Izumi is a young Japanese food artist who specializes in detailed cake icing artworks inspired by popular manga and anime characters.

We’ve featured some incredible cake artists over the last 12 years, from the super-talented Sarah Hardy, who can create edible replicas of just about anything, to Chinese patissier Zhou Yi, whose creations look more like porcelain dolls than sugar paste, but when it comes to anime-inspired cake art, Japanese artist Izumi is in a class of her own. One of her latest projects, an edible, three-dimensional rendition of Kaoru Hakaze from the Ensemble Stars! video game recently went viral, and that’s how most people discovered her impressive portfolio of cake decorations.

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It’s hard to believe, but your eyes are playing tricks on you. The black liquid you see being poured into the cup in the photo below is actually just expertly sculpted and painted wood.

A year ago, Japanese wood carver Kibori no Konno (@kibori_no_konno) took to Twitter to share photos of some hyper-realistic coffee beans he had sculpted out of wood and then painted. They looked just like the real thing, and people couldn’t stop praising his talent. Since then, he has created all sorts of interesting sculptures, and to celebrate the piece that really kickstarted his year-long artistic journey, the Japanese artisan decided to do something really special. And that he did…

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Brazilian artist Fabiano Millani specializes in hyperrealistic oil paintings that look almost indistinguishable from high-definition photos.

We’ve featured quite a number of extremely talented hyperrealist artists on Oddity Central over the last 15 years, but there is no doubt that Fabiano Millani is right up there with the best of them. The São Paulo-born artist, who was raised in the Rio Grande do Sul, has become famous for his oil paintings that imitate real life so well that they are often mistaken for photographs. It’s actually hard to believe that he only started making art professionally at age 18, after taking an artistic course. Today he is regarded as a remarkable figure of the hyper-realist painting community.

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A 33-year-old artist from Chenzou, China, has been getting a lot of attention for turning trees, utility poles, and road signs into optical illusions that blend into their backgrounds.

Huang Yao is a talented 3D painter who showcases his skills by turning local infrastructure and plant life into original artworks. The young Chinese specializes in creating perfect camouflage for his creations, which makes them blend into the background perfectly. But that would mean that most people either walk right by them without even noticing his stunning work, or run straight into them and injure themselves. Neither case is ideal, so Huang usually adds certain elements to make his optical illusions stand out.

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A young biology graduate and former taxidermist from Ghent, Belgium, creates warrior figurines out of hundreds of dead insect body parts.

28-year-old Joos Habraken typically spends between 20 and 30 hours working on each of his ‘Frankenstein bugs’, fantastic creatures born out of his imagination and featuring intimidating names and impressive backstories. He uses body parts sourced from his own impressive collection or from a network of people he has collaborated with over the years. He only uses body parts from already dead bugs and would never even consider killing insects simply to fuel his hobby.

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Emel Espiritu, a young, talented artist from the Philippines, has been drawing a lot of attention because of his hyperrealistic portraits which are almost indistinguishable from photographs.

As a young boy, Emel Espiritu loved to draw, so his father taught him the basics. However, as he grew up, his interest for drawing only grew, but his father didn’t want him to pursue an artistic career and pushed him toward a more practical profession. Emel studied “fisheries” in college, but he never really got over his passion. He never stopped drawing. Instead, he honed his skills by watching YouTube tutorials and working odd jobs so he could afford painting supplies. Luckily, it all paid off, as the young artist is now famous for his ultra-realistic painted portraits.

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Glass Symphony, a Ukrainian family-owned company specializing in hand-made glass sculptures, has become famous for its anatomically-correct arachnids.

Using a centuries-old technique known as lampworking, the artisans at Glass Symphony, use glass rods, extreme heat and fine wrist movements to manipulate colored glass into intricate miniatures. A gas burner is used to heat the glass to a temperature of 1800 degrees, after which trained artisans shape the glass into various animal-inspired shapes, from different species of spiders and locusts to snails and octopuses.

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Mayor Olajide, a 19-year-old artist from Nigeria, has taken the hyperrealistic art world by storm with his photo-realistic charcoal pencil portraits.

We’ve featured some really gifted hyperrealism artists on Oddity Central over the years, true masters like Anna Halldin Maule, Hirothropologie, or Dru Blair, but it’s rare to see that kind of talent in someone as young as 19. And yet, here is Mayor Olajide, a 19-year-old Nigerian artist who has been attracting attention with his hyperrealistic pencil drawings for at least a couple of years now. He apparently started drawing when he was only 5 years old, and by age 15, he was already selling his art pieces and taking commissions to contribute to the family budget. Today, he is considered one of the world’s most promising hyperrealists.

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Wang Yekun is an exceptionally patient artist who spends hours trying to balance all sorts of objects that have no business sitting on top of each other as if supported by an invisible force.

An electrician by training,  Wang Yekun spends hours on end trying to balance various objects on top of each other. From vintage sewing machines on top of upright glass beer bottles, to large gas cylinders balancing precariously on top of slender metal wrenches, it seems like there is nothing Wang Yekun can’t use for his awe-inspiring balancing acts.

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Osaka-based artist Mito Nishikura painstakingly recycles plastic bottle caps into tiny artworks by painstakingly painting detailed landscapes on them.

We’ve seen bottle caps being used as mosaic pieces in the past, but Japanese artist Mito Nishikura has a different way of using them for artistic purposes. At first glance, plastic bottle caps don’t really make the best pointing canvases – at least not individually – because of their very limited surface, but the talented Japanese illustrator has found a way to create detailed works of art on these tiny bits of plastic.

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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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Yuki Tsuboshima, a metalworking artist from Japan, specializes in ingeniously-designed, mechanical sculptures that turn into different shapes, like little Transformers.

As a child, Yuki Tsuboshima was fascinated by puzzle-like toys with movable parts and intricate mechanisms, and he never really outgrew this passion. He majored in metalworking, specializing in uchidashi, a traditional Japanese metalworking technique used to manipulate metals like copper, brass and silver. He then completed a master’s course in industrial design at Musashino Art University Graduate School in Tokyo, where he learned to use software like 3DCAD to create all sorts of shapes and mechanical parts.

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French tattoo artist Veks Van Hillik specializes in clever black and white artworks that change shape when the person bends their arms or legs.

Tattoo artists usually steer shy of elbows and knees, because of the way their designs are warped when the client bends their arms or legs, but Veks Van Hillik embraces the challenge, creating mesmerizing tattoos that turn into something completely different when people bend and unbend their joints. Examples of these ingenious designs include an elbow-positioned scarab that opens its wings when the person straightens their arm or an expanding koi fish.

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Arsenic Junior, a talented self-taught artist from the Philippines, creates stunningly-detailed portraits of celebrities and popular fictional characters by scribbling on pieces of paper.

Scribbling isn’t usually associated with high-quality art, but artists like Arsenic Jr. prove that it can be a viable technique, even when working on detailed portraiture. Even though it might seem messy and careless at first glance, scribbling, when done by a true artist, can be awe-inspiring. Looking at the portraits below, it’s hard to believe they consist exclusively of scribbles, but a careful inspection reveals that to be the case.

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