Optical Art in Singapore: 3D Illusion Drawing

Optical Art or 3D illusion Drawing may not be as prevalent around us in Singapore, but the closest examples that one can experience are the street (Mural) art located in Haji lane, the trick-eye museum and occasional events like Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Studios Singapore. (USS) This article takes a closer look at creating our own optical art, featuring 3D illusion Drawing in particular.

What is 3D illusion Drawing?

Optical art (or in our context, 3D illusion drawing) usually plays with the shapes and dark lines and colours to show the varying depths and perspectives of the grids. Some optical art plays around with realism and shadows and makes use of spaces.

How to Create Your own 3D Illusion Drawing:

For 3D illusion Drawing, we need to take into account the positioning of the lines and shades to produce a diminishing effect, hence a ruler is often a necessity. The shading effects also need to be emphasised to create this illusion. 

In this video, we are drawing a well. Here is a rough breakdown of the video into easy steps:

1. Draw the outer grid first. The biggest square is roughly 2.5 cm – 3 cm in diameter. This is the ‘opening’ of the well.
   
2. Draw a small rectangle (about 5cm x 6cm) at the bottom left hand corner. This represents the bottom of the well. 
   
3. Connect the top right corner of the small rectangle to the edge of the grid.
   
4. Add vertical and horizontal lines for the sides of the wall. Take note of the spacing in between the lines gets smaller and smaller as it goes “deeper.”
   
5. Add diagonal lines to populate the spaces in between the lines. This represents the bricks in the well.
   
6. Add in colours to give the image more depth and perception.
   
7. Add in the shading with the darker shades at the “bottom” of the well.

Optical Art is easy to learn and follow. As long as you take note of the spacing and the shades between the lines, you can re-create your very own 3D illusion drawing from 2D. Try it for yourself and experience your world in 3D today. 

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