Stunning Surreal Photoshop Art

Surrealism means "above reality", and is an art form which depicts highly imaginative and unlikely scenes in a realistic manner. The art form began in the 1920s, decades before artists began to create digital art on computers. The rise in popularity of Photoshop paintings has inspired a renaissance of surrealism.


The Surreal World of Photoshop
Famous surrealist painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989) worked mostly in oil paint, creating crazy landscapes that shocked and delighted the art critics of his time. Now, a century after Dali's birth, digital artists can create surreal landscapes with ease, using computer arts programs such as Photoshop.

Above: Surrealist artists often create images in which objects are melting. The painting above shows a nightclub in which everything around a beautiful girl is melting. Perhaps the artist is trying to portray that the girl is so hot, the world around her melts.

Above: The Photoshop artist has used organic shapes in place of the woman's body, using only facial features, hands and a human heart to convince the viewer that the subject in the painting is in fact human.

Above: Desert landscapes, cloudy skies and clocks are popular themes in surrealism. It is likely that this Photoshop artwork uses elements from real photos.

Above: Photoshop allows artists to create surrealist art by combining several photographs. This world in a light bulb is an optical illusion created by altering the perspective and size of the photographic elements.

Anything is Possible
The only limits that surrealist Photoshop artists face are the bounds of their own imagination. Photoshop paintings can be edited at any time, which means that several versions of the same art work can exist. A Photoshop painting can evolve over time without the original art being compromised.

Above: This surrealist Photoshop art work takes the social network Facebook literally, creating a book out of this man's face.

Above: Sometimes the line between surrealism and fantasy is blurred, as both art forms describe a world in which the impossible is a reality. The Photoshop painting above shows a world in which a girl is intertwined with tree roots and branches. The painting implies that the tree is animated, and a relationship exists between the girl and the tree.

Above: A whimsical surrealist painting. The Photoshop artist has taken creatures that live in water, such as clown fish and a whale, and depicted them existing happily in air.

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Artworks Whose Eyes Follow You Around the Room

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting is famed for having eyes that follow you around the room. The principles used in da Vinci’s paintings can also be applied to sculpture or paper-folding to create a hollow face illusion.


Hollow Face Illusions Videos:

These videos show a variety of hollow face illusions at work. As the camera operators move around the sculptures, the faces (sometimes just the eyes) turn to watch the viewer.

This sculpture is an artist’s rendition of St Francis. Though small, the bust of St Francis is an interesting piece, as no matter where you are in the room, St Francis has his eyes on you.

Even when rendered in 3D animation software, the hollow face illusion still has an essence of magic. The eye is tricked into believing that the heads are turning as the 3D model rotates.

How it Works:

Hollow face illusions are exactly what their name implies. The artist sculpts, carves or in the case of paper or origami art, folds the material to form a “hollow” face. The human eye is trained to see a face as being convex (bulging towards the viewer), that it naturally mistakes a concave face (bulging away from the viewer) as being convex. Small sculptures can be rotated horizontally and vertically to create the impression that the head displayed is turning from side to side or up and down. For large sculptures, the viewer can move around the sculpture, marveling at the supposed manner in which the face turns to follow the viewer around the room.

Above: The face on the left is convex, and the face on the right is concave. From this angle, with the light coming from above, the illusion is easily broken.

Above: Because the light source is apparent, the illusion created by this Buddha hollow face illusion is strong. The contrasting colors between “raised” and “indented” surfaces adds to the illusion.

Above: This image of Einstein appears to protruding out of the background, but is it? 

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

The theories used in hollow face illusions and by da Vinci for the “Mona Lisa” are similar, but not exactly the same. Instead of creating a hollow face for Mona, da Vinci used perspective, contrast, shadows and shape to create the illusion that the Mona Lisa’s eyes turn to follow the viewer around the room. Da Vinci created a sketch called Proportions of the Face, which he used as a base for the proportions of the Mona Lisa’s face. The proportions created by da Vinci are based on the same mathematical principles as hollow face illusions, and create a similar effect.

Above: Working stages of the Mona Lisa painting, showing how da Vinci incorporated his sketch, Proportions of the Face, into the final Mona Lisa masterpiece. The reason why Mona's eyes seem to follow you around the room is a combination of light and shadows in the piece and layers upon layer of paint that give the painting a slight 3-Dimensional effect.


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Celebrity Optical Illusions

Optical illusions of people who have become famous throughout the ages, including Jesus Christ, Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Barack Obama.

Optical illusions take many forms – sometimes an image is hidden in a series of lines or dots, sometimes two images are included in the same picture and can only be seen if you change they way that you look at the artwork.


Jesus Christ Optical Illusions

The image of Jesus Christ has been used as the subject matter for many optical illusions. Take a look at these and see if you can find Jesus. (For the vertical line optical illusion, move away from your monitor to see the image).

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a 20th century scientist and philosopher who is famous for his theory of relativity. Take a look at the picture of his below. Can you see Albert Einstein or Marilyn Monroe? (Hint - move back from the screen)

Marilyn Monroe

See if you can find the famous actress, Marilyn Monroe, in the picture below. (Hint – Move away from your screen and focus on the center of the image until Marilyn emerges.)

President Barack Obama

Stare at the center of the optical illusion image and then look at a bright, flat surface such as a wall to see a picture of the US president Barack Obama.

George W. Bush

Can you see the words “peace” and “war” in the first picture of George Bush? The second picture doesn’t contain a picture of George W Bush, but the images, when seen together, create an illusion of his face.

Scarlett Johansson

Move away from your screen and stare at the center of the image below to see an image of the beautiful actress and model, Scarlett Johansson.

Elvis Presley

Focus on the cross in the center of the screen for a while and then look at a bright, flat surface like a wall to see an afterimage of the Rock and Roll King, Elvis Presley.

Brad Pitt

Hollywood heart throb Brad Pitt is hiding somewhere in this image.

Homer Simpson

Famous loser dad Homer Simpson, from the hit animated TV series “The Simpsons” isn’t actually pictured here. The collection of other character images gives the illusion of Homer’s face.

Johnny Depp

To see Johnny Depp in the image below, focus on the center of the image and move away from your screen.

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