Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands. The quirky collection of images were created using hand models and body paint to create visions of a castle, church, and two footballers flying into a tackle. London based photographer Ray Massey KNUCKLED down to capture the images with each of the designs each taking a day to paint and shoot with the help of hand artist Annie Ralli. Together they made a FIST of also bringing to life a pen and pencil pot, a ribbon, mosque and cute wildlife adaptations of a daisy and a ladybird. Each image sees the hands and fingers carefully crossed, bent, or partially hidden to the millimetre to cleverly angle the palms and digits into the lifelike images. The intricate detail was then painted on the shapes and blended in to create the illusions, including one creation that sees a hand arch down to appear to become a banana skin. In others a sporting trophy is created by two joined hands bending at the knuckles and two hands are cleverly pushed together to form what appears to be a cosy bed. Ray said professional hand models had to be used for the shoot because fingers are often so unattractive to look at. He said: "Hands are always particularly difficult to shoot, they are not pretty items, they're basically very ugly. "The benefit of a good hand model is not just having good hands, it is also important to be able to pose your hands. "So we had to employ professional hand models. Our biggest concern was to use proper body painting materials, in order not to damage their skin. "Most of the images took four to six hours to paint, the rest of the day is spent capturing images and the hand painting artist adjusting elements accordingly.
A BLIND man was battered with a brick in a sickening attack by two thugs .
A Romanian photographer has captured the unique patterns of hundreds of human eyes in a series of striking macro shots .
A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .
HEART-MELTING shots of a French bulldog and a ten-month-old French baby could be the cutest you’re likely to see .
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
An elegant snowy owl spreads her wings and glides effortlessly above the snow covered field .
With blue waves tumbling over them, these surfers glide underneath a tunnel of water .
An Indonesian farmer is dragged through muddy water as he clings to the tails of two charging cows .
EAGERLY BITING his nails, this little squirrel is clearly nervous of looming predators as he searches for his meal .
At least three people have been killed and more than 100 injured, some seriously, in two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon .
With the vivid red smoke billowing into the sky amid the misty sand dunes, these are the blissful views provided at the break of dawn at a volcano .
CARRYING a fully grown goat on his back, this five-year-old boy is a child shepherd in the mountains of northern Ethiopia .