Drawing with Keystrokes: Intricate Typewriter Portraits by James Cook

James Cook is a London-based artist who creates dense, realistic portraits using typewriters as drawing tools. His detailed pieces are constructed line by line, formed entirely from letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols, with tonal shifts created through overtyping and careful spacing.

James has worked in this medium since 2014, producing over 350 pieces across more than 100 vintage machines. His subjects are literary and philosophical figures, from Emily Dickinson and Oscar Wilde to Virginia Woolf and Plato, and the biographical text woven into each portrait doubles as its raw material. Words like “withdrawal,” “identity,” and “societal expectations” become the texture of a face, a poet’s verse becomes her skin. The typewriter, once the instrument of these writers’ words, now becomes the instrument of their image.

See more of James Cook’s work on his Instagram and website.

More art on the grid via Instagram