Silva likes to recall the story of when he started drawing, growing up in a small town in Portugal. He was only 2. And he pegs his inspiration on simply observing. And seeing his amazing photorealistic art today show that it?s paid off.

"?we had a garden and instead of playing with toys I would rather observe the bees, plants and flowers all the time."

The Process
Samuel uses typical unremarkable ballpoint pens you can pick up at any office supply store. What he does differently is he layers pen over pen ?cross hatching? to make colors that he wouldn?t have otherwise. A single work has taken him up to 30 hours of work and the detail that time brings is clearly seen in his art!