In Astonishingly Realistic Painting, Artist Hiroki Okuma Spent Months Just on His Model’s Hair

Japanese artist Hiroki Ōkuma has stunned his followers and other art-lovers with a viral post on his Twitter account revealing his latest oil painting.

Born in Saitama in 1988, Ōkuma completed a Masters in Oil Painting at the prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts. He creates exquisitely detailed photorealistic still lifes and gorgeous portraits, working in oil, pencil, acrylic, resin, and other media. His latest portrait shows a woman resting peacefully on her side on white sheets and wearing a white blouse and bathed in a cool white light. The beautiful work is so realistic, thanks to Ōkuma’s attention to detail, particularly the model’s hair.

More: Instagram, Twitter h/t: grapee

“This is a work for which I spent months just on the hair. I almost lost heart several times during the process, but I finally completed it.”

Indeed, it seems clear from the reactions this painting elicited that this work represented far more than an attempt to create photographic realism. It has qualities that invite the user to come closer, to meet the work face to face.

Hopefully, the public will be granted such an opportunity at an exhibition in the not-too-distant future.

Here are a few more examples of Ōkuma’s art from his Twitter account: