Some magicians use cards, some use tanks, and others use elaborate contraptions to fool the eye. All Howard Lee needs to blow your mind and have you questioning reality is a few colored pencils and a lot of attention to detail. Lee practices a level of hyperrealism that isn’t uncommon these days, but it’s how you use it that counts, right? He hides his work among an assortment of real objects, then creatively reveals his trick with an Instagram video. One clip sees him bite into a burger, take a sip of his soda, then spill it all over what looks like fries, but is actually an illustration. In another, he lights a row of matches aflame, just to see the phosphorus tips fail to catch on halfway through because they aren’t real. And so on.

Check out more of Lee’s tricks in the Instagrams below.
 

See more of Howard Lee’s work on Instagram. Find your next favorite artist by following The Creators Project’s Instagram feed here.

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