Only the click of the keys breaks the silence that reigns in the office of James Cook, who draws with amazing precision… on his typewriter.
From American actor Tom Hanks to the London Eye, the famous Ferris wheel in the British capital, James Cook, 25, composes true works of art from the letters and symbols of his device.
The young man began drawing this way in 2014 after discovering the work of a 1920s artist using a similar process while in high school.
He then decides to try for himself what seems “impossible” to him.
“I decided to buy my own typewriter out of pure curiosity,” he told AFP from his London studio.
“I’ve gradually learned to draw ever since,” he adds.
First, the young artist recreated buildings, which he felt were easier to draw due to the machine’s straight lines and left-right movement.
“I couldn’t draw faces before I started typing,” he says. “Actually, I’m probably better at drawing faces with a typewriter than with a pencil,” smiles the architecture student.
Building on his success on social networks with his 20,000 followers on Instagram, he continues to draw and gives a second life to typewriters that some fans have given him.
“Always a challenge”
James Cook can draw anywhere, in the shadow of the London Eye or on the banks of the River Thames next to the British Parliament. Under a big blue sky, he draws this day with the “@” sign, numbers, or the letters “W” and “P”.
For the portraits, he uses brackets to reflect the shape of the eyes, while for the skin he uses the at sign that “covers a large area.”
As he meticulously types on his machine, he quickly captures the viewers’ attention.
“Before the invention of Microsoft Word and Co., we used it to write letters,” says David Asante, a computer scientist in a hospital. “It’s impressive that he can turn it into a work of art. »
It can take James Cook four to five days to draw small illustrations, but portraits are even more tedious, explains the young man, who finds working with a “limiting” tool “really satisfying.”
And “it never gets easier,” he says. “It’s always a challenge. »
The artist will be exhibiting his work in England this summer and is hoping for the Guinness World Record for the largest typewriter drawing.