Perspective and Other Optical Illusions

Wooden Books

by Phoebe McNaughton

Do things always look smaller when they are further away? Can something be clearly visible but not there at all? Is it ever possible to have a direct and true experience of reality? Are you sure? In this delightful and informative little book Phoebe McNaughton takes us on a classical journey through the history of artistic perspective, showing how the eye can be tricked and confused, the brain befuddled, and the philosopher inside all of us awakened by the nature of illusion. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Design

64 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Chie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always loved drawing and sketching since I was small, and so when I first saw this book, I was excited to learn about perspectives and illusions which can enhance my knowledge in visual arts. But after I finished this book, I don’t feel like this book gave me a new insight about perspectives.

To start with, McNaughton did not fully consider about the readers. Not all the readers are experts; in fact, we are reading this book because we are beginners about arts and want to know about it. However, he is undermining it and is thinking we are all experts about this field of knowledge. For instance, in his book, he throws bunch of art jargons at the readers without explaining what it is, such as “lithography” and “perpendicular orthographic projections”. The readers are completely new to this whole field of visual art, and McNaughton confounds them by discussing some of the difficult concepts that is not fully explained.

In some part of the book, the ideas she mentions is somewhat connected to perspectives and illusions. For example, personally, I think rainbows and halos are not relative to perspective and illusions. Additionally, she even mentions a scientific equation by Einstein, F=mc2, which I think it has nothing to do with the art.

Although I had a hard time deciphering what McNaughton meant in her explanation and struggle to understand the connection she makes with the topic, there are some parts that I thought it was cool. One of them is the relativity rules where two things are compared. For example, you have two objects that have the same weight, but one is bigger than the other one. People usually think the bigger one is lighter than the smaller one because “we expect them to weigh more”. It’s interesting how you can perceive yourself by expecting it to be different from the reality.

Even though McNaughton makes some cool points about perspectives and illusions, it is still hard to understand some of her points because her use of vocabulary is hard to understand, and some of her idea is not connected to the main idea.

[Jessica Stevens · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't stress how boring and confusing this book was. I was super excited about it, but it was such a hard read. The descriptions made little to no sense and I actually didn't learn anything. Sad day.

[Brian Zheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice-illustrated. Short but interesting. Explanation can be more in-depth but it's overall a fun read. It does a good job of showing the intersection of art and geometry.

[Jessica Summers · Rating 3 out of 5]

occasionally a bit confusing, but educational

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

did you know that most comic books are drawn with a perspective that uses 3 vanishing points?

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realy like the pictures.it is a great book!