Korean illustrator brings My Neighbor Totoro scene alive with a Starbucks cup, markers【Video】

This talented artist uses white paint, markers and a scoring knife to turn a Starbucks cup into a famous Ghibli anime scene!

Growing up we were admonished over and over by our parents: “Don’t play with your food!” Artists, on the other hand, are allowed to play with whatever they want, from the food itself to the packages it comes in

The limited palette afforded by certain packaging helps spark the creativity, like with the sepia and silver tones of Meiji’s THE Chocolate. And when you’re thinking of simple two-toned classy containers, the minimalist appeal of a green and white Starbucks cup is one of the first on the list.

Korean illustrator Soo Min Kim has been using Starbucks cups as his canvases for a while now, and his most recent masterpiece is bringing fans of famous Ghibli movies together across the Internet.

In the video Kim breaks own his process; he uses white paint to blot out all of the emblematic Starbucks mermaid except for her face, and then blocks in a new body for her with green marker. He equips her with a fancy little umbrella and sketches in a bus stop for her to stand next to. Then he uses an art scalpel to cut around the girl and her bus stop, sketching two parallel lines to stand at each side of the cup as a frame and finally tracing out a rotund figure in the backdrop. Once he fills in the fine details on that side, everyone can recognize what famous furry friend is standing behind the girl!

▼ It’s not a direct copy, but still an obvious homage to one of My Neighbor Totoro‘s cutest scenes.

トトロ、傘を使う #commando https://t.co/0qwmjqh6du

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凍結され太郎 (@Story_terrorV2) August 17, 2018

Kim has been crafting these unique Starbucks shots for some time now, and uses the dimensions of the cup in all kinds of creative ways.

▼ The cup itself can form a building or ledge…

▼ …or serve as a precipice for other canvases to interact with.

▼ Kim even uses other snacks in witty concept pieces like this one.

These classy cup sculptures have been such a success that the artist has filled galleries with them, and it’s always a treat to see a new one pop up on his feed. As a charming bonus fact, Kim receives no sponsorship from Starbucks for creating the works and he only creates them out of cups he’s personally bought and drunk from.

As iconic as the plain white cup is, it would be fun to see him try one of the holiday cups for a change of pace – imagine what festive adventures the Snow White mermaid might get up to!

Source: Instagram/@fseo via Curazy
Featured image: Instagram/@fseo

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