Artist creates amazing hand-drawn custom flip books

For artist Ben Zurawski, it all began with a simple little book of Mickey Mouse. At age 7, Zurawski's father showed him a flip book that featured Mickey doing a magic trick, and that inspired his current job as a flip book artist.

"It literally felt like magic, having a real live cartoon controlled by my hands," Zurawski told ABC. "It stayed locked in my memory until I was a bit older."

His passion for art was encouraged by his parents at a young age, and in high school he enjoyed making movies. After he graduated and lost access to free video equipment, Zurawski began drawing his own movies through flip books. During college his father passed away, so Zurawski saw flip books as a way to reconnect with him.

Zurawski creates custom flip books and goes by the nickname "The Flippist." He receives concepts and ideas from customers and creates hand-drawn originals. He has created flip books for sports highlights, baby announcements and memorials, but his specialty is creating flip books for engagements.

One of Zurawski's favorite proposal flip books features a couple with their lives being shown in reverse. It begins with the couple "70 years from now," then it progresses to them having children, and finishes with a proposal.

It can take Zurawski one to two weeks to finish a book. He shares his flip books on YouTube by recording himself flipping through the finished books. His videos have received millions of views.

"I just love the challenge of cramming a whole mini story into the space of about 10 seconds worth of flipping time," said Zurawski. "And in a world where everything is digital and hi-tech, all I really need is a stack of paper, some markers to make movies."