Using a 22 by 21 grid of baseball cards, mosaic artist Ken Knowlton created this portrait of his grandson titled Nicholas Jensen (Little League Pitcher).  The final mosaic, created in 2002, measured 32 inches wide by 40 inches tall once completed.

The further that you stand back from the image, the more recognizable the young boy becomes.  If you squint your eyes slightly, you will also be able to see the boy better.  A close-up photograph, showing the detailed pattern of baseball cards, can be seen below.

In the foreword of the book Masters of Deception by Al Seckel (Sterling Publishing), Douglas Hofstadter describes Ken Knowlton’s “coarse-grained pointillism” as “pure visual magic”.  It would be difficult to argue with that statement.

(via Ken Knowlton)

If you were to climb down this ladder, where do you suppose you would be once you got to the bottom?  Artist Nico Laan drew this anamorphic sand ladder on the beach and then used a camera mounted to a kite to take a photograph of it from the proper angle.  The person standing in the picture helps to give the viewer a better idea of the sheer size of the drawing.

Two photographs from alternate angles can be found below that help to show how this large anamorphic ladder was created.

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It has been a while since we featured one of Andreas Aronsson’s impossible figures.  Depending on how you look at this figure, the small (blue) square is either on top of or below the larger (red) square.This figure was made during a particularly hectic time in Andreas Aronsson’s life as he was living out of a suitcase and traveling quite a bit for his job.  To see more of his impossible creations, be sure to check out Hoops and Impossible Stairs.

(via Andreas Aronsson)

Bridget Riley was born in London, UK in 1931 and studied at Goldsmiths College and Royal College of Art, London.  During the 1960’s, she became well known across the world for her Op Art paintings after exhibiting alongside Victor Vasarely and other artists in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The untitled work below from 1962 is based on her previous painting titled ‘Movement in Squares’.

Continue reading the full post to see more examples of Bridget Riley’s work.

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In the early 1980s, ambigram master and puzzle designer Scott Kim created the following image while performing some font experiments.  He made a font in which black and white spaces were equally wide, and then had fun exploring what he could do with it.

More examples of Scott Kim’s ambigrams (which he calls inversions) can be found here.  He also created a very nice Joy to the World animation for a family holiday card that is worth a look (or another look if you are already familiar with it!).

(via Scott Kim)

This man appears to be so big that he can grip the base of a tower and hold it like his own personal toy.  It would be interesting to know how far away he is standing from this structure when this picture was taken.

For another interesting forced perspective photograph, check out the Eiffel Tower Forced Perspective.

This anamorphic cube was created in 2011 by Alexis Facca for a promotion for Sqwear, an online fashion store exclusively dedicated to young designers.  The cube required fourteen cans of spray paint to complete and was painted across several walls, the floor, and the ceiling.  Facca is originally from France, but currently resides in Belgium.

Three alternate views of this installation (which help to show the distortion involved to make the object appear three-dimensional from the viewing point) can be found below.

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