Artist Makes Ornate Rug Designs with Ballpoint Pen

When Jonathan Bréchignac isn’t busy creating digital works for clients of his Paris design studio, he’s on an analog meditation of pen and paper, elevating the humble Bic ballpoint to a next-level art medium with his incredibly detailed and meticulously drawn series titled The Carpets. Intended to approximate the size of Muslim prayer rugs, the smallest in the series, Carpet n°3, is roughly 37″× 23″, and the largest, Carpet n°1, is 46″× 29″.

Each carpet is developed and drawn organically, bit by bit, as a nod to ancient artisans who would spend years working on one piece of art. Bréchignac’s first carpet took 15 months to draw, while subsequent carpets have taken roughly 6–8 months apiece. When asked if he employs any digital tools, he replies, “No, I draw everything directly on the paper. I just need a compass and a ruler.”

To add what he calls “a 2.0 dimension” to the drawings, Bréchignac has penned in QR codes that correspond to pages on thecarpets.net, offering a “digital and evolutionary extension of the drawings.”