The thin black line: How one artist recreates masterpieces of thousands of brush strokes with one single line

Thousands of brush strokes went into the original masterpieces, but one artist has reproduced some of the world's most famous paintings with just one line.



Designer Chan Hwee Chong creates spiral illustrations inspired by some of the most popular masterpieces in history.

The Singaporean artist's work is so precise that if he makes a single mistake he starts all over again.

He has recreated Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Van Gogh's self-portrait and Johannes Vermeer's the Girl with the Pearl Earring in his own unique style.



A modern masterpiece: The Mona Lisa is recreated using a single line but thousands of strokes. The piece is perfect - as every time Chan Hwee Chong made a mistake he started again

Original: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa

The 33-year-old father-of-two said: 'Essentially, the brief was to show the precision and control of the pens.



'Right from start, we asked ourselves, how can we showcase "precision and control" without relying on visual puns?

'Is there an idea that can bring to life the promise of these pens in a simple, powerful way?

'Inspired by line-art drawings, we thought we could demonstrate "precision and control" in a simple idea that involved only one single line.'

He likened putting together the spectacular drawings with a spider spinning a web.

Mr Hwee Chong added: 'It wasn't as easy as we thought. We went through many rounds of trial and error, painstaking drawing the masterpieces in one controlled line, by hand.



'As you can imagine, every mistake meant we need to start all over again. This project not only involved skill but lots of resilience and patience, much like a spider spinning its web.'

The Singaporean is an art director at German design studio Kolle Robbe in Hamburg. He was commissioned to create the pieces by pen maker Faber and Castell to show off their artist pens.

In his spare time he works making installation art and on graphic design.



'At work, I deal mainly with art direction and ideas. Outside of work I like playing with spaces - exploring different ways of provoking our senses in an immersive fashion.'

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Mr Hwee Chong, who lives in Hamburg with his wife Carolyn, said the three pieces took several months to complete due to the fact that every mistake meant a complete restart.

Contemporary: Van Gogh's self-portrait is recreated by Chan Hwee Chong, a German-based Singaporean artist



Intricate detail: Thousands of brushstrokes went into this picture of the Girl with a Pearl Earring - but it is all as one line which spirals outwards

'I don't really have answer to how long each drawing took but the whole project took us many months.

'Personally, my favourite is Mona Lisa as it was the piece we started doing first.

'All three pieces were hard work but I worked with a team which really helped. We solved problems we had together and it was great fun.'

Attention to detail: Mr Hwee Chong said the work took several months to complete