They were once commonplace in offices around the world before being eclipsed by computers.
But typewriters are not redundant yet – with one talented artist using his to recreate Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
James Cook, 26, has amassed a collection of 70 typewriters that he uses to create recreate masterpieces.
His latest piece is made of 100,000 written marks mainly consisting of the letters M, O, N and A to spell out the name of the painting.
Using letters, numbers and punctuation symbols, he cleverly layers the markings to produce this intricate recreation of this famous portrait.
James Cook (pictured), 26, has amassed a collection of 70 typewriters that he uses to create recreate masterpieces
Talented artist James Cook using his typewriter to recreate Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
The 26-year-old from Braintree, Essex, has also recreated a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
Mr Cook, from Braintree, Essex, said: ‘In September last year, I started a series about famous paintings throughout history, where I challenged myself to recreate the Mona Lisa and to make it the same size as the original painting.
‘I spent three weeks working on this specific piece.
‘It is made up of around 100,000 written marks from the typewriter.
‘It’s one of the largest portraits I have done so far. It’s around 60cm by 45cm without being on the frame.
‘I used a 1960s Olympia typewriter to recreate the Mona Lisa. It’s one of my favourite pieces I have done so far.
‘I’m really happy with how it turned out and I am impressed with the results, especially with how the draped fabrics turned out because I knew this would be really difficult to recreate using typewritten letters and symbols.’
Mr Cook said his early attempts at typewriter art were far from great, and perfecting his craft took lots of trial and error. He even admitted that, while his art has continued to get better over the years, he can still find it difficult from time to time.
James Cook with his recreated Mona Lisa masterpiece
How he did it: James Cook used an old typewriter to recreate the iconic Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci
James Cook has also drawn Frida Kahlo, after amassing a collection of 70 typewriters
Mr Cook added: ‘I started learning to do typewriter art by printing out pictures of work done by other typewriter artists and looking at it through a microscope to see what letters have been used to create certain things, for example for a pupil of an eye, and to see what works best.
‘It’s not got any easier. Typewriter art isn’t just about typing on the page once. There are lots of overlapping marks to build up the tones on the drawings.
‘Depending on the size of the piece, it can take anywhere from four to five days up to two months.
‘I have done drawings that have been two meters in length and spent two months working on them, where I wasn’t doing anything else during that time.
‘A4 pieces usually consist of between 15,000 to 20,000 written marks, and one of my largest drawings contained well over one million marks.’
Mr Cook explains that he never had an interest in typewriters until he was completing an A-level art project.
Mr Cook has also recreated the famous piece Balloon Girl by Banksy
A portrait of Vincent van Gogh was also recreated using Mr Cook’s typewriting technique
The 1930 painting American Gothic by Grant Wood was also recreated by James Cook
He added: ‘I was looking into David Hockney’s art, where he used a fax machine, however I couldn’t get hold of a fax machine, so I turned to typewriters, and that’s where it all started.
‘I did one or two drawings with the typewriter and realised how fun it was, so I started posting my creations anonymously to see what kind of reception they’d get. It turns out they were really popular.
‘I went on to study architecture at university but kept my typewriter art as almost a part-time job, but after I graduated, I decided I’d focus on that and just kept going.
‘I now have a studio in London, where I keep all of my typewriters and do all of my art.
‘I’ve become an accidental typewriter collector and I now own 70 of them. I have only bought three of them myself, and the other 67 have been kindly given to me by various people.’
James sells prints costing up to £100 and has a free exhibition running throughout April.
