Too Close for Comfort (8 Photos)

Step into the illusion

The shark on Palolem Beach is a painted rock, and the drop under the cave tightrope is only paint. The people posing with these artworks play along anyway, and each photo ends up one step from trouble.

More: 100 Times People Stepped Into the Artwork

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🕳️ Cave Tightrope — By Nate Baranowski in Valkenburg, Netherlands 🇳🇱

Baranowski made this interactive cave painting at MergelRijk, a marl cave attraction on Daalhemerweg in Valkenburg, where he is one of five international artists behind the 3D cave paintings. In his post showing the finished work, he points out several places to pose, including the tightrope that appears to cross the drop.

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🪢 Indiana Jones Rescue — By Nate Baranowski in Bay Lake, Florida, USA 🇺🇸

Created for EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts, this chalk painting turns the walkway into a torch-lit chamber. A real rope connects the visitor’s hands to the painted adventurer below.

💡 Nerd Fact: Baranowski, a street painter based in Chicago, first got hooked on street painting while earning his BFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

More: 3D Chalk Art by Nate Baranowski at EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts

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🐯 Tiger, Shield and Sword — By Nikolaj Arndt

The tiger, shield and sword are all painted onto the cobbles. A woman rests her hand over the tiger’s head, and that one gesture turns a flat painting into a close encounter.

More: This Feels Too Real (22 Illusions by Nikolaj Arndt)

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🦁 Lion Around the Corner — By SCAF

SCAF paints across a wall corner so the lion’s head and forelegs seem to enter the corridor. Its painted shadow anchors it to the floor beside the person carrying a shield.

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🐻 Bear, Fish and a Real Dog — By Nikolaj Arndt

A real dog poses on a painted rock beside Arndt’s fishing bear. The untouched pavement around the scene shows just how much of the river is an illusion.

💡 Artist Fact: Arndt was born in 1975 in Gavrilov Posad, Russia, moved to Germany in 2006 and began painting 3D pictures at street art festivals in 2009. He also teaches at a private art school.

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👣 Shadow Creature — By SCAF

The creature’s long legs join the person’s feet, making it read as a shadow with claws. The phone pose adds the joke: all that menace, apparently unnoticed.

💡 Process Fact: SCAF is a self-taught French artist who spends anywhere from two days to a week on a single mural, often working inside abandoned factories and buildings.

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🐼 Pandas Above the Drop — By Nikolaj Arndt

The painted platform seems to hang over a hole filled with sky. Arndt’s foreshortened tree and planks line up with the visitor’s real feet to complete the balancing act.

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🦈 Shark Rock — By Jimmy Swift in Goa, India 🇮🇳

Jimmy Swift painted this rock near the shore of Palolem Beach in South Goa to resemble a great white shark. He first painted it in 2015 and returned to refresh it in 2017. The rock’s natural point makes the nose.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsShark RockJimmy Swift · 2015 · Palolem Beach, South Goa, IndiaFirst painted March 2015Repainted in 2017Palolem Beach, South Goa1Swift says the rock already had the shape: “It’s truly amazing how mother nature can carve out such a perfect shape.”My Modern Met2Waves and the rising tide forced Swift to stop before the painting was finished, he wrote on Instagram.My Modern Met2015MarFirst painted · Laughing Squid2017MarRepainted · Laughing Squid201812 FebReport · My Modern Met20233 FebMouth still visible · The Daily JawsRead the full file →

More: Jimmy Swift’s Shark Rock (10 Photos)

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📚 Library Illusion — By Joe and Max in Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪

Two women balance on a stack of books while the pavement around them falls away into shelves, stairs and dark corridors. Dublin City Council put the illusion on Henry Street to promote local libraries, and it stayed for one day only.

More: Amazing 3D Art By Joe and Max (8 Photos)

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🦶 Framed by a Yeti — By Joe and Max

The yeti stays inside the gold frame, but one huge blue foot does not. The woman crouching underneath plays along as if the next step lands on her. The artists’ own post ties the piece to the film Smallfoot.

More: Amazing 3D Art By Joe and Max (8 Photos)

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🌀 Between 2 Worlds — By SCAF

The shark swims out of one pink portal and into the next, and the jumper times the leap right over its fin. SCAF titled the piece Between 2 Worlds in his own post. Mistime it, and the landing is on a shark.

More: 26 Amazing 3D Paintings by SCAF

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