Published 13:36 IST, October 13th 2020
Russian 'string artist' designs stunning portraits using nails and threads; watch video
Russian artist Khlanta designed thread portraits of Chester Bennington and several other and shared his string art pieces on his Instagram handle.
Using only thread, an algorithm of billion calculations, and a complicated crisscrossing of threads hammered to nails on a plywood board, a Russian artist found inspiration out of the Linkin Park’s popular soundtrack Numb. Konstantin Khlanta designed thread portraits of Chester Bennington and several other artists and shared his string art pieces on his Instagram handle. The 27-year-old, from Tula in Russia, said that he started with Chester Bennington’s portrait to commemorate Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, “album that started it all”.
“I was working on this artwork for 30 hours and spent 150 grams of nails and 300 meters of thread,” the string artists said about one of the art pieces that he created of Linking Park’s lead vocalist, who died of suicide. Not just that, Khlanata designed several other singers and celebrities using varied coloured thread combinations and just nails, which included pieces of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Avril Lavigne, Joaquin Phoenix as Joker and 21’s hit singer-songwriter, Adele. His string art portraits were received with diligence and appreciation online, as Instagrammers called the pieces “mind-blowing” and enquired if he was willing to sell.
Khlanta pursued string art-making in February 2018 and mostly did art using nails and strings. In several footages that he shared, Khlanta can be seen creating artwork from scratch with a canvas board and threads calling the journey from “chaos to order”, adding, that with strings and nails, patience was the key ingredient to the designs.
“It starts with "Numb" video.I saw a sad girl thrown away from the world. She was pushed to pretend to be something she wasn't. She was drawing,” the string artist said, adding, “So I started to draw.” He further informed alongside Chester’s piece that every year he’d draw Chester's portrait just to see his skill getting better until eventually, he started hammering. “Do you have a muse?” a commenter asked.
Netizens laud the artwork
Khlanata even shared lyrical inspiration along with the footages of his art creation that stunned the Internet. Speaking to a UK’s Daily Mail the string artist revealed that the phase started when his house got burned down in April 2017 and with the death of his favourite artist Chester Bennington, he took to threading the marvellous artworks. He revealed that first, he designed a sketch, then created an outline by attaching nails, and finally weaved threads.
Updated 13:35 IST, October 13th 2020