Charles Apple

For your weekend entertainment, please consider the talented Juan Francisco Casas of Rome, Italy, and his amazing ball-point pen.

The Daily Mail photos
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Yep. Casas creates these masterpieces with a ball-point pen. The originals can be up to 10 feet tall.

Today’s Daily Mail reports:

Casas, 31, can use up to four 14p ballpoint pens for a canvas and his works are already a sell-out at exhibitions.

Formerly a traditional painter, Juan began the drawings three years ago based on photographs of nights out with his friends.

…Casas said: “I guess it started off as a joke, to try and make something so realistic that people would think is a photo…”For me it’s not that different from painting. I was trying to show that it doesn’t matter what material you use, it’s what you do with it.”

Ha. Well, I’d think he could make that point a little more effectively if he produced really nice portraits. Why waste this skill on reproducing what are essentially the kind of photos one finds on Facebook?

Casas studied at the University of Granada and then taught art there for six years, The Daily Mail reports. His work has been exhibited in Spain and Chicago. He sold 60 pieces in Madrid last week for prices between $1,480 and $7,400.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Amusing stuff, Illustration, Innovative ideas, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.