this artist uses only pen and ink to make these amazingly lifelike portraits

At first glance it looks like a painting. Or even a photo. Ibadan, Nigeria-based visual artist Olatoye David Babatunde has mastered penmanship to do what many of us thought only a paint palette or camera lens could do, and the results are fantastic!

Creating art in both traditional black pen and color, Babatunde’s portraits feature everything from everyday people to celebrities like Beyoncé and Rihanna. And it’s his color pictures that are most lifelike, achieved by ink outside of the most used primary colors. Best of all, they center Blackness, and are an example of Black excellence at its finest!

Take a look at some of our favorites from Babatunde’s Instagram page below, and check out more of Babatunde’s work here.