Pointillism: 15 striking examples of dot art

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Dot art (formally called pointillism) could bring many forms of art to mind but they would all have one thing in common - the dot. Many artists, graphic designers, photographers, and illustrators have experimented with the technique over the years; allowing it to become one of the most impressive art techniques there is.

Here, we've selected 15 striking examples of pointillism-based artwork. Some are more traditional whilst others have elaborated the technique to create something entirely new.

01. Georges Pierre Seurat

French Post-Impressionist painter Georges Pierre Seurat spent over two years creating his beautiful, and probably best-known, painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

An early example of pointilism, Seurat finished the piece, which is estimated to consist of approximately 3,456,000 dots, in the late 1880s.

02. Sakura Chrno

This beautiful Touch the Sun piece was a school project developed by Hungarian artist Sakura Chrno in just three days. The atmospheric image uses a simple colour palette, brought together by clusters of thousands of dots.

An eye-catching image, we love how the beautiful, silhouetted young girl stands out against a vibrant yellow, orange and red background.

03. Joe aka Casa-nova

At a quick glance, it'd be easy to mistake this image for a beautiful black and white photograph. But it's actually an amazing example of pointilism, created by Canadian-based artist Joe aka Casa-nova.

Featuring intricate detail, lighting and shadows, it's not hard to see why it took him roughly 50 hours to complete.

04. Róbert Oláh

Róbert Oláh is a 21-year-old student of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. And these illustrations are the result of him exploring typography meeting pointilism.

The project, titled 1018, features a dot art drawing in each of the four numbers, each depicting a different, complex scene.

05. Colin Williams

Student Colin Williams created this mind-blowing illustration as a project for his high school drawing class during sophomore year. There are no details online unfortunately as we wondered just how how long this piece took or how many dots it required to complete.

Originally published on his Behance portfolio, you can see the progression of this piece in a series of cool images posted by Williams.

06. Miguel Endara

Crafted by illustrator and artist Miguel Endara, Hero is composed of approximately 3.2 million black ink dots, using a single Sakura Pigma Micron pen (nib size 005, 0.20mm).

The total number of dots was determined by muliplying the average stippling speed of this piece, 4.25 dots per second, by the amount of time logged in, 210 hours. You can purchase this dot art here.

Watch this! The making of Hero:

07. Clare Ellis

Clare Ellis is a Liverpool based artist, who produces intricately detailed and striking pointillism art. Inspired by Australian aboriginal dot art work, she has adapted the 'dot painting' style to develop her own abstract designs.

Each of Clare's paintings are made using acrylic on canvas, with the dots producing a delicate texture, adding depth to the pointillism-inspired pieces. You can purchase Clare's paintings in her gallery.

08. Matt Booth

Matt Booth is a favourite here at Creative Bloq, having already been featured on our app Design Spring. Most - but not all - of Matt's work uses pointillism as its influence.

We fell in love with this skull glow poster that uses an array of dots to make up the image. The skull on this dot art print actually appears completely white until the lights go out! You can purchase the print, as well as some of Matt's other work on his site.

09. Damien Hirst

If you've had any sort of interest in the art world over the past few years, you'll be more than familiar with the work of Damien Hirst. Whether you're familiar with him because of a cow or shark sliced in half, or a diamond skull, there's no denying that he's one of Britain's most influential artists.

This exhibition was showcased back in January, with Damien and his team of assistants producing 1,500 dot art pieces. He has also gathered a team to produce a painting with one million dots that will take approximately nine years to complete. Phew!

10. Yayoi Kusama

How could we write up a post on pointillism and dot art without including the Queen of the polka dot herself, Yayoi Kusama? Ever since the 1960s, this dot-lovin' lady has become renowned for her innovative and inspirational work.

First conceived for children back in 2002, this project entitled 'Obliteration Room' was showcased in London's Tate Modern earlier this year. Over the course of a few weeks the room was transformed from a blank canvas into an explosion of colour, with thousands of spots stuck over every available surface.

11. Christian Faur

Artist Christian Faur created this piece entitled 'Experiement 5' back in 2008 using hand cast encaustic crayons. Using these crayons like pixels, he arranges thousands upon thousands of colorful handmade crayons into beautiful and elaborate works of art that allude to aspects of pointillism and digital photography.

He even created an e-book entitled 'A Book of Crayons' that allows the reader to enjoy both the sculptural and pictorial aspects of the work. They can interact with the photographs in the book in a way that mimics the gallery experience more closely than traditional print media.

12. Philip Karlberg

Photographer Philip Karlberg assignments take him all over the world. Among the commercial clients are Swarovski, Marc O’Polo, Kasthall, and NK, who have worked with Philip for nearly 
ten years. Among the editorial clients are Plaza, Wallpaper, Tush, Dansk, and Residence.

In this project, Philip used around 1200 sticks over a six day period to create these striking celebrity portraits. The other creations include Lady Gaga and Jackie O.

13. Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was born in 1958 in the east of Kirwirrkurra, Western Australia. He came to Kiwirrkurra with his family in 1984 and some claim that this family was to be one of the last Pintupi to make contact with modern Australia.

This is pointillism at its very heart. Warlimpirrnga's dot art is a very important testimony to the time-honored way of living and the beliefs that sustained the Aboriginal people for centuries.

14. JoKa

Philadelphia based artist JoKa prides himself on the technique he employs, which in this case is namely pointillism. He creates these stunning dot art works using toothpicks and a hell of a lot of patience.

This surrealist offering perfectly showcases Joka's warped view of the world, with its expressionistic undertones and conflicting imagery.

15. James Cochran

James Cochran or Jimmy C, was a huge part of the underground graffiti movement in Australia during the late 1980s. His interest in urban realist and figurative oil painting led to the development of his signature aerosol pointillist style; portraits or urban landscapes painted entirely from blobs of spray paint.

Although now living in London, James' pieces of art can be seen on walls, buildings, and murals around the globe.

Like this? Check these out!

• Street art your thing? Check out some cool examples here!
• Take a look at these brilliant examples of doodle art.

Have you seen any inspiring examples of dot art pointillism? Have you previously experimented with this style? Let us know in the comments box below!