Hatching, crosshatching, scribbling: how Oscar Ukonu works his ballpoint magic

Could you capture real life, armed with nothing but a simple, ballpoint pen?

The answer for most of us, would be – no way. But this is not the case for Oscar Ukonu, a hyper-realistic artist from Nigeria. Self-taught, Ukonu has been creating artworks using ballpoint pens since 2014. Each piece can take him almost six weeks to create, using three basic techniques: hatching, crosshatching, and scribbling.

He’ll switch between 10 of the same pens to create the portrait. The theme of his work is Afro-realism, which he describes as a diverse way of viewing the African experience and identity with regards to things like gender, religion and politics.

Read about another Nigerian hyper-realism prodigy here.

View the original video here.

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