TROMPE L'OEIL

This is the French term for an art form which literally means "FOOL THE EYE" or optical illusion . It refers to the painting of scenery, statuary, or furniture on the walls of the room so that an illusion of it as reality is created, indicating how easily the eye is fooled.

USING OPTICAL ILLUSION

We can use these same principles inherent in the tricks our eyes play on us to create an illusion of better proportion in the apparent figure. By so doing we can appear to increase or decrease any dimension under observation. Any figure can be made to appear shorter or taller, stouter or thinner, dumpy or svelte, by a variety of means which we will describe.

AREA

Which of these optical illusion areas is wider? Which is higher? G or H? Measure them. Are you surprised to find they are both exactly the same length and width? Even though we have seen that a vertical line appears longer than a horizontal line, in this case the eye plays another trick. In this case the eye follows the succession of lines rather than the line itself. However, if we change the rhythm and proportion of the vertical and horizontal lines within the same space the illusion reverses itself. See the illustration below.

DIAGONALS

Notice in this illustration what effect... [Chapter Incomplete]

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