Sometimes there’s more to the eye than you initially perceive. Apparently just some amazing oil paintings, the works of Ukrainian artist Oleg Shuplyak’s hide a surreal world once you take a step back and watch more closely. Through carefully placed objects, characters, coloring and shadows, there is a second image in the painting which creates an optical illusion.

The second image is so easily observable in some paintings, that you can miss the first one consisting of harmless landscape or characters in different settings. You have to observe the painting more closely to actually see the initial setting and not concentrate on the faces. Fact is that it’s impossible not to be observe the faces firstly, when they portray famous personalities like Van Gogh, Sigmund Freud or Salvador Dali.

Personally, I can’t decide on which of the two planes to admire more. There’s a lot of fine detail in both the first, “apparent” image, but mostly in the second, “hidden” image. However, the way of mixing the two images into an amazing optical illusion, and the way in which famous portraits of remarkable personalities are illustrated is truly visionary and fascinating.

Enjoy some selections of the artists’ works below and get captivated by the illusions. How many faces do you recognize?

Photo credits: Oleg Shuplyak