When you first see these images, you will immediately believe that you are looking at a photograph. But, on the contrary, the detailed black and white portraits in front of you are actually impressive line drawings by artist Dirk Dzimirsky. Using photographs as his inspiration, the artist sets up basic proportions and then draws layer upon layer to get these undeniably realistic faces.
Dzimirsky first started drawing in this style because he says, “It was a direct reaction to the beauty mania in the media, the ongoing removal of human imperfections. You can’t see a non-photoshopped image in magazines these days,” and he believes that those kinds of images are “like anti-art because it just lies to [people].”
As a result, Dzimirsky draws what he sees, and includes everything from blemishes, to gray hairs, to wrinkles. Through light and shadow, and layers of lines, dots, and textures, he builds natural representations of expressive human faces that portray a certain reality and capture the emotional essence of each figure.
