Aria, a talented Japanese artist who specializes in pencil drawings, has been getting a lot of attention for her jewelry series, a collection of hyper-realistic gem drawings that look better than their inspiration.

We first noticed Aria’s exceptional talent earlier this year, when we featured her most impressive drawings here on Oddity Central, but she has been honing her skills ever since and she is already going viral once again with an entirely new series, one that focuses on precious stones. One of her new works, entitled “Amethyst”, has gone viral on social media, with many users commenting that it actually looks better than an actual gem. Looking at Aria’s stunning drawing, I can’t say I disagree.

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Classic bento box arrangement can be considered an art form in itself, but there are some artistically gifted people that can take it to a whole other level.

Bento box art, aka kyaraben, is a big deal in Japan, so big in fact that it has its own social media platform where professional and amateur artists alike can share their creations. But even on there, some talents stand out, and that is definitely the case with Riyu Yuda, a young mother-of-one who started making bento box art as a way to make her four-year-old son enjoy the healthy treats she made for him. She specializes in anime-inspired edible compositions, creating detailed edible portraits of popular characters.

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Tiger Tomato, a father-son team from Melbourne, Australia, has been making waves online for their incredibly detailed and colorful pancake art.

We’ve featured some cool edible art in general and pancake art in particular here on Oddity Central, but the creations of Tiger Tomato are definitely a welcome addition to our growing collection. The father-son duo, who prefer not to be named, started posting videos of themselves making elaborate pancakes back in 2015, and in the seven years since, they’ve built quite a following on social media. Their vids regularly go viral, and once you watch some of them, you’ll understand why.

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Xiang Duan is a multi-talented Chinese artist who dabbles in painting, sculpting and engraving, among other things. Her tiny bottle painting technique, however, is perhaps her most impressive skill.

While most of us can barely draw or paint a straight line, some artists can create stunning masterpieces with their eyes closed. One such example is Xian Duan, an incredibly talented Chinese artist who creates detailed scenes and portraits on the inside of tiny bottles, using a specially-designed tool. It’s hard for an artistically-challenged person like myself to even imagine the level of concentration and patience this sort of work requires, but it’s definitely the kind of skill that leaves one in awe.

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Stipe Petic, a 57-year-old Bosnian man with no nordic background, was so impressed by the ‘Vikings’ TV series that he started calling himself Ragnar Kavurson and making axes for a living.

The Bosnian Ragnar claims that his fascination with Viking culture started with a binge-watching session of History’s hit series, ‘Vikings’. Coming back to his hometown of Tomislavgrad in southern Bosnia after ten years of working on construction sites in Germany, he became fascinated by the saga of the legendary hero Ragnar Lothbrok and his wife Lagertha. After changing his look to mimic that of a nordic warrior of legend, and borrowing the name of his favorite Viking character, Ragnar, the “Bosnian Viking” started making intricately decorated Viking axes and shields.

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An Ohio-based hairstylist has spent the last nine years of his life creating the world’s largest human hair ball out of the cut hair of his clients.

Steve Warden owns and operates a salon named Blockers in Cambridge, Ohio. In 2013, after his youngest child went off to college, he embarked on a quest to break the Guinness world record for the largest ball of human hair, and last month he did just that. Hoss the Hairball weighs a whopping 102.12 kg (225.13 lbs), which makes it over 25 kilograms heavier than the previous titleholder. And because lumps of human hair are constantly being added to it, Hoss is expected to keep growing for many years to come, making it really hard to dethrone.

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A talented artist working under the pseudonym ‘Hirothropologie’ has become world-famous for his ability to create photo-like portraits using paint, brushes and lots of skill.

It might sound like an exaggeration, but having to distinguish between one of Hirothropologie’s paintings and an actual photo of his model is a very challenging endeavor. Every little detail in his paintings, from loose strands of hair to freckles or creases in his subjects’ clothes, are expertly reproduced on canvas, creating an almost eerie hyperrealistic illusion. It’s hard to believe Hirothropologie is able to achieve this with just paint and a set of fine brushes, but then again, as he puts it, “I put my entire life into this”.

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Julie Rhodes is a UK-based artist who specializes in photo-like hyperrealistic paintings of wildlife, particularly big cats like lions and tigers.

