Done well, a cross contour line drawing, where the line work essentially indicates an object's three-dimensional depth, can be mesmerizing. Instead of simply mapping these lines onto a hand or a face, as is often the case, Dublin-based illustrator Nester Formentera stretches them horizontally or vertically across the paper, allowing erotic portraits of nude feminine forms and faces to emerge like 3D bodies from the combination of ink and paper. Like other cross contour line drawings, Formentera's work looks like an optical illusion popping off the paper, giving a seductive amount of depth to the work.Formentera tells Creators that his earliest drawings, made when he was a kid, were of the anime series Dragon Ball Z. For a long time it was just a hobby, but when Formentera's girlfriend suggested five years ago that he put his drawings on Instagram, he began uploading them and started taking his hobby more seriously."My original art style is realist portraits using Bic pen, graphite pencils, and polychromos pencils," says Formentera. "Making realist portraits takes many hours and it'll take me weeks to finish a piece. So I decided to do some research on different art styles and that's when I started doing the 'line work', which was two years ago now."Continue reading on Creators.
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