Being able to paint a realistic portrait is one thing; making two portraits in one is an entirely different level of talent.
Spanish artist Sergi Cadenas has made a name for himself by doing just that. At first glance, his works look like any other portrait of someone’s face, but if you walk to the other side of the room, you’ll see a whole new painting… on the same canvas.
His unique optical illusions allow us to see an infant turn old before our very eyes, or one celebrity transform into another. Sergi got the idea for his work from the old flip-images he enjoyed in his childhood. He dreamed of turning those flip-images into huge canvas works of art. Now, his jaw-dropping paintings hang in galleries around the world!
Sergi is completely self-taught, and he didn’t even start painting until he was in his 30s. After one of his works went viral, he became recognized as one of the world’s best optical artists.
The subjects of his paintings are people he knows in real life, as well as a few famous celebrities. He uses a distinctive method to make his art, piping paint from a tool usually used for cake decorating to create long vertical lines that trick the eye. These lines make it possible for him to create two separate images on the same canvas.
The resulting pieces are breathtaking as stand-alone portraits, but when you add the transformative aspect, you get a modern way for viewers to engage with art in real time.
It takes a truly creative mind to come up with this method of painting and bring these canvases to life, and his work is so stunning!
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