Artist Creates Surreal Masterpieces Using Actual Photos and Digital Manipulation

How's this for a warped sense of reality? Swedish artist 

Erik Johansson weaves the real with the surreal in collages that implement veritable landscapes and bizarre visual conundrums. The result: out of this world.

A large portion of each piece of Johansson's artwork is real. The key to tweaking it all into something colorful and whimsical is that the he takes hundreds of photographs for a single piece, and then he incorporates raw materials and other objects and uses graphics software to push and pull the boundaries. The end products of his work are lifelike scenes that prompt viewers to question where reality ends and fantasy begins.

On his website, Johansson writes that photography is his way of "collecting material to realize the ideas in my mind." The process of putting his masterpieces together takes weeks. Not surprising, considering that he might have to drift in and out of reality to get to where he's going.

Johansson's fanbase applauds the artist's clever perspective, whether it's a man seemingly pulling a road behind him or a cyclist peering over an unreal bend in the countryside. Fans have posted images of works such as "Landfall" and "Zip City" on reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, building the Swede a bigger audience. Looks like things are about to get real for him.