It’s easy to mistake the drawings of 25-year-old Aria for reality. The self-taught Japanese artist is famous on social media for creating head-turning illustrations of animals and objects that look like they’re about to pop off the page. Her latest piece captures the whiskery form of a catfish whose tail magically escapes the boundary of the paper.
Despite its three-dimensional appearance, Aria’s artwork is, in fact, two dimensional. It’s just masterfully drawn to look as much like the subject as possible. She does this by carefully sketching the object, and then filling it with layers of colored pencils. This technique lets her recreate light and shadow, which in turn makes it seem as though each drawing is solid and three-dimensional.
Aria also employs another trick to enhance the illusion of her artwork. After completing the drawing, she cuts out an upper section of the silhouette from the paper. This small touch is what fools the eyes of viewers, making it seem like her illustrations are real objects and creatures merely sitting atop or leaping off the flat paper.
Keep up to date with Aria’s latest drawings by following her on Instagram and Twitter.
Realistic catfish drawing looks like it’s swimming off the page.
Japanese artist Aria creates this illusion by rendering the fish with colored pencils and then cutting out the silhouette from the sheet of paper:
ナマズ置きました？って言われたので動画撮りました！！☺️ pic.twitter.com/r0nzyvrRbC
— ARIA🎨✏️ (@aririria_art) January 29, 2022
You can see Aria’s full process in this video:
ナマズが完成するまで✏️
独学で描き方や塗り方を学びました。 pic.twitter.com/vwd3a1ZPmF— ARIA🎨✏️ (@aririria_art) January 29, 2022
Here are more of her incredibly realistic drawings.
Aria: 
All images via Aria.
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