One of Japan’s most talented anime modelers continues to create works of art that look more 2-D than most actual drawings.
Despite the name, Japan’s Yodobashi Camera sells a lot more than camera equipment. The chain is actually a comprehensive consumer electronics retailer, and its massive stores also usually have floor space set aside for anime merchandise, since there’s plenty of crossover between technology fans and anime otaku.
As a matter of fact, Yodobashi’s Sapporo branch is even exhibiting some fan projects at the moment, one of which is Twitter user @kyo512a’s take on the Refined Gundam Zeta RGZ-91 Re-GZ mecha, which shows up in classic anime film Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack as well as the more recent Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.
That’s some impressive colored pencil work, isn’t it? It obviously took a lot of time, so you might be surprised to see that there’s also a rear view.
So did @kyo512a go to the trouble of preparing two drawings? Nope. He went to the trouble of putting together one jaw-dropping three-dimensional model kit which he then colored, using colored pencils, to look like a 2-D sketch.
Hard as it may be to believe, the lovingly colored model started off entirely white, save for the lines separating the robot’s panels.
To really help complete the illusion, @kyo512a mounted the finished model against a picture frame with some pencil shading applied to a plain white piece of paper, which also helps hide a thruster that’s broken off the robot’s backside since its initial assembly.
This isn’t @kyo512a’s first time to play tricks on our eyes. Last year he did something similar with the main mecha of Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans, only with a cel-painted aesthetic. With decades’ worth of source material in the Gundam franchise, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of his interdimensional talents in the future.
Sources: Twitter/@kyo512a, IT Media
Top image: Twitter/@kyo512a
Insert images: Twitter/@kyo512a