Figures come alive and jump off the pages in these illustrations by Japanese artist Nagai Hideyuki. By displaying simple pads of paper at special vantage points, the artist’s amazing charcoal and pencil drawings form playful 3D optical illusions. The 21-year-old artist has quite a knack for perspective and each new drawing is more surprising than the next.
Hideyuki identifies himself as an anamorphic artist, which is a style of art that stems from the early Renaissance. The style features techniques based on perspective, where an artist creates distorted images or drawings that are recognizable only when viewed in a certain way.
The way Hideyuki sets up his sketch pads reminds me of opening a pop-up book and having the scenes emerge before my eyes. Up close, his compositions are merely flat sketches on sheets of paper, but from a distance, the illustrations challenge our brains to ‘see’ more than we might first expect.
If you enjoy being visually challenged by these types of impressive optical illusions, you can check out similar work by Chilean artist Fredo, here.
