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Sometimes art has a funny way of flattering people. An artist known as Ballpoint Papi (aka @Tw1tterPicasso) started sharing less than perfect portraits of strangers back in 2016. Characterized by their major physical distortions, hasty gestural style, and charming humor, the portraits quickly became sought after. Fans of the artist flooded the comments with requests for their own contorted portraits, to which Ballpoint Papi seemed to oblige.
Over time, celebrities slowly started becoming a more common subject of Ballpoint Papi’s altered styling. In January 2021, his fan drawing of The Weeknd went viral on Twitter and the musician himself took notice. The Weeknd actually went ahead and even replaced his Instagram profile photo with the drawing Ballpoint Papi created.
Though this was an incredible moment for the artist, his art was actually posted by @albert12798 with the following message: “I drew the weeknd.” It amassed over 200,00 likes and 19,000 retweets, and caught the attention of many. Even though Ballpoint Papi had put two watermarks over the image, the damage had been done and the credit for the humorous image was going to Albert years later. Thankfully, once the true artist came to light, Ballpoint Papi’s fans made their voices heard to make sure the original artist was properly credited. Albert’s tweet was then later deleted and his account was eventually suspended.
Though this wasn’t the only unsavory instance when his funny drawings have been stolen—another pretender posted a 2018 portrait of Will Smith in April 2021–Ballpoint Papi has managed to continue his creative pursuits with a lot of people on his side. He has produced more art, growing his portfolio of hilarious illustrations, and amassed more and more fans over the years, gaining new appreciation for his work. And his internet presence is still very much alive and well. You can follow him on Instagram (where he has over 200,000 followers) and Twitter to keep up to date with his latest sketches.
A distorted sketch of The Weeknd went viral for its hilarious nature—so viral that the musician himself saw and decided to use it for his profile picture.
Photo: Screenshot from The Weeknd’s Instagram
Ballpoint Papi (@Tw1tterPicasso) is known for his portraits characterized by their major physical distortions, hasty gestural style, and charming humor. Take a look at some of his “fan art” of celebrities.
Post Malone
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Dua Lipa
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Ariana Grande
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Tupac Shakur
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LeBron James
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Hasbulla Magomedov
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Machine Gun Kelly
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DJ Khaled
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Jack Harlow
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Peyton Manning
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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
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Ballpoint Papi: Instagram | Twitter
h/t: [Reddit]
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