When you see the image above, you might think, "Man, that's a beautiful photo." Unfortunately, you would be dead wrong. Fortunately, you would be right in thinking it is beautiful. It is a beautiful drawing. That's right, I said drawing.

Samuel Silva (VianaArts on Deviant Art) is the mastermind behind this, and a few other incredible drawings made entirely out of ballpoint pens. Another amazing fact: Silva is a lawyer by day and artist by hobby. He started drawing, sculpting and painting at 2 years old and has only recently tried to master the ballpoint pen. I think he's succeeded.

Here's an insightful FAQ from his "Redhead Girl" drawing:

Q:How many colors do you have and what pens are these?
A: I have 8 colored Bic ballpoint pens, for this I used 6 of them plus black. They are just common everyday ballpoint pens.

Q: Where do you get them? I have never seen them.
A: Staples, Ebay, Amazon, and pretty much any good office supply store, just because you haven't noticed them before doesn't mean they don't exist.

Q: Do you use any other medium mixed with the ballpoint pens?<
A: No, I just use ballpoint pens for these drawings. Everything is 100% ballpoint pen.

Q: How do you mix the colors? How do you blend them?
A: I don't mix them nor blend them. Ballpoint pen ink dries instantly and can not be erased. I just cross hatch the different colors in layers to create the illusion of blending and the illusion of colors I don't actually have.

Q: Are you a professional Artist? 
A: No, I'm just a lawyer, art is just a hobby for me, although it takes from 5 to 50 hours to finish each drawing. I started drawing when I was 2.

Believe it or not, the painting above features three naked women. Craig Tracy is famous for his beautifully realistic paintings using human bodies, and this painting of a South China Tiger is definitely no exception. Craig was asked to create this painting to increase awareness of the endangered animal and he immediately responded yes. You can see the process he used to create the tiger below.