Nonpareil Pet Portrait. One Sweet Beagle Made of 221,184 Colored Sprinkles.

Nonpareil Pet Portrait

What began as a university fine arts project on Pointillism and Georges Seurat by student Joel Brochu, evolved into a remarkable artistic idea.

The Nonpareil Pet Portrait

beagle portrait made of sprinkles

What looks like an image of a beagle getting a bath (above) is actually a 4’ by 1 ½’ high definition photograph covered in 221,184 nonpareil sprinkles, each placed painstakingly by hand.

beagle candy portrait close-up

At a distance of 16 feet, the sprinkles blur, tricking the human eye into believing that it is looking at a large photograph. Only when you closely examine the work do you realize that it has been created entirely with tiny spheres of rainbow nonpareils.

colored non-pareils

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

Meticulously placed by hand using jewelry tweezers, the sprinkles adhere to the board with the help of double sided tape and a thin layer of glue.

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

beagle portrait made of candly sprinkles, detail

Using only 6 colors of sprinkles (Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Black, and White), a myriad of hues was created.

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

beagle portrait made of candy nonpareils, detail

Joel used a customized computer program, in which a template was created from the original image which guided the placement of each sprinkle. Taking just under 8 months to complete, once finished, it was permanently preserved with a clear acrylic resin.

Sweet, huh?

A big shoutout to Betsy Wills and her wonderful blog, Artstormer, for bringing this unique piece to my attention. Most images courtesy of Joel Brochu