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An artist from Cornwall has gained a worldwide following after her super-realistic drawings went viral on the internet. Danielle Franks said she got her natural artistic talent from her mother - and 'digitised it' to start creating works that are so realistic they could be mistaken for photographs.

The 20-year-old, who goes by the name of Moe, replicates photos, drawing by hand using a Cintiq 13 graphic tablet. And her work has been seen around the world and gained more than 300,000 likes on social media.

And her latest aclaim has come after her drawing of late American singer, rapper and producer Mac Miller went viral, with tens of thousands of likes. Miller died in September of a drug overdose. her drawing is based on a photograph by Todd Code for The Fader music magazine.

But that wasn't the first time Danielle set the internet alight. Her works were previously shared by stars Post Malone and Lil Peeps and she's been commissioned by Willow Smith, daughter of rapper and actor Will Smith and actor Jada Pinkett Smith.

Her art has left many people mesmerized - as on first glance the artwork looks like a photograph. But more importantly and personally, it has helped her through battles with mental health problems, and she said she wants to raise awareness and inspire others to try to help themselves through art, saying she "never wants people to feel even close to how I did".

Hyperrealism is a genre of artistry that uses digital painting and sculpting techniques to recreate a high resolution photograph, down to the finest detail.

Danielle openly dedicates the beginning of her career to the late Lil Peep, a Swedish-American rapper and singer who gained a cult like following on Soundcloud, bending genres of emo rock and hip-hop. He broke into the mainstream in late 2017 with his debut album, Come Over When You’re Sober.

A retweet on his twitter profile garnered her paintings instant recognition, and her fanbase was made.

Hot off the heels of the triumph of her Miller drawing, we met up with Danielle, who now has nearly 36,000 followers on Twitter and 34,000 on Instagram, to discuss life, art and what the future holds.

How long have you been passionate about digital art?

I dabbled in digital art from the age of 12-ish. I had an iPad and I’d draw my friends as (Japanese anime style) chibis for £5 each. In December 2015 an ex bought me a Wacom Intuos (tablet) for Christmas. I drew David Bowie a few times on it and was shocked when they got around one hundred likes.

I never drew as much as I should have. This was around the time I had quit college and my mental health started dipping so I lacked motivation and drew very rarely. I picked it up again in August 2017 to draw Lil Peep and I haven’t stopped since.

How did you get into hyperrealistic drawing?

I draw hyperrealistically due to the fact that my mum gave me her art genes, and unfortunately we both lack any sort of imagination/creativity when it comes to art. We can draw anything almost exactly from life, like a plant or a person, and in my case, photos.

I just took her talent and digitalised it I guess.

You've mentioned that your first drawing that gained mass popularity was of Lil Peep, after he retweeted it, what did that mean for you and did you see an instant increase in popularity?

After Lil Peep retweeted my art it changed my life. I was able to get decent commissions finally. I can’t work due to health/back problems from surgery so this meant the world to me, since I had no income for so many years after being in Truro College.

My increase in popularity at the time seemed massive, gaining like a few hundred-thousand followers.

You're fairly open about mental health on your social media. Does drawing/creating help you in anyway?

Drawing helps my mental health a lot and I guess I’m really open about it because I want to be in a place where everyone can tell someone if something is wrong. Even just to express their problems when they feel like they need to.

I spent so long being too scared to tell my own parents. I left it until I spent six weeks inside. I got really bad skin problems from what I believe is disordered-eating and lack of sunlight. All of this worsened by my back problems.

I had no friends within a hundred miles of me to even visit. I was literally too scared to get help. I never want people to feel even close to how I did.

Drawing can be expressing your emotions or it can be therapeutic for stress/anxiety or neither. I’d encourage anyone with anxiety or depression to try and be creative when they’re motivated enough. I know it’s hard though.

You've obviously now got quite an audience and a platform to present your art on, what does the future hold creatively?

The future hopefully holds a lot of commissions; hopefully some tattoo commissions because I love doing those and hopefully I’ll be able to make more people smile or feel comfortable with themselves. I also want to have connections to photographers/musicians so I can get photos of famous people to draw that have never before been seen by the public.

If you are interested in any of the works displayed in this article, or have an idea of what you’d like drawn, contact Moe here on Twitter @danierruu or Instagram @danierruu_