Tricks Are For Dragons

The Dancing Girl optical illusion that appeared in the Herald Sun has been making the blogrounds™ lately (see kottke.org and Taylor McKnight). I usually see her turning clockwise which means I use the right side of my brain more, but every once in a while she switches directions on me!

I was showing her off to some coworkers when Roy (hi Roy!) pointed me in the direction of the Dragon Illusion. Download and print off the PDF and “simply cut it out and stick it together, and stand it on a table or window ledge. When you move around, the dragon's head seems to follow you around the room…the dragon gives us the wrong clues, because we misinterpret what its shape is. We assume that the nose of the dragon is pointing out towards us, but in fact the dragon's head is concave.”


The illusion is difficult to describe but this video captures it perfectly:

Roy even made one for me. I named him Norman. Thanks Roy!