Although many Marvel movie villains fail to live up to expectations, Avengers: Infinity War Thanos totally met the hype after six years of teasing. For one thing, Josh Brolin brought true life and pathos to the Marvel Comics villain; better still, he’s the rare bad guy that actually made good on his threats. So in my book, Thanos lives in the pantheon of great cinema villains like Darth Vader and Freddy Krueger. Now an artist in the UK named Gurekbal Bhachu has paid proper homage to the Mad Titan by bringing him to life in a pencil art portrait that is so insanely detailed it actually looks like a photograph.
Two and a half months, around 20 different shades of pencils and now finally a drawing of Thanos pic.twitter.com/NPqfKryIAr
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) August 22, 2018
It took Bhachu around two-and-a-half months to complete this hyperreal pencil drawing of Thanos, and he used several different kinds of pencils to make this look as real as humanly possible. In one tweet, in which he showcased the work-in-progress drawing, he said, “Balancing tones is harder than balancing the universe,” while in another, he said, “Art is such a long profession.” After two-and-half-months to make a single drawing, we’d say that’s putting it mildly.
You can see the progress of Gurekbal Bhachu’s drawing of Thanos from start to finish in his series of tweets down below. In addition, Bhachu has several other hyperreal portraits of famous people, including Morgan Freeman, Bruce Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson in his famous Pulp Fiction role. If you’re a big enough fan of his Thanos drawing, the artist currently has prints for sale for $70, which you can purchase by clicking here.
The three main steps to creating realistic skin texture with colouring pencils pic.twitter.com/SHvEhXbMlj
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) June 12, 2018
Though I initially found this step difficult when I started using a white paint pen, here’s the difference adding highlights to a drawing makes pic.twitter.com/bKyuoGsc8g
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) June 12, 2018
I’ve used up about 15 whole pencils and 2 paint pens on this drawing so far pic.twitter.com/La4u5x9Cf4
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) July 28, 2018
9 weeks is a really long time to spend on anything but I’m finally finished and couldn’t be any more satisfied pic.twitter.com/K6Z92LxHWB
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) December 28, 2017
A few weeks with handful of pencils, fine-tip erasers and paint pens pic.twitter.com/KnZt3NrOey
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) May 12, 2018
Finally completed my drawing of Samuel L Jackson. It only took a month and a half 🙃 pic.twitter.com/uugVOPrguN
— Gurekbal Bhachu (@G_Singh_B) September 8, 2017
What do you think of these amazing, photographic style drawings? Be sure to give us your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: Marvel Studios
