Are you seeing spirals? Look again, they’re actually concentric circles! This unique variation of the “Fraser spiral” plays tricks on your eyes by blending a regular line pattern (representing the circle’s circumference) with misaligned elements (the spheres with varying brightness).
Would you like to learn how to create this mesmerizing illusion? Follow my simple visual tutorial. If you have any ideas to further enhance this project, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Continue ReadingWith this work, I aim to push geometry to its limits, transcending the confines of color. My goal is to showcase the creative potential of simple concentric squares as a medium for experimentation and the discovery of new op art patterns. By delving into this exploration, I strive to unveil captivating illusions of color and mesmerizing motion.
Draw a large and a small square with thick lines and center them (Fig. A). Next, blend the inner and outer squares in six steps to create a set of concentric squares. Reproduce the set to form a larger square pattern, as shown in Fig. B.
In these minimalist op art pieces, I delve into the metaphoric realm of geometric shapes, with a particular focus on the hexagon as the foundational element for creating cubes and other simple three-dimensional regular shapes.
The artworks I present depict solid or three-dimensional structures that appear plausible and real, yet are in fact illusions known as ‘impossible figures.’ However, discerning these impossible figures isn’t immediately evident; one must concentrate on specific areas of the representation to grasp that they could never exist in reality! Drawing an impossible stereographic structure becomes achievable by merging two or more contrasting viewpoints or perspectives of the same object, or even by blurring the boundaries between the exterior and interior of an object…
The more ‘normal’ and ‘simple’ an impossible figure appears, the more captivating it becomes! Indeed, impossible objects aren’t created solely to bewilder the eyes; their purpose lies in confounding the mind and challenging one’s acquired visuo-spatial skills and stereographic knowledge.
The two intricate drawings displayed above and below combine two tribars to form an impossible isometric cube, showcasing a mesmerizing interplay between form and illusion.
Some simple geometric patterns and designs, when repeated, can induce strong illusory shape distortions. Thus, visual misperceptions are very common in the op art world.
If dark and clear rectangular tiles are arranged in a checkered fashion, as shown below, there is obviously no illusion, but wait, just add at the intersection of these tiles some transparent dark and clear square patches, et voilà, magic appears!
So, transparencies can produce apparent linear distortions. The parallel red lines in this example look like being convergent / divergent.
“Unspirals” is a series of silkscreen-print projects (still in progress). These colorful geometric op art works appear to rotate and move. They are great promotional supports for companies and products.
An optical illusion I created years ago for the Gewerbemuseum of Winterthur, Switzerland. The orange halo around the contour of the eye doesn’t exist, it’s a construct of your brain.
This illusive effect is related to the “neon color spreading” phenomenon.
Look carefully at the saw-tooth wave patterns on this picture. Is the background of the picture uniformly gray or are there different shades of gray?
Brightness constancy makes some vertical strips look darker, when in fact the gray background is all the same shade of gray.
This op art work is available as prints and canvases from my official online Gallery.
This is an old technique that uses the “color assimilation” effect to colorize pictures. This perceptual effect, also known by scientists as the Von Bezold spreading effect, occurs when our visual system transfers perceived colors to their adjacent areas.
Is the first photo of a variety of pumpkins in color?
This is one of my earliest color optical illusions. There is no yellow or green in the diamond shapes, just vertical black lines! (If you don’t believe it, use a eyedropper tool to check it.) This intriguing visual effect is mainly due to “simultaneous color contrast induction“.
This is one of my oldest illusions I created in the 90s. In the picture you may see ghostlike dark radial beams. This illusion is a variant of the Herman’s scintillating grid illusion. I designed this illusion just by turning 45 degrees the Herman grid and then by applying a polar transformation.
