California-based artist Phil Vance spends hundreds of hours creating typography portraits of historical icons entirely out of handwritten words and phrases.

From afar, Phil Vance’s typography portraits look like expertly drawn artworks, but as you draw nearer to them, you start to see that every feature is actually made up of handwritten text. Once you start deciphering all the words, you realize they are famous quotes of the subject written over and over again. The talented artist describes his art as “cross-hatching but with words.”

Most of Phil Vance’s typography portraits are black and white, but he recently tried his hand at a color portrait of the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, and, as you can see in these photos, it turned out to be a really good idea.

For more on Phil Vance and his amazing typography portraits, check out his website, as well as his social media pages – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram