Andre Martins de Barros started painting at the age of 15.  After serving time in the military, he decided to pursue his passion full-time to devote all of his time and energy to his art.  In his painting titled “Le Libraire” (or “The Librarian”) below, a collection of books is arranged in such a way that they take on a life of their own.

This painting is reminiscent of the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian painter from the 16th century.  More paintings from Andre Martins de Barros can be found here.

Have you ever looked up at the moon in the night sky only to think that it is bigger than normal?  Is it possible that the moon is actually closer to the Earth on these nights?  If you measure the size of the moon on any given night, it is always the same size.  Our brains can be tricked into thinking that it is bigger on some nights and smaller on others.  For example, when the moon is closer to the horizon, we tend to think that it looks bigger.  When the moon is higher in the sky, it appears smaller.  This phenomenon is referred to as “the moon illusion” and is explained in greater detail in the following video.

There is a butterfly hiding within the flowers of the image below.  In order to see it, just stare at the image until the butterfly appears.  Gary Priester, one of the creative forces behind eyeTricks 3D Stereograms, created this colorful stereogram.  Gary, along with fellow artist Gene Levine, can turn just about anything into a creative hidden image masterpiece.  They have been commissioned by a number of companies to create custom works of art for advertising and promotional purposes including TV Guide, Coors, Caterpillar, Shell Oil, Visine, General Mills, Cique du Soliel, Cipralex and many other companies in the US and around the world.

To view more stereograms, be sure check out the choir stereogram, cameras stereogram, and leapfrog stereogram.

This card trick from Richard Wiseman is probably best introduced with very little information.  Talking too much about it before you watch it might give some hints about what to expect.  After the card trick is performed, the video then goes on to show exactly how it was done.  Were you paying attention?

If you like card tricks, you may also want to review the rules for various card games.  It’s easy to forget how to play some of them which makes a refresher even more important.

There is something special about this post… it marks the 300th post to An Optical Illusion!  A big thank you to our loyal visitors who have submitted material and provided valuable feedback since the inception of this blog.  We always love to hear your thoughts, so please let me know what you would like to see more (or less) of on future posts.  Also, if you have not already “Liked” us on Facebook or followed our Twitter feed, now would be the perfect time to do so!

Today’s illusion is an oldie but a goodie.  It is the 3rd card in a series of 25 optical illusion cards published in 1926 by Major Drapkin & Co (London) which was a branch of The United Kingdom Tobacco Co Ltd.  The back of the card states the following:

This picture suggests unfairness.  Ask your friends and they will tell you that the winning boxer is very much taller than his opponent who is taking the count.  Actually such is not the case.  Both men are exactly the same height, as you can prove with the aid of a ruler.

More vintage optical illusion cards can be seen at Vintage Ambiguous Tunnels and Length of Lines (View of Street).

In the past, we have featured images made from thumb tacks, sea shells and even Post-it Notes.  Sarah Rosado, a photographer and artist based in New York, creates her images using something that you might not expect – dirt.  She calls this series of photographs “Dirty Little Secrets”.

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Hiding somewhere in this pile of coffee beans is the face of a man.  Can you find him?

He blends in pretty well with his surroundings, but once you spot him, you will see him instantly the next time you view this coffee bean human photo.