
If you’ve got the talent and the passion you can use pretty much anything to illustrate your vision, like this piece of art that’s been making the rounds on Japanese Twitter, drawn using only two ballpoint pens.
Before the widespread use of the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) color model commonly used today, many illustrators and artists inked their work using pens. Even world-renowned artist Andy Warhol used ballpoint pens in his earlier works.
Twitter user Urei Ibimiya may not have Warhol’s fame, but recently his ballpoint pen-inked art has caught the eyes of thousands of Japanese netizens.
▼ “Not too bad for using only pens and a ruler.”
https://twitter.com/Ibimiya_urei/status/701206988231831552So far his piece has gotten over 10,000 retweets, with many netizens commenting on how nicely it turned out.
▼ “Hey there, I just saw your piece after all the retweets it’s been getting and it’s really amazing. You must have great artistic sense to be able to make something like this using only two colors.”
@Ibimiya_urei 初めまして、RTで回ってきまして初めてお目にかかる作品ですがとても素敵です。これが2色で作られたと思うととても素晴らしいセンスだとおもいます。
— 黑雀 櫻 もふもふ ふれんず🐾実行委員 次回 4/13~14志賀公園春まつり (@sakura_kokujaku) February 21, 2016
▼ “You wouldn’t think this was only done in two colors by looking at it. So pretty!”
@Ibimiya_urei @yosinop 2色とは思えません。キレイ✨
— かたごん3/17タ64a (@no01gou) February 22, 2016
▼ “Not only is this a high quality piece of art, it’s powerfully intense.”
@Ibimiya_urei 絵力とセンスだけでなく 精神力の高さに感動しました
— スナネコ@DnDにハマりました (@nyamekonari) February 21, 2016
▼ “This is just too coolΣ(゚艸゚*) It looks like the back of a playing card( ゚д゚)”
@Ibimiya_urei 凄過ぎですΣ(゚艸゚*)
— ともっと@ママ動画編集者 (@tomotto0411) February 21, 2016
トランプの裏面の絵柄みたいです( ゚д゚)
This isn’t the first time Ibimiya has posted his work on Twitter, but he admits that it’s the first time his work has gotten this much attention.
Here’re some of his other pieces:
▼ “From when I was in high school”
https://twitter.com/Ibimiya_urei/status/701904864167665665▼ “For those interested, these are relatively recent.”
https://twitter.com/Ibimiya_urei/status/701909023000436736▼”Alice with a geometric design”
https://twitter.com/Ibimiya_urei/status/701906392295157761Much like Alice here, it’d certainly be easy to get lost down the rabbit hole looking at such creative displays of pen-inked art like these.
If you’re interested in seeing even more work by Ibimiya, be sure to follow him on Pixiv and Tumblr.
Source: Twitter/@Ibimiya_urei
Top image: Twitter/@Ibimiya_urei
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