THESE stunning hyper-realistic pencil drawings can take up 100 hours to complete - but the Stourbridge based artist behind them insists anyone can master the skill if they put in the practice.
Emma Towers-Evans, aged 29, first picked up a pencil when she was just two and said her love for drawing began after watching the film 'Free Willy' when she was inspired to draw killer whales.
Now she creates incredible pencil portraits of people and animals - some of which can take her up to 100 hours to complete - and that are so realistic they look like photos.
Emma often completes the drawings on a large A1 or A0 paper and estimates each piece of artwork can have upwards of 500,000 individual pencil strokes.
She shares her creations on TikTok and has racked up 264.9k followers and an incredible 4.5million likes on her videos.
In some of the videos she can been seen drawing portraits of celebrities like Rhianna and Taylor Swift.
Self-taught artist Emma insists 'anyone' can master the craft if they put in the hours after she saw her own skills improve after years of practice.
She said: "I don't believe people are 'naturally talented' when it comes to drawing.
"It's taken me years of practice, patience and dedication to get to where I am today.
"I think anyone can get to that level - you just need to have that same determination and self-belief."
Emma loved drawing during her childhood and teens, but never thought it would be her future career.
While at University of Surrey, studying music and sound recording, she began doing commissions and would often draw portraits of people's pets.
As her success continued, Emma decided to focus on drawing full-time and set-up her own website.
Now the pencil artist sells her own original work and her subjects are often portraits of people.
She also created a series of big cat drawings called the 'Felidae series' and 25 per cent of the proceeds went to cat conservation charities like the Born Free Foundation and Lion Aid.
One of the portraits was based on Christian the Lion - a famous pet lion who was bought from Harrods in the 1970s - and Emma had permission from the photographer to sketch his photo.
She said: "My style is hyper realistic - I try to create something that looks as real as possible.
"I like to draw things from the natural world like people and animals.
"It's really exciting to see something come alive on the paper."
Emma set up her TikTok - @eteportraits - March 2020 and couldn't believe the response she received.
Her videos capture each stage of her drawings and partner, Nick Harding, aged 28, edits them.
As well as posting on TikTok, Emma also has an Instagram page where she posts her drawings to her 61.4k followers.
She said: "I started the page during lockdown as a bit of fun.
"The first one I posted was a timelapse video of a portrait and I can't believe how popular it's become.
"The comments and support I get is amazing."
The artist tries to encourage other people to pick up a pencil and give it a go.
She said: "I think anyone can become an artist if they've got the time and patience."
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