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Colorful Illustrations Added to Photos Transform Reality into Fantasy

Rio de Janeiro-based illustrator and graphic designer Marina Papi (@marinapapi) enhances photographs with her colorful, imaginative illustrations. They transform the images into a combination of reality and fantasy, and she pairs scenes from everyday life with things we've never seen before. “This is my attempt to write poetry without words,” Papi tells Instagram.

Papi uses rainbow-colored hues to paint her characters and enhance landscapes with gorgeous textures. We see that she has reimagined a parachute as a bird's wings, a boy's ball as the planet Saturn, and also included a group of jellyfishes flying in the sky. The splashes of ink and vibrant washes give the illustrative elements an energetic feel. It's a nice visual contrast to the photographs and evokes something out of a dream.

Marina Papi Instagram
via [Instagram blog]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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