In the years following its launch in 1950, the biros was very quickly chosen and used by established and demanding artists. They appreciated its quality, its precision, the ease with which it could be obtained and also its ability to quickly execute scribbled sketches or major works. In 1998, an exhibition was held in Valle d’Aosta in tribute to Baron Bich, a native of the region, and artists created original works linked to the brand’s products. This was the first step that inspired Bruno Bich to create a collection for BIC.
Through the works presented, the simple everyday object, the pen, becomes a medium for creation. The artists transform, transpose and transfigure.
The presentation is eclectic and abundant, taking visitors on a journey through a variety of unsuspected worlds. The artists turn the object away from its primary function, reinventing it and encouraging us to break down the boundaries between drawing and painting, writing and images, design and art.
Marilyn Monroe by Mostafa Khodair
The 25-year-old Egyptian artist made a name for himself on Twitter, regularly posting portraits of celebrities drawn with coloured ballpoint pens.
It took Mostafa Khodeir almost two months and dozens of pens to create each of his imposing portraits. It has to be said that the realism and precision of his monochromatic portraits are breathtaking in their almost photographic quality.
Whether using a simple blue or coloured pen, Mostafa Khodeir is able to draw the faces of men, women and especially children, including the anonymous, in minute detail. He is also one of the few artists who can reproduce the fluidity and transparency of water with a pen…
“Portrait of Emma Watson” (2018) by JerDo
Midnight Lust by Helena Hauss
Helena Hauss is a Parisian artist who creates her works entirely with ballpoint pens.
Yes, you read that right. This painting was created using only ballpoint pens. Populated by tiny, meticulous details, her works are generally over a metre wide, and take between 200 and 300 hours to complete.
For her, the ballpoint pen is anything but trivial: “No other tool allows me to put so much emphasis and so much detail into hair”, she told Konbini. What’s more, “it’s the tool of the classroom”, she told BuzzFeed. Adolescence and its many tumults are Helena Hauss’s favourite theme, particularly “girls who are a bit rebellious, cheeky or insolent”.
I’m not interested in imagining sweet, docile girls,” says Helena Hauss. The girls in my drawings aren’t perfect, they’re full of flaws.”
Gallery owner Marie Guilhot-Voyant comments:
“What fascinates me about her is the complete discrepancy between the meticulousness of her work and the fact that when you look at her drawings like this, it seems easy. […] With ballpoint there’s no room for error, she can’t ‘erase’, if she makes a mistake the work is ruined. She’s taking a crazy risk.”
Girl with hat, blue ballpoint pen on watercolour paper by Solcedo
“Give me a pen and I’ll work wonders for you”, Carine Brancowitz
Carine Brancowitz is a French illustrator who lives in Rome. Armed with her 4-colour pen, she draws ultra-contemporary scenes of life and still lifes. Her attention to detail and the precision of her line have made her a singular artist who is much in demand: Dior, Céline, Vogue, Playboy, Sébastien Tellier…
Mother and son (2013), a ballpoint pen painting by Ghanaian artist Enam Bosokah.
Hervé Le Fur, portrait of Leonardo di Caprio, black ballpoint pen on A4 Canson paper, 2022
Christophe Corbi, blue ballpoint pen drawing on size 3 paper
Birds, Winsor and Newton sketchbook, blue ballpoint pen
Ballpoint pen illustration by Yasmine
Portrait of Amy Winehouse by Norel-Art, portrait artist, ballpoint pen on 21×30 paper
Liu Kai reproduces China’s architectural heritage, in this case the Great Wall. He has been using a blue biros since 2013, when he decided to leave the city where he works to return to his village to draw. This Chinese artist has made a name for himself by sharing his work on social networks. (Here, a work entitled Dragon Backbone, produced in 2016).
Carine Brancowitz for Cosmopolitan magazine
Born in 1972, Carine Brancowitz was probably immersed in the dreamlike world of the forest of a family château in the Loire… She moved to Paris at the age of 16 to study illustration at the Ecole Estienne. After working as a graphic designer in a Paris communications agency and then on a freelance basis, she decided to devote herself to drawing in 2007.
Her main sources of inspiration are fashion, music and young people, so we often see half-fashion, half-romantic young people in scenes of Parisian life. Her passion for music has also led her to illustrate record covers: the single Kilometer by Sébastien Tellier and Amoureux Solitaires for Etienne Daho.
She also contributes to a number of fashion magazines (Dazed & Confused, Vogue, l’Officiel, etc.) and has worked for many brands that have asked her to do so: Céline, Nokia, Testoni, etc.
Her characters seem to pass through modern life, like a freeze-frame with a hint of nostalgia for the college years… In the background, the memory of her favourite ballpoint pen, the 4-colour she customised in 2011… for Bic!
Juan Francisco Casas
Child by Enam Bosokah
Jason Setan Art’s teacher, red ballpoint pen
Robin Kid – As water reflects the face, so life reflects the British Heart Foundation
Robin Kid – Humanity is overrated
Mia by Helena Hauss
Metis by Jan Fabre, 1987, biros on paper, 200×150
López Lorenzana, hyperrealism in ballpoint pen: there’s no doubt that talent and technique come together in these incredible works of art by López Lorenzana, produced entirely in pen on paper…
Using a simple piece of paper and a biro, artist Enam Bosokah has managed to make the world vibrate. Born in Gama, Africa, Enam painstakingly recreates exciting drawings from his everyday life. The work can easily be mistaken for a photograph in shades of blue. The artist’s work includes portraits of world leaders and well-known personalities. … The artist creates impressive portraits with a biro.
Ballpoint pen drawing by Alexandra Miron
Juan Francisco Casas
Thierry Sanchez
Robin Kid – Bryan & David, 2013
Nuria Riaza
Nuria Riaza
Juan Francisco Casas
Jacky Ananou – Converse, 2020
Helena Hauss – The Fight
Carlos Fentanes – Blue Nude, 2021
Noël Serge, based on a photo taken on the beach in Cuba
In the rain, Noël Serge
The incredible ballpoint pen drawings of Mostafa Khodeir, originally from Cairo, Mostafa Khodeir has made a speciality of this unusual art form.
Paulus Architect simply uses an ordinary blue biros.
Enam Bosokah is a Ghanaian artist known for his biros work.
Zahra Shafie, an Iranian artist
Transparent or four-colour, they have always been part of our lives. The biros, born in 1950 and manufactured in 15 million units a day, is just as useful for taking notes as it is for sending pellets or fixing a bun. It is also at the cutting edge of art.