Japanese artist Hikaru Cho is already well-known for her bizarre and realistic body paintings, but now the Tokyo-based artist has applied her talent to everyday food items as well. In her playful “It’s Not What It Seems” series, she turns common foods into other kinds of food using only acrylic paint and her extraordinary talent.

Hikaru Cho believes that we should challenge our imaginations to create new work using traditional tools, not fancy computers and software. (Photo by Jim Marks/PA Wire)

This picture taken on November 1, 2014 shows Japanese body-painting artist Hikaru Cho (L) adding the finishing touches to a body painting of fingers sticking out from prison cell bars on the head of Ryonosuke Tanaka during “Tokyo Designers Week” in Tokyo. Cho, 21, was born to Chinese parents in Japan and burst onto Tokyo's art scene when she entered the city's Musashino Art University in 2012. Cho's ultimate ambition is to paint an entire – and naked – body. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

A couple poses for wedding photos in front of the Saigon Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP Photo)

Soldiers take a selfie on the plateform at a metro station in Ho Chi Minh City on December 22, 2024. Thousands of selfie-taking Ho Chi Minh City residents crammed into train carriages on December 22, as the traffic-clogged business hub celebrated the opening of its first-ever metro line after years of delays. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP Photo)

Vietnamese female police officers march during a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Photo by Richard Vogel/AP Photo)

A man eats a meal under his tree house, which acts as a shelter from wild elephants, in Gwe Cho village, Shwe Taung Yan township Ayeyarwady division January 18, 2016. Wild elephants are driving villagers in a Myanmar township to seek refuge while the animals storm their rice paddies, in Ayeyarwady in the Delta region, West of Yangon. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Vietnamese dentist Tran Phuong Thao and her husband Tran Minh Hieu wearing protective masks, kiss at their wedding ceremony during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam on January 28, 2021. (Photo by Kham via Reuters)