Artist Dain Yoon Transforms Herself Into Mind Bending Optical Illusions Without Using Photo Manipulations

Dain Yoon is an artist, a master of illusion. Her mind-bending body art is mesmerising in both its technical skills as well as its ability to make you do a double take. She uses a combination of makeup and watercolors to paint her hands, face and surrounding environment. Thus, she creates portraits that look lifelike, but also Photoshop-like. You could easily assume they were manipulated in a program. But her creations are not the result of Photoshop, they are the result of a stunning optical illusion makeup.

The “complexity of human beings” stands at the root of Yoon’s body art. For her, “anything, even in a very ordinary life, could be great inspirations with different perspectives”. As she likes to point out, we are complex beings, our multitude of emotions, personalities, traits, viewpoints, our complex face expressions are what fascinates her and influences her work.

“If I were to choose something out of my routine that draws inspiration, I would say that movies often help me twist my perspectives”, she adds.

Also, she uses the 3D visual effects that make us see the drawings coming alive and jumping out from the page. Which are your favourites?

We love the one in which the face looks like it’s constructed of different layers put together by a clumsy, invisible force. It shows the complexity of our facial expressions and also, our frailty and vulnerability. Also, we loved the one where the universe seems painted on her face and all around her. Again, a frequent theme, showing that there are world in ourselves that we have to discover on our own.

But our most favourite, is the many-eyes face. It shows the power of expression, of looking into somebody’s eyes. The eyes tell so much and in such different ways. They’re the windows to the soul.