You might think you see a stone turret, a bunch of celebrities hanging out on a balcony, construction in progress or a man precariously dangling from a clock, but what you’re actually looking at is a clever trompe l’oeil work of trickery in paint. Artist Patrick Commecy heads up a team of muralists that transform facades throughout France from blank walls to wacky scenes full of life.

The most dramatic example is a Montpelier building, the back of which is within view of a nearby park (pictured top). Worn and neglected, the structure was a bit of an eyesore as-is. Commecy’s team A-Fresco transformed it with a full faux facade including a tiled roof, windows with balconies and a small tower. The figures seen in the outdoor spaces are famous and influential Montpelier residents throughout history.

Another project involved painting 20 pioneers of mountaineering on the side of the first Guides Office within view of Mont Blanc. The painted-on windows and balconies so closely resemble the real ones on the front of the building, it takes a minute to realize they’re not three-dimensional.

See more of these murals, each tailored to its unique location, at the A-Fresco website (in French.)

Alleyways and city streets are often criss crossed with urban art, though it usually takes the form of paint out of a can. Thankfully this is not always the case, as urban property owners team up with exceptionally talented artists to create murals so realistic and interesting, that they could easily hang in a gallery, but so large that they hang on it, instead.

(Images via idesignarch, rentalcarmomma, darkroastedblend)

Artist John Pugh created this tear away painting revealing the skeleton of Roman architecture peeking out of a modern building. A gorgeous tunnel going through a building may serve as quality art and a fantastic view in Lyon, France, but it does pose a danger to the errant driver who decides to ride into the sunset. Meanwhile, in Toronto, the back of the Gooderham Flat Iron building serves as a city artistic staple, depicting the facade of gorgeous old architecture peeling away from a modern edifice.

(Images via northendwaterfront, moillusions, joshuawiner)

The Salem Street Power Building serves as a beautiful backdrop to an old gate and some very real bikes. One feels like they are peering into an expansive hall full of workers and wooden cask barrels, instead of a flat wall. At Boston’s Old City Hall, the trompe l’oeil style painting reveals a gorgeous entrance that doesn’t actually exist; displaying the depth of the history, without taking up the space.

(Images via urbanartcore, brooklynstreetart, laughingsquid, weburbanist)

The Giant of Boston was a uniquely controversial addition to the city, by Os Gemeos graffitit artists, that has since become a staple of the downtown outdoor art scene. “Liberation and Revolution” is the name of a gigantic mural painted by the artist Ever, which, early though this picture is, portrays a stirring scene about life’s complexities, tempered by the image of laser-eyed cats frolicking on the side of a large building. Swiatecki created this 12 story masterpiece, in a solid 3 months of hard work.

(Images via mymodernmet, art-is-fun, cleveland, telegraph)

Escif, a Valencia-based artist, created this gigantic on/off switch to turn a few heads during an arts festival in Poland. Anat Ronen created a mural that is a bet meta, as it photographs you taking a photograph of it. Columbus, Ohio features this play on the famous American painting “American Gothic” with an outdoor twist. Famous mural artist John Pugh created this depiction of the final monarch of the Hawaiian islands, Queen Lili’uokalani.

(Images via naturamurals, art-is-fun, postersandprintsblog)

The Beasley Building in Philadelphia holds this trompe l’oeil masterpiece, turning a once non-descript corner into a bustling construction zone. Kobra makes one feel like they stepped back in time, as a tall building holds a testament to the neighborhood’s past. Artists Saber and Shepard Fairey collaborated on this art piece, featuring two incarnations of the American flag in abstract.

(Images via themetapicture, buzzfeed, dullneon)

This gorgeous mural changes the entire landscape, turning it into a seaside view along the coast. In Vienna, Austria, an artist brought their vision to life in a thought-provoking piece brimming with sad emotion. Miles MacGregor created “FlowerPower Girl” which is both realistic and brighter than life. His other work can be found at Elmac.net.

(Images of streetsofbeige, gigi-rose, moillusions)

D*face put together this Los Angeles mural as an homage to pulp comics and posters of the past, with a darker edge. Artist John Pena put together this cloudscape, showing the transformation from nothing to something, to nothing. This final photograph is of a mural that wisely used the existing landscape to create a much different, and rural, feel for this city block.

How would you react if you were walking down the street and happened to notice a pair of hands or a face pressed up against a ventilation grate on a wall? Getting over the initial shock of fear that someone really was trapped inside, you’d marvel at the incredible realism of these street art stickers by pioneering Brooklyn-based Dan Witz.

