Eric Stavros, Rhodes island, Greece
Member Since February 2013
Artist Statement I was born in the south of France near Marseille in 1971.
Drawing was my main hobby since I was a child and I never really stopped doing this, thanks to the encouragement of all the people around me.
Of course, all those years, I have experienced many techniques, such as painting, brushes, pastel, acrylics, watercolors, etc...
I've also experienced the wonderful world of UKIYO-E, the Japanese woodblock prints.
But I finally realized that, just with simple graphite black pencils, in the pure black & white traditional way, was, for me, the best way to (re)produce on paper, the most amazing “photo realistic” drawings!
I also may use some charcoal and black Chinese ink when it is required for an even better result.
To achieve my goals, 2 important skills are needed:
1_ Time! Knowing that a drawing may need from 10 to 50 hours and maybe more to be finished.
2_ Patience! And this one may be the most important quality, knowing that, to reach this level of realism, a lot of small details must be done, just because they make all the difference and for this, great patience is also needed.
The best compliment that I can hear is: “oh…, these looks like a photo! ...”, or “come on…is this really a drawing?” .
I know then that my work was successfully done!
