This type of art originally gained popularity during the Renaissance, when Old Masters such as Da Vinci and Holbein experimented with it. (A great example of an anamorphic skull can be seen in Holbein's painting, "The Ambassadors", so if you're ever in London, go along to the National Gallery and check it out, it's awesome!)

I'm Mike O'Hara, an artist based in Kent, UK, and I love creating anamorphic art. I've found that it is surprisingly straightforward, once you understand the principles and methods. And it can give you some really cool results.

In this class, we'll be going from first principles through to more complex techniques, where I will show you:

• How to draw a "3D hole" that seems to disappear into the paper. This is a quick and simple exercise that will introduce you to anamorphic drawing. All you need is a sheet of paper, a couple of pencils and a little bit of imagination :) 


• A step-by-step guide to creating 3D anamorphic drawings of simple objects that will seem to "pop out" from the paper. In this section I will show you how to:


• set up and photograph your reference 3D object


• create a distorted, anamorphic stencil from your photo


• transfer your stencil to paper


• add details, shading and colour to your drawing


• take a photo or short video of your anamorphic artwork


• An introduction to creating drawings using "mirror anamorphosis", which can produce some pretty amazing results.