Awesome Portraits

How cool would it be to own one of these tiny and exquisitely detailed celebrity peanut sculptures, handpainted by Midwestern artist Steve Casino? Pretty frickin’ cool, that’s what we think. You can see how he does it right here. (Thanks Ira!)

Ad agency Geometry Global’s Hong Kong branch put together this series of classic artworks recreated using LEGO blocks. We had no idea that you could get bricks in so many subtle shades. We suspect they fudged things a bit.

Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas teamed up with Marvel and Mike Mitchell to create a series of portraits of the House of Ideas’ heroes and villains. That Deadpool piece is going to sell out immediately. The exhibit runs til 5/17.

Got a piggy bank filled with pennies? While you convert them into paper money, why not turn them into some art for your wall? You’ll need about 850 pennies of varying shades to fill in the DIY template.

Artist Red Hong Yi not only got the privilege of meeting martial arts master Jackie Chan, she managed to create an incredible portrait of the man using nothing but 64,000 chopsticks, string and wire to bundle them together.

Inspired by the work of Chuck Close, Chicago artist Mary Ellen Croteau created a series of images using thousands of meticulously selected plastic bottle caps. Her masterpiece – a 56-square-foot self portrait called “CLOSE”.

More stunning art by Korean sculptor Seung Mo Park and his ongoing series created by carefully layering metal wires and meshes. The portraits in particular are remarkable. We wonder if he’s ever considered colored wires?

Cliff Maynard created this image of renown pot smoker Willie Nelson entirely from the burnt roach papers from the butts of joints. He’s also made Bob Marley and Snoop Dogg among others. Prints limited to an edition of 420, natch.

Thomas Cian is a Milan-based artist with a lot of great sketches to show but it’s these incredibly life-like graphite portraits that he’s done in his Friendsbook, a moleskine dedicated to drawing friends, that really show the depth of his talent.

Digital artist Daniel Johns (aka “WorkByKnight“) takes images of computer keyboards, buttons, clocks, typographic blocks and other discarded junk and turns them into pixels for his celebrity and pop-culture portraits.

Artist Jeff Nichol pays tribute to the great Willie Nelson with an amazing paper cut portrait in honor of the Red Headed Stranger’s 80th birthday. The track is a chill remix of Willie’s Georgia on My Mind by Worldwide Groove Corp.

Mike Mitchell shows his love of the movies by creating his digitally produced collection of favorite film characters; if you’re in Austin 4/26-5/25/13, check them out in person at Mondo.

Terrestrial artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada created this gigantic portrait of a woman’s fierce gaze the size of two football fields to help Dutch feminist organization Mama Cash promote the protection of women’s rights around the world.

Bradley Hart’s imaginative pixel portraits are created using ordinary syringes and bubble wrap; he injects each individual bubble with acrylic paint in an elaborate and time consuming process.

An anonymous genius is Photoshopping the heads of celebrities into 19th century portraits of Russian generals that were originally painted by George Dawe. You can also order a personalized portrait.

Moreno De Turco and Mirco Pagano spent over 200 hours making portraits of 6 dead musicians using 6,500 CDs of the musicians’ greatest hits. The portraits were made for an anti-piracy exhibit.

Artist OhiseeRED returns with another of her unusual portraits, this time, she cuts the edges of books to create a detailed image of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Face. Book. Get it?

Scott Scheidly’s Pink Series features portraits of infamous male leaders, villains and a pope, all drawn in a shocking, childish feminine style. A “commentary on power, masculinity and satire.”

Using cut up layers of wire mesh, artist Seung Mo Park creates these huge and hauntingly beautiful portraits. In case you’re wondering, here’s a video of his meticulous process.

Joel Brochu made a pointilist portrait of a beagle using 221,184 nonpareil candies. He placed each tiny sphere using a pair of jewelry tweezers on a board with double-sided tape and glue.

When life gives you lemons, Cave Johnson has the answer. Now you can have the sage advice of Aperture Labs’ founder hanging over your fireplace. Or your bed. We love you, J.K. Simmons.

Alejandro de Antonio made a series of sweet portraits of music icons using vinyl records for the Unconventional Materials project of the Art Room. No word if the pieces are for sale though.

Could paper be the new pointillism? We think there’s a good chance, especially after viewing this intricate series of three portraits made from tiny paper rolls by Anant Nanvare for Conquerer Paper.