On July 18, 2019, Japanese freelance illustrator Yoshinobu Saito posted four images of his food art on Twitter.

His tweet soon went viral, chalking up more than 33,000 retweets and over 118,000 likes in the span of a few days:

「絵が上手いですね」という褒め言葉が失礼とかいうツイートがありましたが、僕の場合
「絵が美味いですね」と言っていただけると喜びます pic.twitter.com/i9QCjAKeyT

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) July 18, 2019

Needless to say, most people were amazed by how life-like his illustrations were, with some doubting that they were even illustrations.

Hyperrealistic food drawings

Here's a close-up look at Saito's hyper-realistic food drawings that come with details of incredible depth and texture:

Saito has even attached a video of his illustrating process for curious viewers:

食べ物の絵がどのように描かれているか気になる人のためにステーキのクッキング動画をアップします！ pic.twitter.com/jZirYgQtu3

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) July 19, 2019

Hard work, not just talent

Saito has been humble about his artwork, attributing his current success to years of hard work and training.

Here, you can see the difference in standards between an artwork done by him in 1996 and another one in 2012:

#画力変化ビフォーアフター
継続こそが唯一の道
僕の様に才能の乏しい者は
ひたすらに自分を信じて練度を上げるほか道はない
何年かかろうともあきらめずに壁をぶち破れ！ pic.twitter.com/td02DmZg30

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) February 1, 2018

Saito has also done other illustrative works that are not food-themed.

#無言で花の写真をあげる見た人もやる
あっこれ絵だった pic.twitter.com/ITgRpkBWn4

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) July 20, 2019

白い紙の上にコップと鉛筆を置いて写真を撮りました。#本当か嘘かわからないことを呟いてフォロワーを惑わす
答えは直にあったときに聞いてくださいｗ pic.twitter.com/uUMAZAvsuB

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) July 20, 2019

As well as character illustrations for Konami, a video game company, by combining 2D and 3D images with a variety of softwares:

#軽い気持ちで描いたら思った以上に反響があった絵
フォロワーさんのリクエストによりポメラニアンxモンスターという奇跡がおきた pic.twitter.com/faxihmpA7C

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) February 6, 2018

#過去絵を唐突にランダムで投稿する
SFとかファンタジーは描く時ワクワクしちゃいます pic.twitter.com/akU1tZQLT1

— 斉藤幸延@Yoshinobu Saito (@yonyon76) January 12, 2018

Amazing.

You can check out more of Saito's other illustrations here.

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Top image via yonyon76 on Twitter