Atlanta, Georgia-based artisan Rob Milam uses the technique of marquetry to produce beautiful works out of wood veneer. If you're not familiar with this craft, it's the creation of an image using natural woods as the medium. Pieces are first cut and later glued on a substrate; it's kind of like assembling a jigsaw puzzle.
Milam begins with a photograph and then uses Photoshop filters to create a simplified image that shows light and dark values. With it as his guide, he uses anywhere from four to 16 different types of wood veneers to hand produce the impressive portraits and landscapes.
Every type of wood has a distinctive grain and color, ranging from creamy white, to darker browns, and even black. Milam works with all of them. He'll sometimes accent his portraits with artificially-colored blue and green veneer as a way to place emphasis on a subject's eyes. This gives his pieces visual variety and depth in ways you wouldn't normally expect with wood.
Rob Milam website
via [Asylum Art]
