At first you see a human skull: beautifully crafted with a monochrome palette, using oil paints to add texture. But arch a little further towards your screen and you might realise you are not alone in your viewing...
Within each of these works by British artist Tom French hides the image of a couple, within the eyes of a skull. Viewed together, the portraits (shown in the gallery below) chart an on-going narrative between two mystery figures.
“On a basic visual level it was important not to compromise the portraiture of the characters for the sake of getting the illusion to work," French explained to HuffPost UK.
“Each scene is a snapshot of a story, with a dynamic between the characters working on various levels, which ties into the bigger picture - there's much more to these pieces than illusion alone.”
“I always love seeing people's reaction when viewing the images for the first time, where at first they see only the skull, then the image appears and comes to life as they get closer to the piece.”
French’s work features in the Don’t Look Back exhibition at the Zero Cool Gallery in London later this month.
View images of the skull paintings in the gallery below