The artist is a trained realist painter, and his figures are stunningly lifelike. For his series ‘Ugly New Buildings‘, Witz places these tromp l’oeil figures in places where vehicles tend to bottleneck, telling SF Weekly, “People are in their cars and inching forward, and they’re like, ‘What’s that?,’ but they can’t get out and steal it because they’d be crazy to get out of their cars.”

Of the series, Witz says, “In the past few years much of my neighborhood in Brooklyn has been torn down to make way for luxury housing. For better or worse it’s a whole new street-scape out here. Personally, I can’t say I like the new modern architecture very much, it’s sterile and so arrogantly disconnected with its surroundings sometimes it seems like giant alien space ships have landed in the night.”

Dan Witz – What the %$#@? : San Francisco 2011 from Colin M Day on Vimeo.

“But, at the very least, there’s some interesting new textures and surfaces to interact with. These are photo-based, heavily re-painted stickers, mounted on plastic and glued to the walls of the Ugly New Buildings. I hit the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan, and Bushwick, Dumbo, Greenpoint and Williamsburg out here in Brooklyn.”

Witz, who has been covertly altering billboards and performing other “corporate vandalism” since the 1970s, appeared in Banksy’s 2010 film ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’, featuring his ‘Do Not Enter‘ sign in Brooklyn. See a selection of Witz’ art from the 1970s to today at his website, or check out his latest book, ‘In Plain View: 30 Years of Artworks Illegal and Otherwise.’

Trompe L’oeil, french for “deceive the eye,” is the art of creating two dimensional images with such realism that they appear to be in three dimensions. A trick often used in the backdrop of classic films before the advent of green screen technology, these illusions are found in cities across the world.

(Images via wallpaintings, fludit)

Trompe L’oeil can be used for mundane decoration of a bedroom, or as a way to create a portal to a nonexistent world. The stunning realism can be eerie, and one will find their hand reaching to check if a window is real.

(Images via travelpod, joshuawiner, avriljoy, parmamelissa)

The sides of entire buildings can be upgraded without any actual structural changes. Like a second skin, a trompe l’oeil facade can create an image of a building that doesn’t actually exist (at least, not as you see it).

(Images via ask, stacyalexander, wikimedia)

Churches have long used trompe l’oeil to reflect the majesty of heaven through imaginary skylights, or as backdrops to an otherwise plain altar.

(Images via largerthanlifemurals, thefauxschool)

Classical images that were once sculpted laboriously out of stone can now be created with a delicate and careful use of trompe l’oeil techniques. For the most adept artists, any scene is possible.

(Images via sacredart-murals, apartmenttherapy, sacredart-murals)

Why add a window to a drab backyard or side alley, when one can have one that opens into a gorgeous world. Feeling claustrophobic? Gaze out into the lush jungle on the other side of your wall.

(Images via stylehive, happydayart)

Imagine walking down the street and stumbling upon a building that looks like the surface of a disturbed pond. This is one of the most dedicated examples, and stunning in the largeness of its scale.

(Images via urbanitan, judycollinsart, redferret)

Don’t step into that alley! An entire street can be created with the right application of paints, or a small side ally down to the most minute detail.

There are many immensely talented artists out there who go to great lengths to make their paintings look as realistic as possible, mimicking the nuances of three-dimensional form, texture and lighting. But it’s rare that the opposite is true – wherein an artist seeks to make reality look like a painting. Meet Alexa Meade, who paints subjects not on canvas but right on top of themselves.

Meade’s thick acrylic brushstrokes turn living subjects into exaggerated, flat, painterly versions of themselves that are so accurately rendered two-dimensional, it’s difficult to tell immediately that there’s a real person under all that pigment. When the subject’s environment is painted as well, the effect is so complete that onlookers are stunned when what looks like some kind of painted sculpture suddenly moves and breathes.

“My painting technique pushes the boundaries of perception, compressing 3D space into a 2D plane and effectively blurring the lines between art and life,” Meade told Juxtapoz in a recent interview.

“Typically, when you look at a painting, you’re looking at an artist’s interpretation of the subject painted on canvas. In my artistic interpretation of the subject, I paint directly on top of the subject I am referencing rather than using canvas. Essentially, my art imitates life – on top of life. For example, with Portrait of a Self-Portrait you are simultaneously looking at a portrait I painted of myself, a photo I took of myself, and at me.”

Meade didn’t go to art school – in fact, she graduated from Vassar College with a degree in political science. When asked if her background in politics has influenced her art, she explained slyly, “My projects spin reality.”