Narrator: Don't worry, these aren't real fish. They are meticulous paintings cast in resin. These realistic aquarium scenes are painted and poured by hand, layer by layer.
They're made my Lillian Lee and her team at Serene Life Art, a studio in China. That layering to create the illusion of depth relies on stereopsis, also known as binocular vision.
When your eyes combine the differences between each layer in your brain, it creates the illusion of more depth than there actually is. This kind of 3D resin painting can be traces back to Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori.
The most important part of the technique? Planning how the fish's anatomy will be split into each layer. So how do they make these pieces come to life? It can be created in a bowl, a bamboo box, or pendant molds.
Once a container has been picked for a painting, the base layer is poured using a mix of resin and epoxy. After the first layer of resin dries completely, the first layer of paint is added. Then the next layer of resin is poured, and the process is repeated multiple times.
Koi fish are popular in Lillian's work because she took care of them for 12 years before painting them. Typically, making one koi fish takes six to eight layers of painted resin. The first layer indicates the fins and the body. Then comes the tail and the eyes.
The scales and body patterns are also painted between these layers, and the dorsal fin completes the koi fish. Sometimes, pebbles, twigs, and even coins can be added between the layers. 3D resin painting takes a lot of patience. Only one layer can be painted each day because resin can take eight to 12 hours to dry. A small piece can take about a week to make, but finishing a larger painting can take up to a month. But Lillian's work shows that patience is a virtue.
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