Trompe l'Oeil (pronounced tromploy) means, literally, "fool the eye" and describes painted objects and scenes that look so authentic, one must reach out to touch them to make certain that they are actually there. The most successful trompe l'oeil paintings involve an object that is painted close to a wall or another surface, and with the skilled use of light and shadows, the artists create the sense of something existing in space that does not.
Photorealist murals are scenes painted from a photographic source as opposed to life. The original photo being copied has already translated the scene into two dimension, and the artist follows what the camera dictates to create a very detailed, an "realistic" painting.
Both these techniques are very labor intensive and detailed.
