Take a look at the image above. Pretty surreal. At first glance (or second, or third), it looks like a photograph -- maybe a little faded, compared to most high-definition shots we're now used to, but a photograph nonetheless. Right?
It's actually a ball point pen drawing by Portuguese artist Samuel Silva, based on Kristina Taraina's photograph "Redhead Girl." Silva used seven different colored pens and spent nearly 30 hours to recreate the photo.
Take a look at a few of Silva's other illustrations, as well as works from Miguel Endara, Paul Cadden and Dirk Dzimirsky. Some used ballpoint pens, while others worked with graphite and charcoal. However, they all have one thing in common: these incredible works are definitely not photographs.
Have any other illustrations made you do a double take recently? Share them with us in the comments below.
Ballpoint Pen
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Image courtesy of Samuel Silva
Pencil
Image courtesy of Miguel Endara
Image courtesy of Paul Cadden
Image courtesy of Paul Cadden
Image courtesy of Paul Cadden
Image courtesy of Paul Cadden
Image courtesy of Paul Cadden
Image courtesy of Dirk Dzimirsky
Image courtesy of Dirk Dzimirsky
Image courtesy of Dirk Dzimirsky
Image courtesy of Dirk Dzimirsky
Charcoal
Image courtesy of Dirk Dzimirsky