Rik Reimert draws some pretty amazing portraits of male celebrities, using only pen and paper and Rotring Rapidographs. Rik finds the analog aspect of his work very exciting, as every line is definitive and cannot be erased. Starting with a simple sketch, the artist then completes the details of the portrait using a Rapidograph, a device which fills in the drawing with consistent ink flow, switching between different sizes in the process. The illustrations are amazingly detailed and feature celebrities like Donald Sutherland, Michael Caine and Ryan Gosling, and as it turns out, the artist has a weak spot for action movies, also portraying Daniel Craig as James Bond or Wolverine. Here’s how Rik describes the process of creating his drawings:

I always start with a sketch in pencil and when I’m happy with the picture I’ll pick up my Rotring Rapidographs and start filling in. Mostly I work from dark to lighter. It takes 6 to 10 hours from blank paper to finished drawing (depending on how dark the drawing has to be). This is for A4 size (most of my drawings). A3 takes up to 25 hours.

Illustrations by Rik Reimert

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