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Drawing of an Eye Created with Salt Has a Realistic Reveal When Colors Are Inverted

Artist Dino Tomic creates detailed drawings using a material that’s a staple of any cupboard: table salt. Filling a plastic squirt bottle with the ubiquitous granular substance, he gets down on his hands and knees to form an eye and eyebrow on a giant piece of black paper. Tomic varies the amount of salt he applies, giving his artwork a balance of light and dark areas as well as a sense of realism. Considering how unpredictable salt granules can be, his attention to detail and ability to control the material is nothing short of impressive.

After Tomic finished creating the eye, he snapped a photo and applied a special effect that completely transforms how we view the image. Using manipulation software, he inverted all of the colors, which reversed what was black and what was white. This has a profound impact on the picture, and it suddenly looks like a graphite drawing rather than one made from salt.

Watch the making of this incredible piece, below.

Tomic has created other detailed works using salt:

Dino Tomic: DevinArt | YouTube | Etsy | Facebook

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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