The humble ball-point pen is not just useful for remembering things or getting a message across, it can theoretically also draw a 56km long straight line and produce 45, 000 words. It is also a good means of population control; at least a hundred people a year choke to death on them… And afterwards they can be used to write out their Darwin Awards Certificates. Besides being a pocket sized wonder tool, the ball-point pent is now also the source of great art.

 

 

 

 


Rising star of the art world, Juan Francisco Casas, uses up to 14 ball-point pens to create his photo-realistic drawings. All produced using only blue ball-point pens.

His canvasses reach up to 3m in length, and his work is already a sell-out at exhibitions. At his latest exhibition in Madrid, he sold an amazing 60 canvases, ranging in price from R8 500 to a staggering R42 500 each. That is quite a nifty profit, considering the price of 14 or so ball-point pens. And surprisingly it only takes him about two weeks to complete a canvas.

 

 

Formally a traditional painter, Casas began experimenting with larger than life ball-point drawings about three years ago, based on photographs of nights out with his friends. Casas admitted that he first started doing the drawings as a joke, just to try and make something so super-realistic that people would think that is was a photo.

 

 

In 2004 he entered the national art competition in Spain as a joke, having submitted a ball-point pen drawing. Surprised at his second place victory, he took his drawings seriously, and moved away from traditional painting. “For me it’s not that different from painting. I was trying to show that it doesn’t matter what material you use, it’s what you do with it.”

 

 

When asked why he chose the humble pen to be the representation of his mind and work, he simply answered, “I wanted to create art with something that everyone has – a Biro. I don’t think it has ever been done before.” Pens can be a torturous means of creating art, as the obvious drawback is that you can not simply erase your mistakes. Casas has learned the hard way, and his advice is to make mistakes at the beginning, rather than the end. Otherwise you just end up with a really big doodle.

 

 

Casas’s extraordinary art just goes to show that art can be created out of the simplest everyday materials. And if you get frustrated whilst trying to be the next great pen artist, you can always eat it and win a Darwin Award.