You may think you’re seeing a frog–but in fact you’re seeing five human beings, painted and intertwined to create an incredible art illusion by Italian artist Johannes Stoetter.
Inspired by nature, Italian artist Johannes Stoetter turns living models into animals, fruits, flowers, or blends them with the surroundings. These impressively detailed paintings take up to five months of thorough planning and up to eight hours of work to complete. The winner of the World Bodypainting Championship says that the key to success is to love what you’re doing: “I think I observe the world, nature, colors and shapes with very clear eyes and an open heart. And painting is my big passion.”
Johannes Stoetter body painting art video
You’ll have to look really close at this picture of a beautiful parrot to realize that it’s not a parrot at all. The rich red-and-gold plumes are, in fact, a woman’s limbs painted to perfection. The incredibly clever photograph is the work of 35-year-old body painter Johannes Stoetter.
Body paint artist Johannes Stoetter finished painting of human being to looking like parrot
The artist, who lives in Italy, spent four long weeks planning the transformation of a female model into a hauntingly realistic parrot. The actual painting work took him about four hours to complete and he spent another hour positioning the model on a tree stump before clicking a series of photographs.
Body paint artist Johannes Stoetter painting human being to look like parrot
Stoetter’s photographs form the perfect illusion. But if you observe carefully, the head of the parrot is actually the woman’s left arm wrapped around her head.
Body paint artist Johannes Stoetter makes stunning leaf creations from human beings
The wings are formed by her right leg and arm, while her outstretched left leg is made to resemble the tail. Stoetter said that he chose to have the model sit on a tree stump to enhance the life-like appearance. As you can imagine, the entire process was quite complicated and painstaking.
“It was quite hard to take the photo, to tell the model how to pose to make the parrot seem as real as possible and also to find the right point of view for me to take the photo,” said Stoetter. “It was not easy for the model to hold the position either. The whole process took about four weeks from start to finish.”
Body paint creatures Body paint artist Johannes Stoetter makes stunning animal creations chameleon
Although it was tiresome, the artist said that it is immensely satisfying, especially when people compliment him for a nice picture of a parrot.
Fish – Body paint artist Johannes Stoetter makes stunning animal creations from human beings
“I feel very happy with the final work. Most people’s reactions are ‘nice photo of a parrot, where did you photograph it?’” Stoetter said that even some of his closest friends who are familiar with his art could not tell the difference. “When they found out, they were really amazed, stunned and surprised.”
