Animator from San Francisco Marty Cooper, like many of us are tired of what is happening around. So he took a transparent celluloid film, pen and white pencil, and began to change the world in which he lives. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes – quite unexpected pictures.

Blule is the brand of French illustrator/designer, Clementine, who currently resides in Australia and has worked as an industrial designer for companies such as Fila, and L’Oreal among others. She starts every image with a pencil sketch on handmade Indian watercolor paper sheet and uses high quality French watercolor paint to achieve the desired effect.

An arm holding a giant gun appears to explode through a wall, while elsewhere a man walks a tiger on a leash. These breathtaking pencil drawings are the work of 31-year-old artist Ben Heine, who lives and works in Rochefort, Belgium. The “anamorphic illusions”, part of the artist's “Pencil Vs Camera” series, appear slightly distorted unless viewed from the exact same perspective in which they were created. Photo: Visual artist Ben Heine at work in his studio while he creates one of his “anamorphic illusions” in Rochefort, Belgium. (Photo by Ben Heine/Barcroft Media)

Italian pencil artist Marco Mazzoni‘s work goes far beyond technical perfection. His representation of historical healing women is enigmatic and sublime. Often leaving the eyes blank or covered with an abundance of birds, butterflies and flowers, he gives the impression of a deeper inward focused sight, as well as obscuring the identity of the individual. Many female healers in the past – both medicine woman and midwives – were brutally persecuted by religion, some even burnt as witches… Mazzoni’s work captures their deep connection with nature and their innate power and femininity with delicacy and beautiful detail.

Postcards for Ants is an ongoing painting project by Cape Town artist Lorraine Loots who has been creating a miniature painting every single day since January 1, 2013. The artist works with paint brushes, pencils, and bare eyes to render superbly detailed paintings scarcely larger than a small coin. After the first year, Loots relaunched the project in a second phase inspired by Cape Town’s designation as World Design Capital 2014.

Italian artist Marcello Barenghi draws incredibly realistic everyday objects that appear almost three dimensional with the help of colored pencils and occasional enhancements using markers or watercolor. Each work appears ever so slightly stylized which I think sets these apart from similar hyperrealistic drawings that are meant to ‘trick’ a viewer. If you want to see more, Barenghi runs a YouTube channel where he documents the process of almost every drawing.

Russian artist Salavat Fidai is obsessed with things in miniature, and he has previously painted miniatures on pumpkin seeds and carved sculptures into the graphite tips of pencils. For this project, he's gone for something a little bit bigger, but not by much. One of Fidai's favorite painters is the legendary Vincent Van Gogh, so he decided to do a series where he recreated some of Van Gogh's famous works on matchboxes.

Tattoos always seem to fascinate us, which is probably one of the reasons why Dionne Marshall has turned to tattooing patterns onto leather. The designs she creates are reminiscent of tattoos favored by people in Central America. Working with leather is a lot harder than working with paints or pencils. Unlike the latter, there is no room for mistakes when you make a tattoo. This is the reason why there are so few artists that specialize in creating art by tattooing leather. However, the results are definitely worth it, as this is a truly unique form of art with a primal feeling to it. (Photo by Dionne Marshall)