At first glance, you think to yourself, "what and how is this happening?" As your mind adjusts and figures out (through everything we've learned in psych) what is going on in this picture, it all starts to make sense. This man actually tricked our minds into thinking that there is a fairy, Thumbelina, or borrower on top of these letters that could not possibly be standing if they were stacked like that! As you piece the puzzle together, it all makes a little bit more sense (at this point I was so impressed I thought of this man as a genius). He used light and shade to show exactly where the letters were relative to his body. He also used linear perspective, but not in the traditional sense. He understood that our brains use depth cues to process position and size. By stretching out the top of the work and tapering it to towards the bottom of the letters, he created an extraordinary illusion. This is the point where I unfortunately realized that there in fact are no people in this world that small. By putting the woman at the top of the W, he reinforced this illusion in our brains.
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I really like the picture you chose to write about. It's so fascinating how, just as you put it, the block letters are given the correct color and shading to make the words appear to be three-dimensional. And just the right placement to create the illusion of the woman appearing to be extremely small and placed on top of the letter. The linear perspective is simply brilliant in the way it makes the normal sized woman appear to be toy-sized. At first glance, I definitely fell prey to this illusion.
I definitely was fooled. At first, I was not sure what the picture had to do with the topic. However after looking a few more times I came to the realization. It takes a creative and smart mind to come up with a scene like the guy in the picture did.
This is a really fascinating illusion. When I first looked at this, picture I thought the man was holding up the letters and a girl was photoshopped into it. It wasn’t until about half way through the article that I realized the letters were drawn onto the sidewalk and the man and women’s size difference was due to the distance between them.
I have to say I was definitely drawn to this post because of the picture. It is pretty awesome! I am a huge fan of illusions, and I love how someone actually drew this in real life in chalk. What a great and interesting blog!
This illusion totally fooled me. I thought it was cool how it looked like he was holding up the word. Then I noticed the woman and how small she looked. Since it looks like he's holding it up and she's right next to him, it makes her appear as she's super tiny. The more I looked at I still didn't believe that she was far enough away from him to make her look that small. The space that the "W" took up to me didn't look all that large. However, once I looked at the tree next to her, I could see how the two relate to each other size wise and figured she was far enough away to look that tiny. This is a great illusion!
I've actually seen this guy's work in person! It's crazy. The illusions from his chalk drawings are so realistic. I was fooled at first until I was able to walk up next to them and the dimensional illusion disappears. His work is so impressive. I think that to have an skill like that is really commendable.
This is a great picture that you chose! And this illusion definitely fooled me - oops! At first, all that caught my eye was that the word "WORLD" was most prominent in the picture. Then I noticed that the man appeared to be holding the W which fascinated me even more. Only then, as I zeroed in on the W some more did I notice that the women was "laying" on the letter. His work is very impressive and this is definitely an interesting picture to blog about. His use of depth cues and colors is great and not many could do such a good job with it all! I sure wouldn't be able to do anything like this seeing as I totally fell prey to his illusion.
Unlike many of the comments before me, initially I did not see the illusion. On my first take, I assumed that it was just that, some sort of chalk graffiti on the ground, a woman way back on the ground and opposite of her, a person up front. It was not until my eyes shifted away from the computer screen (due to a chaotic distraction) and then back to the image that I then was able to see the illusion. I wonder why there are some individuals like myself who may need a longer moment to see those illusion while others can immediately?
When trying to write my blog post I came across this illusion as well. I thought it was missed placed in my search because I was totally fooled. At first I did not even see the woman sitting at the top of the "W" and then I actually thought there were blocks spelling out "WORLD." After taking a closer look and blinking a few times, I realized I should be embarrassed. I had been fooled.