How many rabbits do YOU see?

Over a month ago, I uploaded this picture to my Flickr account, then promptly forgot about making a blog post with it, for which I profusely apologize. I originally drew this for Thom Lee's art class back when I lived in the ghetto.

The object was to draw a rabbit and make it look like it was going fast. I drew my rabbit in the act of catching a bullet while at the same time running faster than two other abnormally-fast rabbits. I also used certain design techniques which add to the illusion of motion. I hope that much is clear.

I was also careful not to put the three rabbits going in a straight line, because one technique of creating the illusion of motion is to do just that. To make sure the rabbits looked distinct from one another, I made the one catching the bullet lightest in color, the rabbit on the right looking more like a hare with black-tipped ears, and the rabbit at the top is supposed to be a mini-lop.

So, imagine my surprise when Thom Lee put it up on the wall and asked the students how many rabbits were supposed to be in the drawing.

Most of them saw three, but some of them only saw one rabbit drawn three times! I failed to do what I set out to do, and thus got this comment:

That's right. I got a 3 on this project because I was unsuccessful at making my three rabbits look distinct-enough. That one I did not expect!