Arinze Stanley’s Breathtaking Graphite Drawings

WORDS Cheri Morris

Is it a photograph? Nope! These hyper-realistic drawings by Nigerian artist Arinze Stanley are created using graphite and charcoal pencils.

Arinze uses large sheets of cartridge paper to recreate portraits of his subjects and can spend over 200 hours completing just one portrait. His claim to fame is the enormous amount of care he takes to recreate even the tiniest of details in order to capture the life-like characteristics of his subjects. From tangles of stray hair to running tears and beads of sweat, Arinze’s meticulous use of shades of grey make for a breathtakingly realistic outcome.

His emotive portraits embody a sense of drama and draw the viewer into them with their expressive gestures and qualities.

To see more of his mesmerising work, check out his page on Facebook and follow him on Instagram.

(h/t) thisiscolossal.com