A single, unbroken sewing thread is wrapped around a grid of carefully placed galvanized nails to bring human faces to life in stunningly intricate detail. Artist Kumi Yamashita, best known for light and shadow art, has crafted a series of portraits just as beautifully wrought as any made with more conventional media.

Entitled ‘Constellation,’ for the visual effect of the nails and thread, the series is created on wooden panels painted solid white. Thousands of small silver nails are set into the wood, and Yamashita carefully winds the thread around them, sometimes using an entire spool for a single portrait.

Based in New York City, Yamashita was born in Japan and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Glasgow School of Art. The Constellation series continues Yamashita’s transformation of everyday materials into visually arresting images that challenge the way we perceive these items.

Annemarie Busschers is a contemporary artist from the Netherlands who creates portraits that beautifully captures the raw emotion of her subjects, often photorealistically.

Annemarie Busschers works, most of which can be found on her site here, follow similar themes of “saying goodbye to the self” (in the artist’s own words). Even when she’s setting out to to capture her subject’s emotion, the realism of her depiction gives it a photo realistic aspect. These examples show several self portraits (top right photo, and bottom).

This painting, via PulpFactor, is one of Annemarie Busscher’s earlier works, and an excellent example of the emotional realism that continues through her most recent portraits. The second image comes via Booooooom and gives a good perspective on the size of her canvases.

These Annemarie Busschers paintings are excellent examples of the amount of texture she attains with her artistry. The size of the canvas gives her room to create a landscape out of skin and facial features, creating an image that’s an incredibly clear treatment of her subject.

Found on entremundos and galeriebrandt, these pieces reveal the contrast between Annemarie’s treatments of different subjects. Each subject requires a different approach to capture their personality.

Annemarie Busschers has incredible talent that’s constantly evolving, but always sticks to one essence: that the subject will have their essence captured in whatever way serves them best.