Optical Illusion Prints

Belvedere (1958)
by M.C. Escher

Even though the class is called Drawing & Painting, we still do some printmaking. We looked at some of the fantastic prints by M. C. Escher. He used a lot of optical illusions in his work. Everybody in the class made a print design that incorporated an optical illusion.

For example, the one below is interesting, because it is two copies of the same print. One is upside down. Viewed one way, it looks like an elderly woman. Viewed the other way -- a young girl.

Old Lady/Young Girl
by Adam Felt

Nonexistent Triangles
by Heylin Douglas

The print above is interesting because when we look at it, we see two triangles -- even though no triangles were drawn in the design.

Pencils to Snakes
by Levi Mathers

In Escher's work, a recurring theme was metamorphosis, with one thing becoming another. This idea inspired the student above, who created a design where pencils become snakes.

Impossible Cubes
by Andrew Jackson

The neat thing about printmaking is that you can experiment with printing on unusual surfaces. The student above made a fabric wall-hanging that used repetition of his Impossible Cube.