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A talented Italian artist who creates striking artworks using only pens or pencils.
Milan-based artist Alessandro Paglia has always found objects fascinating, from the stories they tell through their design to their surface, volume, texture, and interplay of light and shadow. After working for years as a product designer, he decided to focus his talents in a different direction: drawing. Using only pens or pencils, he started creating highly realistic illustrations with an obsessive attention to detail. However, Alessandro Paglia’s artworks are not merely a faithful reproduction of real objects. Throughout his work, he adds unusual twists and details designed to surprise the viewer.
Some of them are tongue-in-cheek while other simply push the defining features of the subject to the extreme. The process of bringing an artwork to life involves altering an object and then photographing it. “I began by working on objects in every possible way, deforming them, making them explode, crushing them, immersing them in paint, freezing them, sewing them, folding them, a simple intervention that translates into a surprise for the eyes. The plan was simple from the very start: to create images of aesthetically and symbolically intriguing objects with a twist, with an unusual look,” explains the artist.
Looking at his finished illustrations, it may be hard to believe that everything is completed in just pen or pencil. The meticulous process of reproducing the photographs takes a lot of time, as the artist superimposes layers upon layers. One artwork can take between 50 to 250 hours to complete. The artist also favors working on a larger scale, which makes the whole process last longer. Apart from pop culture icons, his work also features cars and objects transformed and deconstructed into new versions of themselves. If you want to see more of his work as well as his latest art pieces, follow Alessandro Paglia’s Instagram. Photographs© Alessandro Paglia.
