The humble typewriter, once an everyday office staple, has long been forgotten - relegated to the history books.

But now, one young man is starting a typewriter revolution in the least expected way.

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Architect student James Cook is the creative mind behind these incredible pictures, and the antiques are the tools of his trade.

The 23-year-old’s palette might be limited to two colours, but his masterpieces are earning him commissions from around the world, even appearing on album covers and gaining celebrity fans.

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“I started about five years ago, I was at college at the time and I was taking art,” Cook said.

“Just through my research, I came across this guy by the name of Paul Smith, who had cerebral palsy. And unfortunately, because of his condition, he couldn’t use a pencil or paintbrush to do drawings.

“But he actually started to use typewriters, and he ended up producing these amazing portraits and drawings. So I was really inspired by his story, and I started about five years ago and I haven’t stopped since.”

Not easy to come by

James received his first typewriter from an elderly couple selling items from their dusty attic - and now he’s grown his collection to 20 typewriters.

“Typewriters are so hard to get hold of,” Cook said.

“They’ve been around much longer than computers, and everyone I speak to either a generation or two older than me either owned a typewriter or used them, but it’s so difficult to get a hold of them even so.

“I go around to junkyard shops, charity shops, and they are impossible to come across because they are an antique or people have forgotten about them. But you can still get hold of the ribbons, luckily.

“Where I live, there is a tiny stationery shop that gets them just for me. I am the only customer.

“I have to do all of the servicing, and the typewriters I get hold of come in all different states. They tend to not work completely.

“I use them to the best of my ability. Some of the keys don’t work, some of the hammers are stuck down - but I can still produce drawings. I may not be able to produce a word document from them anymore, but I can do portraits.”

Typewriter technique

“A lot of it is freehand,” Cook said.

“Recently I’ve been doing a lot drawings on location, so I’ve been going to parts of the UK and the taken the typewriter with me, so I’ve been looking at the view as it was in front of me.

“Obviously, it’s very difficult to do someone’s portrait and have them sit in front of me - so if someone has commissioned me to do a drawing, I will get them to send a photograph to me.

“Normally, if I’m doing a portrait of someone’s face, I will start with the eyes because that is the hardest part to do.”

Famous faces

James has even found a fan in Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heden - who shared his artwork on his Instagram page.

He also went on to meet the actor at a Comic-Con event, where he had the opportunity to deliver the portrait to Jon himself.

“I’m a massive fan of Napoleon Dynamite,” Cook said.

“When I spoke to him, he said that there was someone on Instagram that does these typewriter drawings, and I said, ‘yeah, that’s me.’

“I think he was quite shocked to see that it was actually me handing him that drawing. So that was brilliant.”

See more of James’ work on his website and Instagram.