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Draw your own 'floating cube' optical illusion: an arty party trick and fun creative exercise

Looking at other people's optical illusions is fascinating, no doubt, but have you considered making your own? I've discovered a fantastic video that shows you how to play with angles by sketching your own 3D cube that looks like it's levitating above the paper.

This is a neat arty party trick, but also a great way of exercising your art muscles by playing with perspective, line and shading. All you need is pencils, paper, ruler, scissors and a keen eye. Though this isn't a trick that will work very well on a drawing tablet (due to the need to cut out the top of the cube), it's still a worthwhile exercise for digital artists to inspire further work on the skills mentioned above.

To help with the perspective and making sure angles are spot on (precision is key for this to work), it's important for the piece of paper to be lined. This means your cube can line up perfectly with the paper, and it also provides spatial context to the viewer, which helps the illusion work so impressively. The shadow adds to the authenticity of the illusion, as does the shading.