Planet Of The Apes Portraits Created With 57,000 Stainless Steel Ball Bearings.

Artist Joe Black doesn't monkey around when it comes to interesting mosaics. Known for his assemblages crafted from vintage badges, Lego bricks and plastic toy soldiers, he's used ball bearings to recreate two portraits of Cornelius and one of Zira, the monkeys played by Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter, respectively from Escape From Planet Of The Apes the third movie in the original movie franchise.





Mr. Black used 57,000 stainless steel ball bearings on black rubber mounted on aluminum to create his series of three portraits title "We Never Left":



Joe Black

Dot to Dot to Divine. Incredible Portraits by Thomas Pravitte.

Melbourne, Australia based illustrator, graphic designer, artist and typographer Thomas Pravitte dabbles in many unusual forms of art. One of his most impressive and unique projects is that of labor-intensive line drawings connected by thousands of dots.



Take a look at his dot-to dot Mona Lisa, which consisted of 6,239 dots and took over 9 hours to complete.




He sells limited edition prints of his Mona Lisa:

A time lapse video of the creation of his dot-to-dot Mona Lisa:


Do It Yourself Dot to Dot Portrait Templates
But here's what I really find fascinating. He has created and sells dot-to-dot templates that combine two related images in one. The dot to dot templates are color-coded in sets of 100 making them easier to follow and YOU actually complete the drawings yourself, seeing them unfold in first one portrait, and then two, topped off with your own signature.

Let me explain visually. We'll start with his Michael Jackson dot-to-dot portrait which combines the young Michael Jackson and the mature Michael Jackson so you can of what I am speaking.

Here is what the image looks like prior to any connecting of the dots:

Beginning to connect the dots:

and voila! First you get young Michael Jackson...

and then as you continue to draw,

a more mature Michael Jackson appears:

The sequence of the drawings:

The final portrait:


Monkey Jesus:
As you start, a monkey appears. Continue to draw and another image surfaces:

The sequence of the drawing:

And finally, Monkey Jesus!


Yes, You Can - Obama:

And the final portrait:


Buy these limited edition Do It yourself Dot to Dot portraits.

Don't Panic features an interview with Thomas Pravitte that you should check out here.

See all of Thomas' interesting work here on Behance.

Chimp-edited Surf Movie. Final Cut Pro Mastered By A Primate.

Final Cut Pro is so easy, even a chimp can use it. Case in point: This 'surfing' video was actually edited by JT the Chimp, who lives in a private sanctuary located on the outskirts of Modesto, CA. JT the chimp was given the controls of a Final Cut Pro edit system, and quickly mastered the editing process. He obviously favors quick cuts and ambient sounds.



Thanks to seabear video for the info and youtube video.

Monkeys And Dogs And Bears. Oh My! Jill Greenberg's Photos

Jill Greenberg's amazing animal portraits are so expressive, I simply had to share a few of her enormous series with you. I say 'enormous' because she literally has over 80 portraits of monkeys to her credit, 40 portraits of bears (Ursine) and tons of dog portraits. I wish I could have shared them all with you, but it'd take about an hour to download. So, instead, I've chosen a few of my favorites from her prolific series of work.

As you will see below, she gets more personality from the faces of animals than most photographers do from people.

Monkeys:







Dogs:





.. and this beautiful one is Jill's own dog, Scooter:


Bears:









If you love these shots as much as I do, you'll be happy to know that she has publications of both the Monkeys (available on Amazon) and The Bears (Ursine) available directly from the Clampart gallery which sells several of her stunning prints from the Ursine series as well.




Jill and friend:


How does she do it? Well, here you can read an interview with the photographer about her animal portraits by Rosecrans Baldwin for The Morning News

Jill is a hugely successful photographer who uses digital manipulation, illustration and more in her craft. She has shot a lot for the entertainment industry, fashion, celebrity portraits and more. She has won many industry awards and continues to expand her portfolio. Visit her website here.


Above: just some of Jill's work

Greenberg was born in 1967 in Montreal, Canada. She graduated in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design and moved to New York City, where she was based until 2000. She now lives in Los Angeles with her family.