Illustration:
Gestalt Angelfish

With paths created in Adobe Illustrator, tones and gradients in Adobe Photoshop, this angelfish illustration is an example of “Gestalt effect.”

First expressed by German psychologists in the 1920s, Gestalt theory suggests that our minds recognize patterns—and automatically simplify complex collections of shapes to perceive objects. In this illustration we see an angelfish, even though in reality we’re looking at many disconnected shapes. Our mind completes those connections to make sense of the shapes and colors.

Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop