Remember the joy of getting a fresh new pack of coloured pencils when you were a kid? The artistic possibilities! You were going to make masterpieces with those things, weren’t you? Unfortunately, coloured pencils are kind of a difficult tool to wield. For one thing, they’re hard to erase, meaning that whatever mistakes you make wind up lasting forever.

But this Japanese artist can make serious magic with nothing but paper and those same humble art supplies. In fact, his artwork depicting Tokyo street scenes looks so photo-realistic, we were almost fooled at first…

Ryota Hayashi graduated from Waseda University’s school of art and has gone on to carve out a career for himself with his coloured pencil drawings, which he began making in 2009. Since then, he has been featured in many exhibitions and teaches art classes at various culture centres, where he passes on his techniques to eager learners.

Let’s take a look at some of his creations.

▼ “The Usual Path to the Shrine, Nakano Egota”

▼ “Myoshoji River, Nakano Arai”

▼ “Narimasu Vista, Wakou City Shirako”

▼ “Southern 3 Road Intersection, Itabashiku, Narimasu”

▼ “House at the Junction, Nerima-ku Nakamura”

▼ “Kiyomizu Slope, Itabashi-ku Shimura”

▼ “Stillness, Shinjuku Naitocho”

▼ We can’t believe he really creates these stunning scenes with only coloured pencils!

Many more pictures of Hayashi’s artwork can be viewed on his official Facebook page and website (links below), and, if you’re a fan of his work, feel free to drop him a message since he regularly responds to fans on Facebook.

Sources: Iroiro.jpRyota Hayashi Facebook, Ryota-hayashi.com
Images: Ryota Hayashi’s Facebook