You've probably got a Bic biro. It's probably somewhere in your desk drawer, maybe hidden under some old post-its and a mess of elastic bands. You've probably had it sitting there for years, while you lavish your designer love on the showier stylings of a Gel Ink Rollerball Softgrip™ 0.5 tip Tecpoint Fineliner (only £6.50 each). Well shame on you sir or madam! Shame on you.

For just look at what your humble Bic can do if you truly have the skill to make it sing. This is the work of young Andalusian-born artist Juan Francisco Casas, who's currently got a show on at the Galeria Fernando Pradilla in Madrid.

He creates photorealist ballpen drawings and oil canvases, reproducing in incredible detail snaps of fleeting moments that he takes on his camera.

Check out more on him at his MySpace page. And if you fancy seeing what else people are doing with their Bics, check out this article about Reinventing the Bic Pen from Designboom.

(If Bic had half a brain, they'd be using this guy to showcase their pen. Instead, their current marketing involves this hideous flash site about pen-spinning. Watch out - loud irritating music alert. Duh.)

via The Guardian