You’d be forgiven for mistaking Julie Rhodes’ paintings for photographs, as the differences are very hard to spot for the untrained eye. From her subjects’ intricate fur patterns, to the perfect coloring of the cats’ thick coats and the reflections in their eyes, these paintings are almost perfect. A professional artist with over 20 years of experience, Rhodes specializes mainly in paintings of big cats (lions, tigers, and leopards) but doesn’t shy away from portraying other animals as well, like elephants and zebras.

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Some people are so incredibly talented that they can be artistically inspired by the most unexpected of things, such as spilled drinks. Case in point – Italian artist Giulia Bernardelli, whose amazing coffee art began as a mishap.

One day, Giulia was drawing and having her coffee at the same time. At one point, she moved her hand too quickly and spilled her coffee all over the canvas, but the way the coffee stain spread inspired her to pick up the spoon and use it as a brush, to guide the brown liquid. And that’s how her journey into coffee art began. She got better and better at it, and today Bernardelli is regarded as one of the world’s best coffee artists.

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Generally speaking, frosted cookies are among the simplest, most basic desserts you can find, but that description certainly doesn’t apply to the artistic masterpieces created by Japanese food artist Izumi.

Saying that Izumi’s frosted cookies look too good to eat is an understatement. It’s damn near impossible to believe that they are 100% edible, not to mention eating one of them must feel like ruining a timeless masterpiece. The Japanese food artist uses his talent to create incredible three-dimensional cookie decorations by hand and has developed the skill to recreate almost any anime character.  The 3D aspect is also awe-inspiring, with some characters looking ready to jump off of the cookie.

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Fabio Gomes Trindade, a talented Brazilian street artist, creates stunning graffiti masterpieces by combining his detailed portraits with branches of trees and flowering bushes.

Whenever he starts work on a new project, Fabio Gomes Trindade first chooses the location of the artwork. The presence of lunch trees or flowering bushes is critical, as they basically make up about half the artwork. The Brazilian artist uses graffiti to depict the faces and part of the hair of the portraits he creates, letting nature take care of the rest. Seeing the artworks from the perfect angles, they look like a perfect collaborative effort between man and nature.

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Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Jesse Garcia has built a reputation on his ability to ink realistic-looking black widow spiders on virtually any body part.

Working out of his own private tattoo studio in Los Angeles, Garcia has been getting a lot of attention for his eerily realistic black widows, which look ready to jump off of his clients’ skin. While he is more than capable of tackling other designs, looking at the artist’s Instagram portfolio, it’s easy to see that the black widow is his signature element. Whether seemingly crawling out of someone’s ear, or on their legs and arms, it looks just as disturbing to an arachnophobe like myself.

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CJ Hendry is a talented artist whose detailed three-dimensional pencil drawings are virtually indistinguishable from high-definition photographs or computer-generated images.

Australian-born CJ Hendry is able to draw just about anything, from crumpled designed paper bags, to leather boxing gloves and magnified flowers showing off their every detail. She spends between 80 and 200 hours working on a single piece, and it shows. A close inspection of her drawings shows incredible attention to detail and an ability to make the subjects depicted almost life-like, as if they are merely placed on the canvas, not drawn on it.

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A young  Vietnamese nail art expert who had to close down his business during the pandemic, used the time off to develop a stunning new kind of artificial fingernail art.

Le Dai Phat is recognized as one of the most talented nail artists in Ho Chi Minh City, and looking at his stunning hand-painted designs it’s easy to see why. From celebrity portraits to religion and Vietnamese culture-inspired designs, the 28-year-old artisan can create some truly impressive wearable artworks. But it was a new style he developed while quarantined at home because of Covid that really got people talking about him. Using up to 10 lined-up artificial fingernails, Phat is able to paint entire stories in the greatest of detail.

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An amateur chef in Guatemala has become famous for turning the country’s Pacaya volcano into a pop-up pizzeria that serves fresh volcanically-baked pizza to tourists.

Mario David García Mansilla grew up in the shadow of Pacaya, one of Guatemala’s most active volcanos, and although he loved his home enough to know he never wanted to leave, he never imagined he would one day use the volcano as a pizza oven. Today, his now popular Pizza Pacaya has become one of highlights of visiting the active volcano, with tourists paying a premium to have Mansilla cook his delicious pies right on the smoldering volcanic rock, right next to flowing rivers of lava.

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