Can you be a “mad artist” like you can be a “mad scientist?”

Sometimes artists accidentally summon demons when making art, but most of the time it’s the demons that get us to do art in the first place, whether we’re trying to escape from them, placate them, or even be inspired by them.

And one of those might be the case with the art shared by Japanese Twitter user @oomrshiz, who showed off an unbelievable drawing made by her little brother.

▼ “My little brother is amazing at drawing these precise pictures with pencil. He was drawing this bolt and nut nonstop, and I could feel a little insanity from him. This one took him 240 hours (still not done). It’s not a photo.”

I don’t think any of us would bat an eye if we were shown this picture and told that it was a zoomed-in photo of a nut and bolt. The details, the lighting, the shadows… the only thing that gives it away is the unfinished right half of the nut, and the sharpened pencil lying beside it.

In fact, it’s so good that, just like the artist’s sister alluded to, we can feel for ourselves a bit of the insanity that went into the 240 hours of crafting it. And we weren’t alone. Here’s what Japanese Twitter had to say:

“It’s not insanity. It’s madness. And be sure to tell him he can make a lot of money with drawings like that.”
“Can’t help but feel the craziness that went into drawing those reflections on the metal surfaces.”
“Obsessing over a drawing nonstop to the point of insanity is a well-known story when it comes to artists getting better. It’s what ‘mad geniuses’ do.”
“To have such skilled eyes, hands, and the patience to be so precise… truly wonderful.”

Of course this picture of the nut and bolt is far from the only one that her brother Kohei has produced. He’s posted many others on his social media outlets and has gained quite a following, which is understandable seeing how incredible all of them are. Here’s just a few:

▼ “85 days and 250 hours, pencils and nerves,
sharpening them and wearing them down every day….”

▼ “Don’t think this’ll turn out better than
the last one, so I’m stopping it here.”

▼ That’s no photo of Gackt, it’s a drawing.
We have a feeling he’d appreciate the artist’s love of automobiles.

https://twitter.com/kohei6620/status/400228172576198658

▼ And just in case you’re still not convinced that they’re drawings and not photos,
you can see a few drafts of the nut and bolt picture on Kohei’s Instagram.

If you want to see more of Kohei’s amazing work, be sure to give him a follow. We wonder how long it will be until the nut and bolt picture is completed to his satisfaction. We can’t wait to see it!

Until then, if you want to see more photo-realistic drawings, check out another artist’s colored-pencil renditions of Tokyo that look like they were taken with a camera.

Source: Twitter/@oomrshiz via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Instagram/kohei6620