80-year-old Tatsuo Horiuchi from Japan is known all around the world for his incredible drawing skills. However, he doesn’t use pencils, pens, or paint for his art. Instead, he creates masterpieces in Microsoft Excel!
Around 20 years ago, before retiring, Horiuchi thought that he needed a new challenge in his life. So he settled on painting. However, he didn’t want to spend money on art supplies—he decided to use his PC. But he didn’t go for any fancy digital drawing software either and opted for Excel.
If you enjoyed Horiuchi’s art, you can order one of his paintings on his website right here. You can find his email address there, too, if you want to say a quick ‘hello’ or ask him to share his PC wisdom with you. Meanwhile, scroll down, enjoy Horiuchi’s paintings, and let us know in the comments which ones were your favorite, dear Pandas!
Tatsuo Horiuchi has been making paintings using Microsoft Excel for around 20 years
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
He draws landscapes of Japan on his computer
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Here's what his work process looks like
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Horiuchi started learning how to draw after he retired in 2000
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
He didn't want to buy any art supplies or digital software. So he settled for Excel
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Here are some more of his paintings
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
Image credits: Tatsuo Horiuchi
You can watch a video about Horiuchi right here
Horiuchi’s example is inspirational to a lot of people. He shows that everything is possible if you put your mind to it (though I doubt that most of us have the patience to figure out how Excel works) and that we should all continue learning new things as we grow older.
“I didn't expect it [my painting] to improve immediately, so I made a 10-year plan,” Horiuchi told AFP.
“For the first 3 years, I concentrated on ‘drawing’ and drew all the things that could be seen, such as vegetables such as carrots and Japanese radish, and wild grass, in Excel. For the next 3 years, I practiced combining the motifs one by one to construct a painting.”
Six years after starting his Excel art journey, Horiuchi applied to an Excel Authoshape Art Contest and won the grand prize. That’s when he started getting more and more attention from people for his skills.
Since then, he has become somewhat of a legend and some of his artwork has even been acquired by the local Gunma Museum of Art.
The Japanese artist prefers Excel to Microsoft Paint because it offers more flexibility, has more functions, and is easier to use.
Social media users loved Horiuchi's art and a lot of them were impressed that you can use Excel to draw
