Artist Creates Beautiful Ballpoint Pen Illustrations

Meet French artist Louis Gibiard.

He uses nothing more than an everyday ballpoint pen to create beautiful illustrations that remind people of classic art.

Here’s another example of his exceptional work.

He even offers viewers tutorials on how to shade in the way that he does.

Gibiard says, “What I do is light cross hatching, your lines have to be close enough so they create a light value, but they shouldn’t be overlapping each other. Work by layers, to have the best shading possible, what works for me is that the 5 first layers should be done without any pressure applied, only cross hatching in the different directions.

Then adapt the speed/angle/pressure to the part you’re working on. More speed=light shade because less ink has the time to reach the paper, heavy pressure=decreases the chances to have a smooth finish so use it at the very end. Work from light to dark, that way you’ll have more control over your values, it’s easy to darken, impossible to lighten.”

Check out this video of Gibiard’s work.