Artist Paints 3D Illusions On Her Own Hand

When most people think about an artist, they think about someone who paints on a canvas. Iantha Naicker is a truly impressive artist but her canvas is a little different. She paints three-dimensional artwork on her left hand.

When Naicker is creating each piece of art, it takes time and patience. In the end, you see some incredible allusions, including the small panda wrapped around one of her fingers and a tiger sitting in the palm of her hand. They are amazingly realistic when she is finished.

The idea came when she wanted an alternative to using canvas. “I’m always looking for something new, something different, so I think I try to find material in everyday life that I can use-and nature is a big source of inspiration for me,” she reveals. But painting on her own hand is no easy feat. “It’s a little harder to sketch onto my palm because the surface is soft,” she explains. “So I’ll have a rough sketch on a piece of paper and use this to guide me.”

Even though there were challenges, she continues to create many different hand-painted characters and objects on her left hand. Each of them includes shadows and perspective that make it appear as if they are three-dimensional.

Naicker uses water-based paint and watercolor pencils to avoid skin irritation and allow the artwork to be washed from her hand with ease. She has also tried a number of other unusual surfaces in her experiments. “I enjoy testing out different surface textures-something soft like a palm compared to something bumpy like a piece of tree bark,” she explains. “But I also like working on different sized surfaces-for example, practicing getting the detail right on a really small seashell.”

You can see some of her hand paintings and the pictures below. You can also follow her on Facebook to see more of what she has to offer.

Each piece of art looks like a realistic three-dimensional creature on her hand.