Detailed Illustrations Hidden Inside Normal Matchbooks

While most people don’t use matchbooks for anything other than lighting candles, cigarettes, or the occasional firework (YIPPEE!), one artist is using the matchbook as his own drawing pad.

What is it that you find in matchbooks? Well, aside from matches of course. You could possibly find a reminder to oneself, a phone number, or possibly a time, date, and hotel room to meet up at. (Oh, how scandalous!) The most kind of drawing you would see is possibly a stick figure or two, but not a recreation of popular portraits and drawings. But that is exactly what one artist is doing.

Expert miniaturist Jason D’Aquino loves to draw on small pieces of paper, so it makes sense that he would start drawing on the tiny matchbooks you get at gas stations and bars. And no, there are not just simple doodles you find in coloring books, but portraits of icons like Alfred Hitchcock and Jack Nicholson from “The Shining,” as well as famous pictures, including the Mona Lisa.

I don’t know about you, but I do not think I could recreate the Mona Lisa on a large canvas, let alone a matchbook that is mere inches. He utilizes high-magnification goggles in order to make beautiful recreations. D’Aquino loves the challenge of drawing on small items because he likes to see just how small he can make his pictures.

(Via: Oddity Central)

For more great art projects, check out Amazing Realistic Acrylic Body Painting and 8 Incredible Artworks of the Best Shows on TV.