Body Painting Illusions

Back in December, well actually December 20, 2011, I finished a composition, in Photoshop and not with a real person, entitled "Mother Nature Turns Her Back On Mankind". And it looked like this:

Mother Nature Turns Her Back On Mankind - Me

Admittedly there are a few things wrong with the composition. The main thing I personally see as wrong is the fact I did not use a 'displacement map' on the artwork which was placed on the lady's back.

As some of you may know, although to be honest it is unlikely, I follow @MOIllusions on Twitter. MOIllusions is the Twitter account for the website Mighty Optical Illusions. It is thanks to MOIllusions that I found out about the artist Liu Bolin.

Liu Bolin was born in Shandong, China and now lives and works in Beijing, China. And what Liu does is paint himself, and others to merge in with the background; as can be seen by the photo below entitled "Hiding In New York No. 3 Magazine Rack":

Hiding In New York No. 3 Magazine Rack - Liu Bolin

More of Liu Bolin's great artwork can be found at the Eli Klein Fine Art Website.

Another artist that regularly appears on the Mighty Optical Illusions website is American artist Craig Tracy who paints people to be part of the picture.

Butterfly - Craig Tracy

The picture above is of a panther which makes use of a model to make the panther. The actual piece is entitled "Butterfly" as a reference to the subtle image Craig Tracy  as the panther's nose.

You can see More of Craig Tracy's fantastic work at his website CraigTracy.com. Where you can not only browse the gallery but see how the various pieces of art came about.

One of my personal favorites, and the original inspiration for my own piece is the artwork, by Craig Tracy, entitled "Genesis".

Genesis - Craig Tracy

Eventually I intend to 'revisit' the original picture I created and fix my own mistakes; and improve it so that I am happy with it.

Note: This post does not do the artists mentioned justice and it is highly recommended to view more of their work at their websites:

Liu Bolin
Craig Tracy

Also for more on optical illusions a great website is Mighty Optical Illusions.

"What is art but a way of seeing?" ~ Saul Bellow