Illustrators, if you're looking to shake up your drawing style with some unexplored forms of technology, you don't have to wait around for Apple's iPad to come out and you don't need a new expensive tablet. All you need is Microsoft Excel.

YouTube user and artist shukei01 has just blown me away with this video showing how Excel can be used as an illustration tool. Neatorama reports that the time-lapse video takes place over almost 13 hours of work, the end result being a Gundam constructed entirely within Excel.

(It should be noted that this is at least the third Gundam that has scared my pants clean off in the past year. Here's one, and here's the other.)

Admittedly, the video was uploaded in November of 2008, so I'm curious to see what other technological advances shukei01 come up with since. For now, I should probably figure out how to draw on a piece of paper before taking the Excel approach, but if you're an illustrator in need of a challenge, this might be the one for you.

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