Cover Photo
Have you ever drawn on a canvas this tiny?
Mito Nishikura, an artist from Osaka, draws paintings on plastic bottle caps, which usually are from 2.8 to 3 centimeters in diameter. Yet these paintings are beautifully detailed and capture a scene from life that feels both nostalgic and refreshing.
These bottle cap paintings are drawn by hand, as can be seen through this video posted on Twitter. The amount of concentration necessary to not only draw on the bottle caps but fill in this much detail is astounding.
Mito Nishikura began their career as an artist in 2019, and already have so many different works in their portfolio. Let’s check out their work!
Adorable Animals
To commemorate the Year of the Rabbit, here’s an adorable bunny painted on a bottle cap.
They also often draw various kinds of birds.
Check out this adorable penguin family!
And a Shiba is often included in their landscape portraits, both on the bottle cap art and regular sized paintings as well.
Writer's Pick
Seasonal Scenes
One thing that can be noticed when looking at Mito Nishikura’s accounts is that they often base their work on the seasons, whether it be nature, seasonal food or holidays.
For example check out this delicious-looking soba and ozoni set. What’s amazing is not only does it look good enough to eat, but that the cap itself transforms into the bowl, making it feel like there is actually a whole dish inside the small bottle cap.
Here’s a scene from autumn, capturing the beautiful momiji leaves.
And here are some scenes from spring.
It’s incredible just how many individual tulips they fit inside the small canvas.
And here is a scene of beautiful yozakura, sakura cherry blossoms viewed at night. The petals look like they’re actually glowing in the moonlight.
The Beauty of Japan
Personally, one of my favorite things about Mito’s art is that they capture real places in Japan in a way that makes you feel like you’ve been there and makes you want to go again.
Here’s just a few such places.
Inokashira Park in Tokyo:
Nakanoshima in Osaka:
Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens:
Sakuramon Gate of Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto:
Mount Fuji:
Some Fun Details
For a particular exhibit, they even made some of the bottle cap paintings glow in the dark under black light.
And they’ve even painted a full painting on their nail before! This must have taken ages and a lot of concentration not to shake accidentally!
And as we mentioned before, bottle cap paintings are not the only kind of art Mito Nishikura does. Full size paintings are available to view as well.
For example, look at these bunnies!
And tigers!
You can even get their larger artwork as a puzzle if you wish!
To Close
You can find Mito Nishikura and their art on various sites including:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mito0813/
Shop: https://mito0813.base.shop/
Tumblr (main site) : https://mito0813.tumblr.com/
On Instagram and Tumblr, you can find an easy-to-view layout of their past works.
Photos provided courtesy of Mito Nishikura on Twitter
