With Simple Ballpoint Pens, Student Artist Takes Web By Storm

2016/06/27

Zhang Qianran

Don’t be fooled by these realistic images. They aren’t photographs. Instead, they are done completely in ballpoint pen.

Duan Haijun, a third-year student at the Institute of Art and Education at Chongqing Normal University, is a master at ballpoint pen illustration. According to local media, Duan took up oil painting during high school, but eventually switched to his current medium after seeing a ballpoint pen artwork online. After a week of attempting to copy this work, he produced his first ballpoint masterpiece.

Inspiration kept coming, and eventually Duan produced another 50 ballpoint artworks, some of which took up to a month to produce.

One of his images, showing a girl from Tibet, was done in imitation of an oil painting. Getting everything right was tough, time-consuming process. With his days occupied by studies, Duan worked on his art at night. Often, he wouldn’t put his pen down until 3am or 4am in the morning.

To highlight the fuzzy fur I resorted to a couple of skills — outlining and scrawl.

Duan spent a month on it. He saw in it a test of patience. These works left their mark on his middle finger — a callus, to remind him of his hard work.

Duan’s masterpieces went viral online. Some came forward with offers to buy them. Duan turned down these offers. He gave some pieces to his friends.

Duan intends to continue his artwork. He is determined to live on ballpoint pen artworks in his own studio. He also would like to teach others as a part-time job.

His teacher, Xiang Huiling, admires his efforts.

When he first stepped into portraying classmates in ballpoint pen artworks, he mastered their diverse dispositions. He may have a bright future.

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With Simple Ballpoint Pens, Student Artist Takes Web By Storm

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