of this Op Art piece are available for purchase through my official gallery.

The effect becomes even more dramatic when the illusion is animated. Rotate the cross, for example, and the X-shaped form—with no explicit outline—appears to emerge from a rigid grid of black dots. The shape is defined solely by subtle local distortions: small asymmetric intrusions along the contours of the X disrupt the regularity of the dots, making the form pop into perception despite having no actual boundaries.

Animated Sarcone's Illusory Cross

Etherial Circle

Using the same technique, we can replace the X with a large O. Now the regular arrangement of black circles is disrupted by a ghostly central shape that seems to lift off the background, almost floating. As above, this Op Art piece combines the Ouchi effect—where the contrast between figure and background creates apparent motion—with the Kanizsa effect, where the mind completes shapes that aren’t actually drawn.

Floating O
Fine art prints of this Op Art piece are available for purchase through my official gallery.

It is also interesting to add a rotational motion to this Op Art piece. I experimented with different solutions, and this one is the simplest yet striking nonetheless.

To conclude this journey into the world of contour illusions, still using black disks as our starting point, here are a few further experiments. They explore negative superpositions, translucent effects, and the emergence of more complex forms—showing how simple elements can give rise to unexpected visual structures.

hidden beauty
Fine art prints of this Op Art piece are available for purchase through my official gallery.