Fantastic Digital Circlism Portraits by Ben Heine

 

BEN HEINE (born June 12, 1983 in Abidjan, Ivory coast) is a Belgian multidisciplinary visual artist. He is best known for his original series “Pencil vs Camera“, “Digital Circlism” and “Flesh and Acrylic“.

DIGITAL CIRCLISM is a project Ben started in 2010 as well. It is somehow a synthesis of Pop Art and Pointillism. In this series, Ben usually makes portraits of celebrities with digital tools using only flat circles on a black background. Each circle has a single color and a single tone. “Trends Hunter”, the world’s largest trend community, said about “Digital Circlism”: “Through the use of graphic softwares and a whole lot of creativity, Ben Heine is able to create iconic faces from history and pop culture by drawing circles of various sizes and colors, in order to give them a dynamic and 3-dimensional appearance“. The artist stated he has been making portraits for over 15 years now but it wasn’t very long ago that he started developing this original technique. “As I’ve been working with digital tools recently, this came quite naturally, and I’m a big fan of Pop Art and Pointillism. “Digital Circlism” is a modern fusion of them“. Ben takes inspiration from several photographs, then creates a brand new photomontage or a rough digital painting and he finally begins the long process of placing circles on a black background using image editing softwares and using his digital sketches as references (it requires between 100 and 180 hours of work for one portrait). In the people he chooses to portray, Ben often opts for celebrities he likes or admires, mainly singers or musicians, such as Bob Marley, Freddie Mercury, Eminem, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Depp…

 

Maria Papaefstathiou

VISUAL DESIGNER since 1996 and blogger since 2010. Living in Athens, Greece. She has been focusing her research on poster design and particularly on social poster design and portrait design. Her main poster project is a series of posters celebrating great personalities of traditional and popular culture in Greece and Jamaica. These include actors, singers, musicians, poets etc. This is an ongoing project. “I believe that design is a powerful tool that we designers can use to spark enthusiasm, change mindsets and bring positive actions to our world and our culture”. FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF GRAPHICART-NEWS.COM BLOG. She carefully curates high-quality designs, illustrations, and art, from all over the world that will teach and provoke other designers. Many consider her blog to be an exceptional educational tool. CO-FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL REGGAE POSTER CONTEST which was launched on December 2011, partnering, the creative activist Michael Thompson aka Freestylee. (www.reggaepostercontest.com)

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