Barcelona-based stylist and hairdresser Alexis Ferrer has spent years developing a technique that allows him to digitally print colorful design onto human hair.

Alexis Ferrer started experimenting with hair printing in 2012, after being asked by haircare brand Wella Professionals to interpret a collection at that year’s International Trend Vision Awards. The aim was to “was to innovate with a technique not usually used in hairdressing,” and photographic printing on hair seemed like the perfect way to graphically tell a story. Ferrer’s first attempt managed to get a lot of attention in the world of fashion, and he has been working on refining hair printing techniques ever since.

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Knee makeup isn’t really a thing, but a century ago it was the hottest trend in the beauty industry. It started out as knee rouging and eventually turned into full-on knee painting.

Fashion has always been a reflection of the spirit of the times, and the knee makeup and painting of the 1920s was no exception. The “flappers” were wearing skirts shorter than ever before (hemlines just under the knee were the ’20s version of a miniskirt), they were rolling down their stocking bellow the knee or giving up on them altogether, and knee rouging became just another way to attract attention to an area of the female body that had never been as visible before. Women of the generation had a number of blush formulas to choose from including cream, powder, and liquid formulas, which they used for an added “look at me” effect.

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Mostafa Khodeir, a talented young artist from Egypt, spends up to two months working on a single one of his ballpoint pen drawing, but the result of his labor is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The first time that 28-year-old Mostafa Khodeir saw hyper-realistic ballpoint pen drawings, he was speechless, even though, in hindsight, the skill level of the artist was pretty low. He decided to try it for himself, so he started practicing, and after a while he started producing some truly impressive material. Khodeir can spent up to two months on certain drawings, but the result are always impressive.

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Hand-made silk embroidery is a long-standing tradition in Vietnam, but the craft only recently reached its peak, when two artists – an embroider and a painter – decided to combine their skills and found the country’s most successful hand embroidery studio.

XQ Dalat was founded by Hoang Le Xuan, a talented artisan who inherited ancient embroidery techniques from her family, and her husband, painter Vo Van Quan. Together they came up with the concept of embroidered paintings and came up with new techniques to make it a reality. The unprecedented level of realism and detail displayed in the embroidered masterpieces of XQ Dalat catapulted the small family business to national and later, international success. Today, the company employs over 3,000 talented embroiders and caters to clients from all over the world.

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Sally Magdy Murad, is a young Egyptian artist who has adopted some rather unusual mediums to express her talents. She creates portraits of iconic Arab personalities using things like honey, chocolate, syrup and more.

While most of us were spending lockdowns binging on Netflix or just losing our minds from boredom, Egyptian artist Sally Magdy was experimenting with new ways to put her talents on display. During the long quarantine periods of last year, the 25-year-old started inventing her own painting tools for use with some special paints – honey, syrup, chocolate, jams, pomegranate juice, and more. As she experimented, Sally came up with new mediums to try, and her art gradually became more complex.

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It’s hard to believe, but the bag of potato chips you’re looking at right now isn’t real, it’s just an expertly drawn optical illusion.

Twitter user Shinoo (@ Shinoo_0215) has been getting a lot of attention this week thanks to his incredibly detailed color pencil drawings. Actually, calling his artworks “detailed” is a bit of an understatement, considering how life-like they look. Take the bag of potato chips bellow, if you didn’t know it was only a drawing, could you tell it apart from an actual, three-dimensional bag? Heck, I know it’s a drawing and I still can’t believe it.

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Italian artist Roberto Rizzo turns bland river stones into incredibly detailed artworks inspired by the animal kingdom. From mammals like cats and dogs, to birds and fish, there is almost no creature that Rizzo can’t turn a stone into.

Roberto Rizzo has always believed that stones have a soul, and using his mind’s eye and his talent as a painter, he has been able to turn stones into living artworks of sorts, by turning them into photo-realistic animals. He has been creating his beautiful painted stones since 1996, and is an expert at hunting for special stones that can be used as canvases for his art.

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Young Serbian artist Sanja Jankovic creates beautiful paintings by using various types of wine – red, white, rosé – instead of oil paint, watercolors or acrylics.

