Hair is not the easiest art medium to work with, especially when you’re trying to create detailed portraits of people and animals, but young Indian artist Midhun R.R. had developed a technique that allows him to manipulate thousands of short hair strands into impressive artworks.

All Midhun needs to create his art is some hair, obviously, a white sheet of paper for canvas and a long needle to manipulate the tiny hairs. He makes the whole thing look easy in the time lapse videos he posts on YouTube, but admits that arranging the hairs the way he wants is actually harder than it seems. To make it easier for himself he has the hair chemically treated before using it. The hair strands are then cut at various lengths, depending on the image he is trying to create, and carefully arranged on the paper canvas using the needle. Once Midhun is satisfied with the result, the artwork is sandwiched between two glass panes for long-term preservation.

“I have developed my own form of monochromatic art which involves the use of hair as the sole element,” Midhun writes on his blog. “In my experience, I have found that it is extremely difficult to place hair the way one desires. To curb this, I have deduced a new technique- hair used for this art has to be chemically treated. Keeping in mind that this procedure might cause skin infections and allergies, it is important to avoid any direct contact with skin.”

But hair is just one of the mediums Midhun has experimented with over the years. The multi-talented artist has also tried his hand at coffee painting, 3D painting , coconut shell carving, clay modeling and wire sculpturing, among others.

You can find out more about Midhun R.R. by checking out his blog.

via BoredPanda