Artist goes viral for creating astonishingly realistic portraits with Biro pens

An artist is going viral for wowing social media with astonishingly realistic portraits drawn with simple office supplies.

Mostafa Khodeir, a 25-year-old artist from Egypt, draws pictures that could easily be mistaken for photographs, using ball point pens.

The artist created a Twitter account for his work on July 12, posting a beautiful portrait of a baby, with the caption: “Time taken: two months.”

Khodeir said: “I enjoy drawing with a ball point pen. The first time I saw drawings with this type of pen I was stunned, even though the skill-level was quite low. It gave my the idea to use this style as well.

“I practised a lot to reach the level I am at now, and feel I have surpassed the skill of those pictures I first saw in pen.”

The drawings, created from multiple colours of ball point pens, can take up to two months to complete.

Khodeir joined Twitter one week ago and has already gained over 15,000 followers, with many more praising his work and one piece reaching over 82,000 retweets.

Khodeir said: “My friends on Facebook and Instagram tried to get me to join Twitter many times, but I refused.

“I finally joined and the first drawing I posted received almost a quarter of a million likes. I never imagined this would happen and feel so happy I found all these fans on Twitter. I consider them all my friends.”