At first glance, Juan Francisco Casas seems like Spain’s answer to Terry Richardson. But take a closer look. While there might be a lot of overlap in their subject matter, Casas actually creates his incredibly realistic images of beautiful women in various stages of undress using a Bic pen and paper; each large-scale work, which is based on a source photo (usually featuring one of his friends), can require him to use up to four different pens to cover the canvas.
“I guess it started off as a joke, to try and make something so realistic that people would think is a photo,” Casas explained back in 2008, long before the hyperrealism trend really took off. “For me it’s not that different from painting. I was trying to show that it doesn’t matter what material you use, it’s what you do with it.” Click through for a curated selection of his work, and head over to the artist’s website to browse through his massive archive.
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas
Image credit: Juan Francisco Casas