Samuel Silva, ballpoint pen artist.

[dissentowner]

So is this guy's work for real? I'm sorry but the more I look at his work the more I would actually have to see him at work creating these to believe they were done with a ballpoint pen. If they really are this guy is unreal!
http://now.msn.com/samuel-silva-ball...alistic-images

[Stay Golden]

unbelievable photo realism

[Regular_John]

Not to take anything away from this guy's technical abilities... but he is working from photographs.



So it seems more like ballpoint pen "reproductions" as oppose to original art. I know it's subjective & splitting hairs, but knowing he's doing a detail for detail reproductions of other's work kills it for me.

Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, yes it's amazing. But from an artistic standpoint he's not really adding anything to the images. Why would anyone buy his ballpoint pen reproductions when their essentially indistinguishable from the source?

/debbie downer

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Not to take anything away from this guy's technical abilities... but he is working from photographs.



So it seems more like ballpoint pen "reproductions" as oppose to original art. I know it's subjective & splitting hairs, but knowing he's doing a detail for detail reproductions of other's work kills it for me.

Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, yes it's amazing. But from an artistic standpoint he's not really adding anything to the images. Why would anyone buy his ballpoint pen reproductions when their essentially indistinguishable from the source?

/debbie downer

Because they're done with frickin' ballpoint pens!

[Five-hole]

I'd do her with a ballpoint pen too.

[Red John]

Should have called his website Pen Island.

Would get so many more hits.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Not to take anything away from this guy's technical abilities... but he is working from photographs.



So it seems more like ballpoint pen "reproductions" as oppose to original art. I know it's subjective & splitting hairs, but knowing he's doing a detail for detail reproductions of other's work kills it for me.

Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, yes it's amazing. But from an artistic standpoint he's not really adding anything to the images. Why would anyone buy his ballpoint pen reproductions when their essentially indistinguishable from the source?

/debbie downer

With the exception of abstract artists, most artists will work from a photo. You can sit for a portrait, but as that would take days, the vast majority of artists will just use a photo. As long as he's not tracing, I don't see why that's a negative.

[Russic]

Someone needs to set up a time lapse of him doing one of those. Insanity.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by blankall

With the exception of abstract artists, most artists will work from a photo. You can sit for a portrait, but as that would take days, the vast majority of artists will just use a photo. As long as he's not tracing, I don't see why that's a negative.

To me most other portraits (say oil paintings) offer an improvement/addition to the original. The artist will select colours/shades that are close to the original, but not exact, they'll remove blemishes & generally try to paint the subject in the best light possible.

I think most people commissioning portraits want something that is better than the source material. Something that has the human touch of brush on paper, not an exact reproduction.

Let's just put it this way, if you were in a gallery and you fell in love with a photo to the point that you're going to buy it. Would you pay twice as much to have a virtually identical copy of the photo but drawn in ball point?

Like I said originally, it just doesn't feel like anything is added to the source by working this way. But I could be wrong, maybe he's working at massive sizes and the work is just mind blowing at 3' x 4', or in person there's qualities just not present in the scanned image. But it still feels a little sterile when compared to the source material.

[cral12]

Insanely talented. Let's hope Jankowski develops such "hands" with a hockey stick.