Artist Creates Impressive Portraits Using The Humble Kitchen Salt

Norway-based Croatian tattoo artist Dino Tomic creates beautiful drawings on large canvasses with salt, only to erase his works that takes hours, sometimes days to bring to life.

h/t: designtaxi

Rose made with Salt I have been experimenting lately with salt , where i did portraits, animals and mandalas – so i wanted to try out something different. Something with more layers and shadow/light variation. =) Like all the previous once ( at the first try ) i dont think i did a good job – but i do know what i did wrong and what i can do better =) Learning by doing is my favorite motto . You can read as much as you want and observe others while they work , but you will never gain as much experience as by just doing it yourself – and really finding out first hand whats happening and what you can improve.

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 30, 2016 at 7:40am PDT

“My wrist was hurting from so much drawing so I needed to take a break. I started with salt three weeks ago just to relax my wrist–because I only use my shoulder,” Tomic explained.

Horse made with SALT Im continuing my salt experimentation – and it really seems that you can do anything with salt – with some practice ( and many many years with art experience/ knowledge in the background hehe ) Lately i have been doing these gigantic salt mandalas on public places – was good to work alone in peace and quiet on a smaller scale again =) Like always i have filmed the whole process and will edit the video soon =) I know im writing always so much on most of my posts and i know not everyone is reading it ( those are the people who normally ask a question – wile the detailed answer is already provided in the description ) so lets see how many of you are reading what i write! Just for fun , write in the comment section your favorite vegetable haha ( that should really confuse all the non description readers ) XD

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 23, 2016 at 7:23am PDT

Horse made with kitchen SALT Here is the video of the whole process ( shorted down , a longer version is on youtube and FB ) =) I already have planned out next weeks large project , cant wait to start it Also the comments yesterday where hilarious haha , thank you all for making a comment vegetable salt XD

A video posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 24, 2016 at 7:56am PDT

Worlds largest salt mandala 3 days work 25 hours in total – gone in 10 seconds. The whole / longer video on my YouTube / Facebook page :) The whole project was done in the university HSN / Notodden / Norway – the place where i studied many years ago and the place where i have drawing courses now. =D They where so nice to provide me with a live stream , so that everyone could follow the whole process from start to finish. The whole live stream is still on youtube if anyone wants to see every boring ( unedited ) second of me playing with salt haha =D Im getting in touch with Guinness book of records to really confirm that this was the worlds larges salt mandala ( sand /or other color powders dont count in this category ) – it does seem it is =)

A video posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 20, 2016 at 7:59am PDT

Large Salt Mandala 4X4 meters I have just now finished my newest salt mandala creation. Started this yesterday and been working non stop. Now my neck and my head are completely destroyed. =D Today an awesome idea struck me – i realized that im painting with gravity. Sure im using salt as a medium but gravity is the most important tool that i have used on these salt projects =D This one was also done live among a lot of people – in the Tuven Center / Notodden. I dont think there where 2 sec where someone did not talk to me =D people everywhere – was most afraid of all the small kids running around =D ( dont worry i had a barrier around that i removed when we took the pic. This mandala will stand there until the 25 of May and then i will destroy it in a bit different and special way =D Have also a lot of in progress footage of this work that i would like to share with you =D

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 19, 2016 at 7:30am PDT

Live stream ! I'm live streaming the process of this salt mandala the whole day :) the link is on top of my Instagram page :) Drop by if you want to see the whole process live :)

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on May 10, 2016 at 1:05am PDT

Large Salt Tiger work The newest large work done only with kitchen salt =) Once again – this is the shorter video only for instagram =) if you want the whole video its on my youtube and instagram pages =D Wanted to do something a bit different – this is the first time i have done a animal portrait with only salt =D By far the easiest creation so far i would say =) As you probably know i have done many large painting of a large variety of large animals ( bot large and small format in all mediums ) love the feeling of creating stuff with different mediums – the image might be the same but the process and the mind set are completely different =D any good requests form you on what to do next ? =)

A video posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 25, 2016 at 8:11am PDT

Large Salt Tiger work The newest large work done only with kitchen salt =) Wanted to do something a bit different – this is the first time i have done a animal portrait with only salt =D By far the easiest creation so far i would say =) will share a video with you when i have edited it =D As you probably know i have done many large painting of a large variety of large animals ( bot large and small format in all mediums ) love the feeling of creating stuff with different mediums – the image might be the same but the process and the mind set are completely different =D any good requests form you on what to do next ? =)

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 24, 2016 at 8:42am PDT

Salt Portraits of the Game of Thrones cast Here is the newest large salt creation from me =) Last time i did 1 portrait with salt so i figured why not make 5 this time =D This took me way more than expected , and it was also a lot harder then the previous one. The biggest problem i had was when i would finished the first portrait and start on the second one and than go back to the first one to retouch some parts, the second one would be in the way. Also the smaller you make them the harder it gets to work with salt – its really not a fine medium to work with =) By now im sure you all know what happens at the end of a salt drawing like this ;) and yes i once again have a video of the whole process + the removal of all portraits =) Will start editing the video when i get some spare time =) right now im working a lot on the prints that you will be able to buy – if all falls into place the first one should be out for sale tomorrow =D I know i dont show a lot of teaser of all of my work ( like many other do ) , but thats why i have snapchat ;)

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 19, 2016 at 7:15am PDT

Progress with Salt :) Just a tiny teaser on what I have been working on :) still a lot more to do :) stay tuned for the finished pic :)

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 18, 2016 at 3:39am PDT

Daenerys Salt portrait The whole portrait here was done using nothing else but normal kitchen salt! =) This is the very first time im doing a portrait with salt ( this is my third salt creation -did two large mandalas last week ) Really interesting and fun medium to work with . It really resembles airbrushing ( i was working with airbrush about 5 years ago ) so it was really not that hard to get into the salt =D After i crafted a few tools to help me distribute salt , things where way easier to work with =D I also have a video from start to finish of this project that i will share with you soon =) As wee all know GoT is starting again in a few days – and the internet will be flooded with fan made artwork – ( like every year ) so let me be one of the first once this year =D

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 11, 2016 at 7:12am PDT

Large Salt Mandala Today i was playing around with salt on a black surface – wanted to do something new and experiment with unknown mediums =) This right here was my very first attempt at using salt to create art. It took me about 1h and 40 min to do this – and in just that short time i have learned a lot that i will take with me to my next – far more intricate piece that i will do with salt . I need to create better tools on distributing salt in larger and smaller quantities =) ( and find a way how to make perfect circles. I filmed the whole process ( time lapse ) but i will not publish it , because im not really happy with the outcome of this experiment . Lets hope the next one will look better =)

A photo posted by Dino Tomic (@dinotomic) on Apr 2, 2016 at 7:30am PDT