Artist paints woman's entire body to make her look like a parrot

At first glance, this photo appears to show a parrot perching on a tree – sporting a curved beak, colourful feathers and a pointed tail. It looks like a simple painting of a parrot perched on a tree stump, but take a closer look and a whole different story begins to emerge.

But, in fact, it is a woman whose entire body has been cleverly painted to resemble the tropical bird. The figure atop the log is in fact a female model who has posed for body-painting supremo Johannes Stoetter.

The spectacular work of art was created by Johannes Stoetter, A former body-painting world champion, the Italian artist takes his inspiration from the natural world and has gained a reputation for creating eye-bending masterpieces.

His latest work is this intricate design that is so lifelike it is often mistaken for a real parrot.

Johannes spent weeks painstakingly working out how he could transform the female model into the colourful bird and took a further four hours to paint her using breathable ink.

The finished creation sees the model’s outstretched left leg become the parrot’s tail feathers, while her right leg and arm become its wings. Her left arm – wrapped around her head – forms the tropical bird’s head

The 35-year-old artist, who lives in Italy, spent four weeks painstakingly planning how he could transform the female model into a parrot. He took four hours to paint the woman’s body using special breathable paint – adding intricate detail, dark shading and even a bright green eye.

He then spent a further hour positioning her on a tree trump, before taking a series of photographs. The finished creation sees the model’s outstretched left leg become the parrot’s tail feathers, while her right leg and arm become its wings. And her left arm – wrapped around her head – forms the tropical bird’s head.

Mr Stoetter, who was crowned World Body Painting Champion in 2012, said he had chosen to position the model on a tree stump to enhance the ‘parrot’s’ life-like appearance.

‘Getting the scene set up took about five hours, then it took about another four hours to paint the model and an hour to get her position right,’ he said.

‘It was quite hard to take the photo, to tell the model how to pose to make the parrot seem as real as possible and also to find the right point of view for me to take the photo.

‘It was not easy for the model to hold the position either. The whole process took about four weeks from start to finish.’

Last year, he used five people to produce a life-like tree frog – painting their bodies and limbs to resemble the animal’s body, legs, arms and head.

The Frog Body Painting by Johannes Stötter

Artist paints woman's entire body to make her look like a parrot