A man wrapped a tree and started painting an incredible illusion, but you’ll have no idea what it is until halfway through!

Howard Lee is a talented young artist. He has a love for the art of illusion. That talent and passion create incredible pieces of artwork that bend your mind. And this piece does just that!

Howard recently shared a time-lapse video of a tree illusion painting. Don’t worry! He isn’t messing with nature here! He wraps plenty of layers of plastic wrap around the tree trunk in order to protect the tree.

Without knowing that he is wrapping the tree to paint, that action would be very odd on its own!

After the tree is wrapped, Howard begins painting with a pale yellow color at the top and bottom of the plastic wrap. Honestly, I had no guesses what was going to become of the seemingly random splotches of colors.

Initially, the colors didn’t seem important, but slowly, the section of the trunk begins to disappear into the background. It’s incredible how he blends the paint colors together to create a real-life camouflage!

Once he starts using the red, I am lost. I had no idea what else there was going to be in the painting. It’s like every single paintbrush stroke and every single color is integral to the finished piece.

Once Howard begins adding details to the large blob in the middle, my mind begins to piece it together. The blob quickly morphs into a pointing hand right in front of my eyes. Absolutely mind-blowing.

He tricks the mind into thinking that a piece of the trunk has been removed and replace with a pointing hand to hold it up. You could also view it as if someone carved that part of the tree into a sculpture of a hand.

He’s so talented with realism painting that he sells prints of his artwork online. He is able to paint an object in 2D right next to the actual object, and you can’t even tell that one isn’t real!
Howard has an incredible gift -- keep sharing your artwork with the world!