Perspective comes into play every day of our lives. When you look out the window you see things that are both father away from you and things that overlap them. You use this form of thinking to determine and assume which objects are closer to you and which ones are farther away. Artists also use perspective to give flat surfaces depth and space. If you think about it, all work of art that has space and looks “3D” is an optical illusion because the artist is using perspective to make a two dimensional object look 3D. Perspective is also applied to optical illusions-which trick you into predetermining the size of objects!
An example of a simple perspective illusion can be seen below.
Which line looks longer?
It seems that the top line is longer because your brain assumes that the top line is farther away than the bottom line, so it must be longer. When removing the background however you see that the lines are the same length.
So, your brain interpreted and assumed that the lines were farther away because of the receding background but in essence they really weren’t. Thats why the lines seemed like they weren’t the same length.
Another illusion like this one is pictured below.
Which “monster” looks bigger?
When removing the background, you will see that the “monsters” are the same size! Your brain assumed that one monster was larger because it put things into “perspective”!
-Amanda
isn’t this also a technique used in art to show space as well?
im with marta on this one. definitely shows space. draw two of the same ones and put angled lines… useful
Yes, in art we use lines and size to create space. In the bottom illusion, you used lines to create perspective which mad us think the person on top was bigger when in fact it was the same size.