2D or not 2D, that is the question! Incredible make-up turns models into paintings and drawings

A creative make-up artist has brought some of the world’s most famous works of art to life – by literally painting them onto human faces.
Rather than using oil and canvas, Valeriya Kutsan recreated iconic works by top artists Leonardo da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Piet Mondrian with face paint and make-up.
Through the clever use of bold colours and outlines, her creations appear to be two-dimensional.

Masterpiece to make-up: Creative make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan has recreated some of the world's most famous works of art, literally painting them onto models' faces

She created the designs by using bold colours to give the impression of bright paint on a canvas and outlined edges in thick black pen like a cartoon.
One model's skin was covered in small red dots and her hair was painted with a canary yellow colour to look like one of Lichtenstein's comics.

A play on dimensions: Bold colours and thick black outlines were used to make this model (right) look like one a cartoon from Roy Lichtenstein's comic-style artworks (left)

Time-consuming process: To complete each photograph, up to four hours was spent on make-up and up to five days in post-production

Canvas of a different kind: The make-up artist researched various images and spent up to four hours painting each model including this one (right), painted to recreate Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (left)

Another recreates Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece the Mona Lisa.
Others were covered in newspaper cuttings, lashings of watery paint and brush strokes to make them appear like 2D pictures.
Ms Valeriya began by researching the images and then spent up to four hours painting each model.
The stunning series of images are called ‘2D or not 2D’ and were taken by photographer Alexander Khoklov from Moscow.
Mr Khoklov, 31, said: ‘It was Valeriya's dream to make the project in the style of pop-art.

Artist dream: Ms Kutsan's dream was to create pop-art-inspired photo shoot using many different images, sketches and patterns

The human canvas: This model is painted to imitate an Angry Birds character from the popular video game franchise

‘Valeriya decided to use different techniques of make-up to create our own posters with model faces so even the Mona Lisa in our project is digitalized and looks modern.
‘First of all we began the shoot inspired by pop-art and Andy Warhol pictures, and after that we found a lot of creative pictures, images, sketches and patterns.
‘We worked with classical images of Roy Lichtenstein, Piet Mondrian and even Leonardo DaVinci.

Optical illusion: Ms Kutsan used paint and make-up to create make the models' faces seem two-dimensional

Devil in the detail: Each photograph took three steps according to photographer Alexander Khoklov - choosing the image, doing the make-up and transforming it in post-production

‘We also used the images of modern artists - for example the mask face is inspired by the imagery of Tom Lane.
‘There were three steps for each image, picture choosing, make-up and post-production.
‘It was a long process and took about two to four hours for each models' make-up and up to five days of post-production to make the pictures perfect.’

Real live art: The incredible series of images, photographed by Mr Khokhlov, is called '2D or not to 2D'

Max make-up: The models were covered in lashings of paint and make-up as well as newspaper to give the impression of a bright canvas

Caricatures alive: The green pig from Angry Birds (left) and Mickey Mouse (right) also feature among the series.