I found this pathetically amusing...

Sorry if this is old, but I saw this posted on a forum and I was wondering what my readers would say about it.

Here's the supposed story:

"In Japan shortly before a teenage girl comitted suicide, she drew this picture, scanned it and posted it online. In Korea this story broke out and it spread like wildfire. There are various posts around Korean forums that say that the viewer gets drawn to the girl's blue eyes, they say they can detect a hint of wrath and sadness within the eyes. Maybe the girl had died with so much sadness and anger that her spirit haunts the image, or maybe the image provokes sadness, similar to the song 'Gloomy Sunday'.

The freaky bit is this, they say it is hard for a person to stare into the girl's eyes for longer than 5 minutes, there are reports that some people have taken their own lives after doing so. People say the picture changes, as you view it there is a hint of a growing taunting smirk appearing on the girl's lips or a dark ring grows around the girl or her eyes.

One thing is for sure, the picture has sparked a curiosity in me that I must find out, I do feel a presence when I look at the image, whether it is evil or not I can not judge. I would like to know what the global online community feels and maybe even experts in art would be able to resolve why the eyes of this image can draw the viewer in so deeply?"

What do you think?



The picture is well-done, but there are some glaring (pun intended) things that need to be pointed out. First off, the edges are all blurred. It's incredibly hard to distinguish a clear line from anything. Therefore, when you stare in her "eyes", or the center of the face, things are blurry around the edges and it makes it harder for your eyes to keep things in a direct position. Secondly, the inaccurate shading around her eyes is darker than it should be and could therefore lead to a person seeing dark rings around her eyes after a prolonged period of time, especially if the person is looking at the eyes. Also, look at the bottom of the picture...around the collar of the girl's dress. The black and gold is very clear. This provides stability for the extreme bottom of the picture, and so when you look near the bottom to see if it's just your eyes that are blurry, you're tricked into thinking that it's clear lines. The idea of the smirk appearing is simple, because the shading and shape of her lips has been done so that you'll get that image. On another note that, the top of her head isn't proportionate to the angle of her face...You can clearly see her scalp, which wouldn't be visible from a head-on angle. I'm not sure what purpose this serves, perhaps it makes it appear as though she's looking up at you doubled with a "Smirk".

All of these are simply techniques that artists use to create different illusions. You can draw or paint anything if you know how to do it properly. These techniques have been used to create various illusions, and when a creepy story that tells you what to look for off the bat, your mind has an underlying notion to seek for and see them because the illusions have been made apparent by the story. It's just like those "Sex-Enhancement" drugs you see in stores and magazine adds. They're generally caffeine or sugar pills with various extracts in them such as Ginseng, so in other words, they do nothing for your libido. But if the user thinks that they'll work...it will. Just like that, this picture and story is the same principle. If you hear about it creeping people out, and if you see the illusions, then it'll inadvertently creep you out. Especially if you don't know about the artistic aspect of it and don't know what to look for.

Also, I find this picture to be FAR more frightening.


(C) 2006 Sean Slater All Rights Reserved, All Wrongs Justified. SEASE Productions.