I wasn’t sure what exactly this was that I was looking at.

At first I thought it was plain ol’ pointillism. Except… it’s not is it?

Squint. Look a little harder. It’s ants isn’t it! Isn’t it? No. It’s not. Oh, lord, are those… people?!?

See?

SEEEEEE?

However, no. You don’t see.

It fooled me.

I totally thought I was looking at some mass coordination-collaboration portrait-taking effort. I thought ‘it can be done!’ and chose to believe it despite my skepticism over anybody being able to find a massive, flat, neutral toned ground.

Skeptical, and naive. Until I noticed how many of these tiny figures appear to be in mid-motion. Wait a minute. How could these portraits turn out so well with soooo many moving people in them?

Answer. They CAN’T.

Those people in the picture above, they’re not people. They’re not little plastic figures either. They’re painted.

PAINTED! It’s a trompe l’oeil.
Did it fool you too? Because if it didn’t fool you too… I’d feel like a chump.

You can see more of Craig Alan’s fabulous artwork at craigalanart.com