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.

Matt Wisniewski is a web developer and self-taught artist based out of Brooklyn, NY. He has been using Photoshop since he was a child, and he loves to create visual experiments through collage. His art usually begins with a portrait, and he quickly combines textures until something catches his eye. If you want to learn more about his work, check out this great interview on Yatzer.

Wow! That is the one word that comes to mind when I look at Rob Hefferan's hyperrealistic paintings. The amount of details he pours into each painting is astounding. He truly knows how to bring out beauty in women in his paintings. Incredibly, this is only a small sampling of his work. I highly recommend checking out more on his website. In the mean time, enjoy my favorites below!

Ross Mcewan is an illustrator from London UK. His work combines beautiful illustrations of women with elements from nature.

Ken Lee is a talented artist from the UK. He specializes in pencil drawings of beautiful women. Even though they are only drawings, you can just feel the emotions emanating from his subjects. Hopefully there is more great work in store from Ken!