The Wall Lied (8 Photos)

By Vidar
SCAF’s painted alligator appears to snap at a man beside NESSÉ’s railway-station mural, presented as two framed photographs on a plaster wall.

Street art illusions that use the building

An alligator fills the corner of a room. A huge hand reaches out beside a real person. Look past the figures and you can see how each artist uses the building to sell the illusion.


Before and after photographs of a bare room transformed by SCAF into an alligator illusion across two walls, with a person posing beside the painted jaws.

🐊 An Alligator in the Room — By SCAF

SCAF’s alligator stretches across the corner, with its open jaws above the person posing underneath. The bare room in the upper photo shows how little space the animal actually occupies.

More: SCAF’s 3D Graffiti Illusions

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Blesea’s giant portrait of a white-haired man with glasses and a reaching hand in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, with a real person standing beside the mural.

👋 “Dieter” — By Blesea in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France 🇫🇷

The hand in Blesea’s “Dieter” seems to reach out from the wall. The person beside the portrait makes the oversized fingers feel even bigger.

More: 14 Murals by Blesea

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MTO’s black-and-white giant painted on a house in Rennes, with broken painted brickwork around the figure and a huge hand on the neighboring wall.

🧱 “The Legend of Fred ILLE & Gwen VILAINE” — By MTO in Rennes, France 🇫🇷

MTO’s giant in Rennes appears to be squeezed into the house, with painted brickwork breaking away around him. A second enormous hand fills the smaller wall beside it.

More: 3D Street Art by MTO in Rennes

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Sepia railway-station mural by NESSÉ on the gable of the old station in Le Crey, Susville, with a railcar, tracks and people waiting on the platform.

🚉 “Gare de Peychagnard-Crey” — By NESSÉ in Le Crey, Susville, France 🇫🇷

A railcar seems to arrive along tracks painted onto this gable. NESSÉ painted the old station itself, so the building becomes part of the scene it remembers.

💡 Nerd Fact: On his artwork page, NESSÉ says the stationmaster was based on a photograph of the station’s last chief in the 1950s.

More: 3 Photos of NESSÉ’s Train Mural

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Before and after photographs of a rounded concrete structure painted by Odeith to resemble a large skull with deep eye sockets and teeth.

💀 A Skull on Concrete — By Odeith

The curved concrete gives Odeith’s skull its shape; the paint supplies the eye sockets, jaw and teeth. With the before photo above it, you can trace exactly where the structure ends and the illusion begins.

More: 25 Odeith Illusions That Don’t Look Real

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River Scene with a Ferry Boat by Zwager Art across a brick house in Tilburg, with sailing boats, clouds and people along the riverbank surrounding real windows.

⛵ “River Scene with a Ferry Boat” — By Zwager Art in Tilburg, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The windows remain visible inside Zwager Art’s river scene, but the painted sky and boats make the house look like a view onto the water. Photo by Rian Nijssen.

More: Famous Paintings Reimagined in Street Art (17 Photos)

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Jan Is De Man’s blue tit painted on a brick building in Dinteloord, with flowers in its beak and chicks appearing inside a painted round nest opening near the roof.

🐦 Eurasian Blue Tit — By Jan Is De Man in Dinteloord, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The tiny brick building becomes a giant nesting box, with chicks calling from an opening beneath the roof. Jan Is De Man’s blue tit brings flowers to the nest, its painted feet gripping the wall.

More: 8 Happy 3D Artworks by Jan Is De Man

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SPURONE’s mural in Tampico showing people in two boats and reflections across a building wall, with real dark windows interrupting the painted water and hull.

🛶 A Boat on the Wall — By SPURONE in Tampico, Mexico 🇲🇽

A dark window cuts through the hull of SPURONE’s painted boat. The reflections continue across the wall below, giving the vessel depth even as the building reveals the trick.

More: Art That Feels Real (12 Photos)

🔗 Follow SPURONE on Instagram

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