Biro artist recreates Girl With A Pearl Earring masterpiece
IT'S HARD to believe this reproduction of Johannes Vermeer's world famous work of art, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, was created using a humble ballpoint pen.
But artist James Mylne painstakingly copied the Dutch painter's masterpiece using a single BiC Cristal pen over 90 hours.
The Biro artist - whose intricately detailed drawings are often mistaken for photos - said: “Like everyone, I doodled a lot with pens at school.
"When I realised that I could create effective shading with one, I began producing proper artworks with them aged around 16."
On his website, Mylne says his technique has developed over the past 11 years from the "rather simple but common method of cross hatching".
He adds: "Now I gently stroke the surface of the paper with the end of the nib in a quick repetitive action.
"Skimming the surface lightly leaves a light line. Each line or stroke is as close to the former as possible, creating what appears like a smooth gradient."
