The title pretty much explains today’s optical illusion, which is courtesy of Swiss artist Sandro Del-Prete.  Del-Prete is a master at drawing impossible scenes and this example is certainly no exception.  Shown below is a twisted sheet of paper with a cleverly-designed drawing of a bottle pouring its own glass of wine by itself.  The label on the bottle reads “Castel Nero D’Illusoria” and also happens to feature the illusion itself beneath the text.  Even if something like this were possible, the way that the paper is twisted would make it impossible.  But that’s what makes it so interesting to look at!

(via Sandro Del-Prete)

This gentleman is casually leaning up against a wall on a visit to the Great Wall of China.  But something doesn’t quite seem right about this photograph.  Can you figure out what is going on?

Parts of the Great Wall of China were built as early as the 7th century BC.   Most of the best-known sections of the Great Wall were built in the 14th through 17th centuries AD, during the Ming dynasty (which spanned from 1368 to 1644).  The best-known section of the Great Wall of China (located about 43 miles northwest of Beijing) was rebuilt in the late 1950s, and attracts thousands of tourists on a daily basis.

Take a good look at the the legs in this photograph.

Do they appear to be shiny to you, as if they are wet or have oil rubbed on them?  Would you believe that they are not oily at all?  Instead, they are just a normal pair of dry legs with streaks and spots of white paint on them.  Once you notice that the legs just have paint on them, the “shine” all of the sudden disappears.

This ambiguous optical illusion allows you to flip-flop back and forth from viewing the legs as shiny and viewing them as legs with white paint on them.

To see another optical illusion featuring legs, be sure to check out the Ambiguous Dancing Legs optical illusion.

Russian cartoonist Valentine Dubinin illustrated this unique portrait.  It depicts a duck hunter in the water getting ready to fire at a duck desperately attempting to flee the scene.  The hunter’s dog can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the image, possibly ready to retrieve the duck if the hunter lands a successful shot.

When you turn this image upside down, an entirely different scene is presented.  The hunter with the gun transforms into an angry duck swooping down at the hunter’s dog swimming in the water (with a concerned look on his face).

Stereogram designer Gene Levine was playing around with some different pattern designs the other night and came up with this one.  As he looked at the pattern on his monitor, he noticed that he could not get the “targets” to stop moving and that he had inadvertently created an optical illusion with apparent motion.   The small “targets” appear to be unstable and shift against the background when you stare at this image.

(via eyeTricks 3D Stereograms)

Swedish surreal photographer Erik Johansson created this photo-manipulation that depicts a scene where seasons meet.  The woman in the foreground is using a giant needle to sew white sheets together.  Behind her, the sheets that she has already sewn appear to be snow-covered ground.

Regarding Erik Johansson’s creative process, he notes that:

It always starts with a sketch, a simple idea. Not many ideas get realized, but if I think it’s good enough I decide try to make it happen.

(via Erik Johansson)

Happy New Year everyone!

Proferssor Dejan Todorović of the University of Belgrade created this optical illusion that highlights the effects of two different illusions known as the Hering illusion and the Zöllner illusion.  The blurred orange lines (representing a Torii, a traditional Japanese gate located in front of a shrine) are identical in all three images.  Notice how the background lines in the second image make the orange horizontal line appear to bow downward as the vertical lines seem to tilt inward.  By changing the orientation of the background pattern (see third image at the bottom), the orange lines appear to bow and tilt in the opposite direction.