Pencil Artist of the Week: Paul Lung

No, that isn’t a photograph of this week’s pencil artist, Paul Lung, it is a self-portrait he created using only a 0.5 mm technical pencil. Lung is an artist out of Hong Kong that specializes in photo-realistic pencil portraits of people and cats. This particular self-portrait took Lung 35 hours to finish, though it is not uncommon for his pieces to require up to 40, 50 or even 60 hours to complete.

Paul is an active member of the DeviantArt art community, where he shares his most recent portraits with legions of his fellow Deviants. He is also active on Facebook, where he lets viewers watch his works in progress develop step-by-step.

The hair, skin and eyes of his subjects are so lifelike and so close to photo-realism it’s astounding. Paul Lung lives by the personal quote “Keep learning,” but if Lung learns any more, it may be impossible to discern his portraits from actual photographs. Yet, there is something in each one of his portraits that sets them apart from simple photographic reproductions. Aside from capturing the image of the person in graphite, Lung also seems to capture their personality, character and essence as well.