Portraits of perfection: No, they're not photos, but pencil drawings by a young genius from a tough council estate

Subjects range from singers Beyonce and Amy Winehouse to Mother Teresa and Princess Diana
Each expressive piece is made using primarily a set of pencils and the occasional stick of charcoal on paper
Artist Kelvin Okafor is gaining great acclaim for his incredible work

By Vincent Graff

PUBLISHED: 10:56 GMT, 30 January 2013 | UPDATED: 00:39 GMT, 31 January 2013

Stare closely at the pictures on this page. What do you think it took to create these beautiful images of Amy Winehouse, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and Rihanna? An expensive camera, a precision lens, hours of trial and error from a skilled photographer?

Well, the answer is none of the above.

All of these extraordinarily detailed pictures are pencil drawings, created purely by hand — with no digital trickery — by British artist Kelvin Okafor, whose only tools are a set of pencils, a piece of paper and the occasional stick of charcoal (though most of the pictures don’t even require that). Yet no matter how closely one looks, there’s not a pencil line in sight.

Back to Black: Singer Amy Winehouse is shown staring wide-eyed into the distance in this emotive sketch

Windows to the soul: Kelvin Okafor begins with the eyes when he creates his realistic sketches of famous faces from Beyonce to Mother Teresa

The artist’s story is almost as sensational as the pictures he has been producing since he was a teenager who was too poor to leave his house to socialise. Instead of drinking and clubbing, Ofakor, now 27, stayed at home in Tottenham, North London, seeking solace in drawing. Now it looks as if he’s on his way to fame and fortune.
Today, an exhibition of his work opens at London’s Science Museum — and already some of his portraits are changing hands for £10,000 apiece. This week, a portrait he drew of King Hussein of Jordan is to be presented to the late monarch’s widow, Queen Noor.

Anyone can commission a portrait, though he will charge anything from £800 to £3,000 for his work. He says he prefers to work from photographs rather than real life — partly because of the length of time he spends on each picture.
So how does Okafor create these incredible works of art? ‘Before I start drawing, I spend a few hours — even a few days — analysing the face from every angle. I usually start with the eyes. From there, I make the whole shape of the face and I work in the detail.

Invincible: The Middlesex University Fine Art graduate is gaining increasing recognition with images including this one of pop star Tinie Tempah

Each work takes the 27-year-old up to 100 hours to complete, and he tries to inspire emotion in the viewer with vivid portraits. Pictured, Heath Ledger and Princess Diana