Illusive Op Art Skulls

Gianni Sarcone

I am currently working on new “neon color spreading” effects. Have a look at the pictures below… Though you perceive fluorescent grinning skulls, the vertical white stripes don’t contain any color at all, they are uniformly white! The trick lies on the fact that some black lines have very thin color edges. This illusory shading effect is also known as “subjective transparency” or “Tron effect”.

The neon color effect was first observed by D. Varin in 1971. The human ability to perceive a neon effect may be a remnant of the development of our power of sight under water at extreme depths, where light is very poor.

My Op Art Skulls are available as prints and t-shirts from my online store.

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Urban Butterflies

Gianni Sarcone

Mantra is a French muralist and street artist, born in Metz (East of France) in 1987. He is a self-taught artist and currently one of the most important “avant-garde” graffiti artists in Europe.

Having developed over many years a very personal technique and skills, Mantra is able to realize artworks on any surface and of all scales using a great level of detail and realism. Mantra’s artwork bring concrete walls to life around the world, from Zaragoza, to Paris, passing by Vienna, Lima, Seattle, Brussels, Quito and Bogota.

The artist pays tribute to his childhood exotic heroes (butterflies, owls, spiders, birds…) in a realistic and lively style, like a mirror reflecting on the cries of a nature that we don’t hear anymore.

I love butterflies… There is no doubt that they have significant meanings to us. Butterflies are deep and powerful representations of life. Many cultures associate them with our souls. Around the world, people view the butterfly as representing endurance, change, hope, and life.

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Typographical Curiosity About Numbers

Gianni Sarcone

“Why do the digits look like they do?” to answer this recurrent question one may find on the web many strange and diverse theories on the origin of the shapes of our modern, Hindu-Arabic numerals. Unfortunately, most if not all of those theories are patently false! One that went viral claims: “Our present method of writing figures is based on an early Arabic geometric design (see below) where each digit contains its own number of corners or angles, for instance the digit 1 contains one angle, the digit 3 has three angles, the digit 7 has seven angles and so on.” It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s just plain nonsense!number typo false

Let us leave aside these abstruse theories, as there are a whole range of serious and documented books on the origin of numbers, including Georges Ifrah’s excellent book “Universal History of Numbers“.
However, there is nothing preventing us from finding or inventing original and / or fun typographic methods to create numbers, like the one illustrated below, which requires only two stylized numerals: a 4 and a 8.

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Godzilla could turn off that switch!

Gianni Sarcone

on_off_switch Escif is a Spanish muralist and street artist, most of his work can be found in the streets of his town, Valencia, but also in countries such as Canada, France, Italy, Poland and more.
The use of subdued colors and simple lines helps the artist make a humorous statement on various sensitive social or political issues, like in this gigantic mural for Poland’s “Katowice Street Art Festival”.

Juxtaposed next to those who passers-by, the artwork looks ridiculously large. Carefully painting just a few colors, Escif gives the illusion that some sort of giant can really turn off that switch!

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Shadows Creating The Illusion of Depth

Gianni Sarcone

I particularly enjoyed the fishpond mosaics with 3D trompe-l’oeil effects by Gary Drostle. Gary is a UK award winning artist specializing in murals and mosaics. He made a series of fishpond floor mosaics with golden fish, the shadow of which creates the illusion of depth. The circular concentric ripples even boost the 3D depth effect of the compositions. I love the simplicity and ingenuity of these stunning pieces of art!

3D Mosaic fishpond

3D Mosaic fishpond 2

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Would you dare run on it?

Gianni Sarcone

This wavy floor is actually a mind-boggling optical illusion that discourages people from running down the hallway (in fact, the floor is a completely flat surface!).

Manchester firm Casa Ceramica used a neat combination of black and white tiles to make the floor along the hallway look as though it is uneven making the tiles appear to slope away into a dip.

floor illusion 2

The illusion only works in one direction, so you will be perfectly safe on the way out.

floor illusion

The making of the floor.

Many visual illusions have already been used to try and slow down traffic like this 3D-painted zebra crossing trialed in Iceland that provides an illusory effect of white blocks floating over the road.

zebra-cross illusion

 

Move Away From the Past You Need to Leave Behind

Gianni Sarcone

leave the past

Two Zen monks noticed, at the edge of the river, a beautiful young maiden sat weeping because she was afraid to cross the river alone. She begged them to help her. The younger monk turned his back. The members of their order were forbidden to touch a woman.

The older monk picked up the girl without a word and carried her across the river. He put her down on the far side and continued his journey. The younger monk came after him, scolding him and berating him for breaking his vows. “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that girl on your shoulders?” He went on and on like this for a very long time. The elder monk didn’t say a word.

Finally, the elder monk, exasperated, turned to the younger one. “I let her go as soon as we crossed the river. Why are you still carrying her?”

How often do we carry around past hurts, holding onto resentments when the only person we are really hurting is ourselves.