I think Impossible World is the best illusion site on the entire web. Vlad Alexeef has put together a remarkable site that is not only a hugely comprehensive collection but also provides extensive background on it’s many artists, together with animations, articles, links, news, and software for creating your own illusions. My top site! In English & Russian.

Mighty Optical Illusions is run by someone who goes simply by the name of Vurdlak. A well established site with a huge regularly updated collection divided by category with a searchable data base. There are video illusions, audio illusions, and photographs which, while not always illusions in the conventional sense, are all the more fascinating for that. Do check this one out.

An Optical Illusion provides a new optical illusion image, video or animation each and every day (Monday through Friday). It is operated by Brad Honeycutt, the author of many illusion books. The illusions are organized by category and the database can easily be searched to help you find something fascinating.

No reason for introductions to this one! M. C. Escher is the father of modern illusion art. The only reason that this is not at the top of the list is simply that it is a site confined to one artist and I have chosen to put the broader more varied sites first. If you are not familiar with his work, it is an absolute must see! In English & Dutch.

Another of the fathers of modern illusion. I have been unable to find an official site for him. The best collection of Reutersvârd’s works I have been able to find are on Impossible World. His drawings are, for the most part, simple geometric figures of remarkable invention and variety.

Illusoria-land is the official site of Sandro del Prete. You can buy his works there for download. You can also find an excellent collection of his works on Vlad Alexeef’s Impossible World. Sandro is, in my opinion, probably the finest illusion artist alive today, and his prolific output is astonishing. One of my great heroes.

The Flemish artist Jos De Mey is another wonderfully accomplished artist. His works are often humorous references to Breugel and the 16th century Flemish school of artists. I have been unable to find an official site for Jos so this link will take you, once again, to Impossible World which has a comprehensive collection of his work. Another inspiration.

Another artist well worth a visit is the Hungarian artist István Orosz. He is a remarkable draftsman. His work has an incredible variety. His posters are interesting with clear references to Soviet communist art. There is an excellent collection of his work at Impossible World as well.

The Canadian artist Rob Gonsalves practiced a school of art known as Magic Realism. It is part fantasy and part illusion with often a wonderfully whimsical way of looking at things. His official site is a Facebook page. Rob is represented by Saper Galleries and this link will take you to them, where you will find a large selection of his work.

Now here is a man really close to my heart! Swedish photographer and digital artist Erik Johansson produces exquisite, polished photographic fantasies and illusions in the same spirit of Magical Realism as Gonsalves. Indeed I would guess that his images are influenced by him. His work manages to be both complex and simple at the same time. His wonderful site just goes on getting better and better. Highly recommended!

Julian Beever has become something of a web sensation. His anamorphic pavement drawings are not illusion in the conventional sense, but they are sensational! Marked by wonderful draftsmanship and a wicked sense of humour, they really should not be missed. 

photoshop.london is a site of mixed resources and tutorials for Photoshop users put together by Steve Caplin, the author of How to Cheat in Photoshop, the wonderful book from which so many of us first learned Photoshop. Here you can find useful cutouts and people including incredibly useful layered cutouts. There is an excellent selection of simple concise tutorials for all levels of Photoshop and some interesting and unusual work of his own to look at too.

Unmesh Dinda’s PiXimperfect YouTube channel has more than 450 videos, with tutorials on almost every topic of Photoshop. There is no shortage of Photoshop tutors on the web but, in my view, Unmesh is indisputably one of the very best. He has a wonderful knack of de-mystifying even very technical subjects in a way that is easily understandable. He appears to be very independent and, although his infectious love and enthusiasm for Photoshop are inescapable, he sometimes takes a healthy good humoured sideways look at Adobe. 

deviantart.com is a community of fantasy, steampunk and sci-fi artists of all types. Great fun to browse. Very useful downloads of brushes, actions and tutorials as well.

If  I am looking for ready cutout people with a good variety of angles and viewpoints then mrcutout.com is my first port of call. An excellent searchable database with a good variety of filters  both by visual and personality criteria.  A good selection of plants, animals, and objects  too. It comes in three  flavours  from free to quite costly depending on number of downloads and size and resolution. I have found that the free allowance serves me well for most purposes.

I think textures.com must be one of the very best texture sites on the web. A huge variety of 3D materials and 2D textures divided by material into a well thought out searchable database. A truly astonishing variety of really useful material. As usual these come in various levels from free to costly depending on size and quantity. Once again I find the free material is usually enough for most of my requirements.