Explain what art is as complicated as sometimes get the weather forecast. Few things are more subjective and, while for many a banana is a simple fruit, for others it is a work that costs 6.2 million dollars. But within that subjectivity, reflecting reality in a painting is one of the most “accepted” ways to create art. What if that painting is done not with Photoshopbut in Microsoft Excel?
That is precisely, with what Jesús Villanueva enjoys.
No tutorials. “Normal,” you may think, since who would have occurred. Well let me tell you … it’s not so weird. We are going to see it throughout this pictorial trip with such a boring program (and useful) as Microsoft Excel. The program, which has almost 40 years behind himit was launched as a system of exclusive spreadsheets for Mac In 1985 and its bases have not changed: it is still a calculation program. However, each version became more powerful and versatile.
In it Microsoft blog We found the story of Jesús Villanueva, 78, who entertains himself not playing ‘Skyrim‘, doing Streaming of ‘Leage of Legends‘ either Catching Pokémon: It entertains with Excel. He studied a construction eyeliner course and is what has been dedicated, but after retirement and pandemic of the COVID-19something changed
Miguel Ángel del Excel. With free time (because you have to have it to create such works), Jesus began using Excel as canvas. “I never found a tutorial to explain how to do it. It has been trial after proof, drawing after drawing,” he says. He began recreating buildings in a format without perspective, but as he learned to master the tool, he went to more complex compositions.


Image | Jesús Villanueva


Image | Jesús Villanueva
The most impressive thing is that it is not dedicated to borrowing external resources or hitting images, but to draw with colors directly in the grid, combining complex and simple shapes to give life to your idea. It is based on photographs, yes, but draw all forms manually in the application.
Your secret? “Everything is a matter of patience, even in works that can take up to three months, such as the Siena cathedral.” Other religious buildings in its porpholio are the Mosque of Córdoba or the Cathedral of Florence, for which he had to draw the little characters large and then reduce their size to be able to embed them on the general image.
The “Insert Forms” brush. That is the basic tool for Jesus. Choose a figure, calculate the proportions to case in a reference image and there begins to adapt, color and combine with others to give life to the object you want. When he has it, he unites it to the rest and the scene is formed. He also plays with vector strokes and the change of scale of elements.


Image | Jesús Villanueva
Japanese landscaping. In it Instagram of Jesus You can see his work, but he is not the only passionate of this particular brush. Tatsuo Horiuchi, an 84 -year -old Japanese man, also decided to unleash his particular vision of art when he retired. He says he took 10 years to create something that he felt that he could proudly teach people, but also that there were people who did not understand their hobby or that they laughed at it.
“Why do you put so much effort on something that is not useful? Are you crazy?” “Well yes,” he replies in a video in which we can see part of his collection.
Excel has a lot of life. Horiuchi gives a very important key. “I think, even if you don’t have talent for painting, you can paint something whenever you have Excel.” And this is interesting because there are people – as I – who are denied to paint even if he would like, and with a grid, it may be easier to start drawing.
In any way, it is always curious to see that Excel is not just the tool in which Sustains the world economy and even formula 1 equipment: Excel too It can be a sport. And to gamify a tool as boring as it has all my respects.
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