A giant rendition of the Mona Lisa has been installed on Clapham Common in London after the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci was named the nation's favourite portrait.
The artwork was created from 83 individual self-portraits to mark the beginning of the Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year competition.
Artist Quentin Devine took a week to incorporate them all into the famous face.
The 5x7m canvas, 85 times bigger than the original, on display at the Louvre in Paris, is perched on a massive easel standing at 14m tall and weighing three tonnes. It is anchored by an extra 12 tonnes of ballast to prevent it from being blown away. It took two months to build and is the largest portrait ever displayed in Europe.
“Updating Da Vinci's masterpiece to a 21st century digital piece of art has been one of the largest-scale digital art projects I've worked on in my 13 years of being a multimedia artist,” said Devine. "It was a great challenge to combine the rich talents of the portrait artists competing for the accolade of Sky Arts Portrait of the Year."
The Portrait of the Year competition began on Tuesday. The winner will be commissioned by the British Library to paint writer Hilary Mantel for their permanent collection, while all four finalists will have their work displayed in the National Portrait Gallery.
