London-based Ben Koracevic is a young, self-taught string artist determined to push the boundaries of the art form. Looking at the insanely detailed portraits he is able to create using only black string and expertly placed nails, I’d say he has already succeeded.

Using thousands of nails carefully positioned on a blank white canvas, and pieces of string with a collective length of over one kilometer, Ben Koracevic spends dozens of hours painstakingly recreating iconic portraits of celebrities, movie characters and even animals. The level of detail in his works is simply uncanny considering the materials he works with.

Photo: The String Art Guy

Ben is the talented artist behind London-based Stringometry Art Studio, where his works are listed for sale for anywhere between £900 ($1,115) and £4,000 ($5,000), depending on their complexity and the time and effort that went into them.

For example, the portraits of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, required 6,000 nails, 1,200 meters of string and 250 hours of painstaking work, while that detailed string portrait of an elephant took the artist “only” 80 hours to complete.

I wasn’t able to find any information on the artistic process, but from the looks of it, but if I was to guess, I would say that he starts off by mapping the image he plans to recreate, then carefully nails thousands of nails into the blank canvas, and finally wraps pieces of string around those nails to recreate the image.

That obviously sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially since Koracevic’s artworks feature so many tiny details, like wrinkles and even the gleam in the protagonist’s eyes. It’s just incredible!

“I am a self taught string artist with a driven passion to push the boundaries of my imagination through the use of nails and string,” Ben Koracevic said. “Creating emotion and expression from this rare art form is a constant challenge. It motivates me to produce uniquely detailed art pieces that are consumed with hours of pride and enjoyment.”

Ben’s portfolio currently numbers eight stunning string artworks, but he’s already working on more complex pieces. To keep an eye on his progress at taking string art to a whole new level, make sure to follow him on Instagram. He already has over 10,000 fans there, but considering people get millions of followers for posting the most uninteresting things, that number seems absurdly small.

For more incredible string art, check out the works of Slovenian artist Sašo Krajnc, who creates detailed portraits by wrapping a single piece of string around a circular frame of nails.