Imagine if the stuff you saw on Instagram materialized as physical drawings. A young London artist made this cross-medium jump by rifling through her personal Instagram. T.S. Abe discovered a newfound source of inspiration for her sketches by incorporating what she sees on a daily basis on her account—a feed of an immaculately chill style darlings. At just 27 years old, Abe has grown a childhood knack for sketching into an artistic career, which has seen her partner with clients like Nike and ESPN.
Her graceful-yet-accurate style of photorealistic drawing commodifies social media celebrity. Her drawings reconfigure apathetically-posed models and digital age personalities into frozen statues of temporary exhibitionism. The intense realism of each portrait creates the illusion that each celebrity figure is more like an imagined avatar from a street mural or a svelte shape from the sketches of a fashion designer.
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In an artists statement, Abe describes herself as “born under the Brixton sun… I have successfully progressed from early aged doodles, to firmly realized pencil works.” Abe describes her works culled from social media, The Scroll Sketches, as a “clutch of ‘Insta’ influences, the drama of their personal style stripped back for a more whimsical, monochrome impression of individuality.”
All images courtesy the artist.
Explore more work from T.S. Abe on her Behance page and her Instagram.
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