Sanja Jankovic has always tried turning things into art mediums, and after giving wine a go, she stuck with it. Not only did the end result look really cool, but the challenge of painting with wine was itself exciting. The talented artist was now limited to tones of red, pink and purple, but that only made things more interesting. The art form, which Jankovic has named “winerelle”, a play on ‘wine’ and ‘aquarelle’, is very unpredictable, as the wine continues to age on the canvas, so the artworks themselves develop over time.

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Inakadate, a nondescript village of around 7,000 people, located in Japan’s Aomori prefecture is considered the home of a rice field art form more elaborate than anywhere else in the world.

The story of Inakadate village as a world-renowned tourist destination began in the early 1990s, when local authorities realized that youths were moving to large urban centers in droves, and started brainstorming for ways of breathing new life into the village. One of the proposed ideas was an art form inspired by the local’s traditional rice cultivation, done by hand for hundreds of years. Called Tanbo Art (rice field art), it involved the use of different-color rice varieties to turn local rice fields into giant canvases for intricate designs that revealed their beauty when viewed from above.

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Japanese artist Kotetsu blends illustration photography and kirie (Japanese traditional paper cutting) to create beautiful works of art that bring anime heroines into the real world.

Instead of using ink or colored pencils to color the outfits of his illustrations, Kotetsu cuts out the paper canvas and juxtaposes his creations against various backdrops, thus letting Mother Nature do the coloring for him. The result is stunning, often-times bordering on breathtaking. From autumn foliage, and fields full of flowers, to picturesque sunsets and starry night skies, Kotetsu uses nature’s most beautiful elements to complete his artworks.

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Using embroidery and carving as techniques, Hilary Waters Fayle transforms plant leaves into delicate but intricate works of art.

Fabric or leather embroidery is hard enough as it is, but can you imagine practicing it on dried plant leaves and actually creating something beautiful? That’s exactly what Hilary Waters Fayle, a talented artist based in Richmond, Virginia, is capable of, using only leaves, a small needle, some thread and mountains of patience. Although, it seems simplistic in nature, her botanical art is truly awe-inspiring and carries a very deep message.

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Anna Zhirova is a self-taught food artist from Russia who specializes in hand-painting macarons to create unique edible works of art.

An architect by profession, Anna Zhirova came up with the idea of hand-painting macarons completely by accident, but she found the idea fascinating. She had been drawing for as long as she could remember, but the thought of decorating the tiny treats and creating designer macarons was very intriguing. Over time Anna developed both a technique to create the perfect canvas for her art, and the right consistency for the edible food dyes she uses.

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The Covid-19 lockdowns have had a very different effect on people. While the boredom made some depressed, it actually helped others discover hidden talents. Take Anna Chojnicka, who started creating adorable banana peel artworks.

To pass the time and keep her creative juices flowing, social entrepreneur Anna Chojnicka started experimenting with banana peel oxidation as an art medium. Instead of doodling on canvas or paper, she decided to simply bruise bananas with thin, blunt objects and let oxidation do the rest. The bruised peel becomes darker as the hours go by, revealing the design etched into it.

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Toronto-based art studio Falling in Sand specializes in detailed 2D and 3D sand artworks created by expertly layering colored sand in various transparent containers.

The story of Falling in Sand began in 2018 when artist James Sun started showcasing his early sand art on TikTok. His early work was far from perfect, but it was enough to attract attention and slowly build an audience. Today, the studio create all kinds of sand art, from portraits of celebrities and fictional characters, to beautiful sceneries, as well as custom commissions. They are all made by meticulously adding layers of colored sand on top of each other using a needle-like tool.

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Liz Joy-Murray, an ex-Hollywood art director turned food artist creates sugary masterpieces that look way too good to eat.

Looking at Liz Joy-Murray’ intricate pies, it’s hard to believe that she has only been creating food art for only three years. It all started when she had to take a break from her Hollywood career for health-related reasons. She had to fill her time somehow, and baking just stood out to her, only, being an artist at heart, Liz didn’t just settle for baking delicious treats, she decided to use her baked goods as canvases for her creative and vividly colored designs.

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