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 DIAGONAL LINES have on apparent size. Here again the way you place the diagonals give you an optical illusion of different size.

HOW FABRICS CONTRIBUTE TO THE OPTICAL ILLUSION OF SIZE

Fabrics contribute greatly to the apparent size and shape in three ways: texture, pattern, and color.

FABRIC PATTERNS

Figured materials, plaids, stripes, and checks can be worn by every figure type. But the predominant flow of its design has to be kept in mind. Patterns which tend to force the eye to follow it in a horizontal direction would have a tendency to shorten and broaden the figure. Small prints can be worn by anyone with no apparent effect on size. Large spaced prints have to be designed with care so that the placement of the design creates the illusion you wish to achieve.

CREATING AN OPTICAL ILLUSION WITH COLOR

Optical illusions can be created not only by line and form, but also by color. Some of these illusions are as follows:

Flight Of Colors — After staring at a lighted frosted bulb for about half a minute, close your eyes. As the dot of light you see (with your eyes closed) begins to fade, it will change color and appear in every color of the rainbow.

After Image — Stare at a spot of brilliant color for a while. Now look at a plain white surface. You will see a complementary color change. After looking at red you will see blue green, after yellow — blue, and after green — red violet.

\J Vibration — Equal values of contrasting or comple­mentary intense hues, placed side by side will appear to jump or vibrate.

Seeing Color Where There Is None — This requires the use of Benham's disc (see illustration below). When this is rotated rapidly you will begin to see va­rious colors; rotated in the opposite direction the colors will reverse themselves in position.

COLOR AS CAMOUFLAGE IN DRESS DESIGN

Color has a very decided influence on the apparent size of the figure. Warm, light, and bright colors all tend to increase the apparent size. Cool, dark, and dull colors generally minimize the size. Color contrasts, depending on what proportion they are used, have a very definite effect on appear­ance of size, sometimes the effect of a beautiful optical illusion.

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