Artist friends go viral on TikTok for realistic portraits made entirely out of dice
Some projects use as many as 300,000 dice and take 50-plus hours to build
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}You may be familiar with art forms such as painting, drawing, sculpting and photography, but have you seen art in the form of dice?
This is how two pals have chosen to display their work as seen on their viral TikTok account called Dice Ideas. They've garnered 1.8 million followers and as many as 1.4 billion searches along the way.
"Our aim was to create a fun project for ourselves during the 2020 COVID lockdown in the U.K.," Ben Hoblyn, co-creator of Dice Ideas and resident Derby, England, told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We started planning the concept and wanted to make much larger pieces," he added.
Hoblyn, 32, and his friend Ross Montgomery, also 32, said they draw inspiration from mosaic artists who select offbeat mediums to create art — including Rubik's Cubes, pennies and even smaller dice projects, Hoblyn told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ross Montgomery, left, and Ben Hoblyn, right, have attracted millions of viewers after going viral on TikTok for creating large portraits made entirely of dice. (Dice Ideas)
It became a major hit with thousands of views swelling to millions.
"Once we started sharing the pieces online, we felt inspired by people’s comments to create many more," Hoblyn said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The subjects Hoblyn and Montgomery focus on vary from Hollywood’s biggest stars to some of the world’s greatest athletes.
@diceideas Replying to @Ahmed Mido I hope you like it! Super excited to see Messi play in a few days at the Qatar World Cup. #GOAT #leomessi #messi #worldcup #qatar #qatar2022 #argentina #psg #legend #football #diceart #artist #fifa ♬ Einaudi: Experience - Ludovico Einaudi & Daniel Hope & I Virtuosi Italiani
Each individual design features thousands of dice and can take as many as 50-plus hours to complete over several weeks.
Hoblyn and Montgomery use the different faces of the dice to shade the subjects. A "six" is used for the lightest areas of the portrait and a "one" for the darkest areas.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The basis for each piece is grounded in their own creative ideas and passions along with whatever is relevant or popular at the time.
The dice-creating duo started creating pieces of art during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in the U.K. Today, they continue to make new pieces, which they share on their social media accounts. (Dice Ideas)
Dice Ideas videos have reached upwards of 45.5 million views on TikTok.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We hoped that we would be able to get some attention with our videos and possibly make a few commission sales. However, we never anticipated that we would reach millions with our content," Hoblyn said.
Dice Ideas hit one million followers in June 2022, a goal other content creators can only hope to achieve.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"These numbers are very difficult to really comprehend," said Hoblyn.
"However, it is worth saying that the view and follower count is not something that we specifically focus on."
Dice Ideas produced a large image of LeBron James, one of their icons, and a large tiger image that weighed 330 pounds. (Dice Ideas)
"Instead, we try to create better quality designs and content that we like ourselves, and hope that others feel the same," he added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Some favorite designs include a large portrait of LeBron James, the first design the duo every created.
Another piece that brings the duo great pride is their largest image today — a tiger that was created for a gym in London and measures 95 inches x 95 inches. It weighs around 330 pounds, Hoblyn said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While the viral attention is an exciting achievement, they continue to create and produce new art because they love it, they said.
Dice Ideas has already reached 1.8 million followers on TikTok and continues to grow as Hoblyn and Montgomery create new art out of dice. (Dice Ideas)
"The response from viewers has been incredible," said Hoblyn.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It has certainly made us believe that there are more opportunities out there to keep creating our dice artworks!" he said.