Artist Becomes Viral Sensation With Incredible Origami Sculptures

An American artist has become an online sensation thanks to his incredible origami skills and astonishingly lifelike paper sculptures.

Felix Semper, 58, shares images of his artwork on Instagram where he boasts 230,000 followers.

He crafts his incredible sculptures from thousands of layers of glued paper.

Semper told Zenger News: "I create the sculptures by gluing sheets of paper into a form, as close as possible to what my final sculpture is going to look like.

"I make it as high as I think the sculpture is going to be, then I start to carve it.

"I do this all by hand, there's no lasers, no measuring devices, only tools that I've developed for this.

"And then I carve it and shape it and finally sand it and paint it.

"A large sculpture can take anywhere from one to several months. And then a smaller piece like a sneaker can take about a week, or two weeks, depending on how complex it is."

His amazingly realistic paper sculptures are so lifelike they could pass for the real thing.

In one photo he appears to be playing a guitar - until he pulls it apart to reveal the paper network inside.

Other pictures show a man in desert robes pouring coffee until Semper reveals it's a sculpture made of thousands of sheets of paper.

"I used to work in a print shop on back when I graduated from high school and I used to cut paper in the back of the print shop," Semper said.

"So by then I started to think, you know, this would be a great art form. So, years later, when I started to develop a sculpture technique that was different from any one type.

"It took me years to develop a technique of folding paper to be able to make it a stretch. But then, you know, also my love for animation. I have a great passion for animation. So I think bringing all these things together. I have really developed.

"I don't know if anyone has done it before. I think there's another artist in China who does something similar, but other than that, I don't think there's anyone.

"Most of the reactions are 'wow.' People's jaws drop because they don't expect the sculpture to look so solid and be able to move."

Semper told Zenger News: "I am a full-time artist. I'm a full-time sculptor and painter as well. I go around the world showing my art and doing exhibitions and I have a lot of clients and collectors who buy from me and from galleries that represent me.

"Most of my hobbies are related to art. I like to paint, sculpt, draw and I love architectural world.

"I use regular paper. Normally just copy paper but sometimes I use thicker paper depending on the end result. Everything is done by eyesight or by looking at an object or photograph."

This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.