How do you paint or sketch using trompe d'oiel?

Question

I am a young artist who is very interested in accomplishing the "trick of the eye" or trompe d'oiel appearance. I have tried with no instruction but am finding it somewhat difficult. I was wonering if there is indeed a way to educate one about this style.

Answer 1

Well, this is kind like asking "how do you paint."  Not something you can really get an answer to on Yahoo Answers.  I searched for some kind of trompe de l'oeil (that's how you spell it) tutorial or something, but found nothing.  I suppose you could take some of the great trompe de l'oeil paintings and copy them.  It's always instructive to copy great paintings.  But those guys already had an academic training behind them, so, they were kind of ahead of the game.  However, if this is your real interest, you will figure out a way.

I would say, though, that probably you first have to get pretty good at at straight realism.  I would recommend classes, but not at just any art school.  You need to find a school that's oriented toward an old fashioned academy approach where they teach a kind of rigid realism.  There are still schools like this.  I know of some near where I live (NY and CT), but I don't know what area you are in.   But if the word "academy" is in the name of the school, that's a good start.  And you can just ask if they teach traditional academic ways of making a painting.  

I hope this helped a little.