Artist Paints Herself as the World Cup Trophy

The photo of a London artist who transformed herself into a human replica of the coveted World Cup trophy has gone viral on social media.

Posted on popular photo sharing website Imgur last Thursday, the stunning photo of Emma Allen’s face and hands covered in gold paint to mimic the design of the trophy has attracted over 600,000 views.

Former English professional soccer player Ian Wright, who is now a TV and radio personality, even made the image his Twitter profile picture and Tweeted the artist:


Allen, after hearing that many UK news outlets had reported on her work, expressed her excitement on Twitter.

“I’m over the moon to hear that the drivers at Morden depot refer to me as ‘that world cup face bird’,” she wrote yesterday.



The 33-year-old artist told NBC that the transformation took about two hours.

“I put a bald cap on, then painted all with a verity of golds and black, brown and white. The hardest bit is getting the green on the arms to line up in the final photo.”

She then connected her camera to her laptop to view the pose on her computer screen as she took the photo.

“The World Cup trophy is such an iconic symbol around the world so I wanted to try and see if I could represent it in a face paint."

After having trouble finding a model to paint and photograph, she took matters into her own hands.

“I have been trying to pursue friends to model for me for a while but I just kept offending people so I decided to buy a bald cap and have a go on myself,” she added.

All images courtesy Emma Allen. Twitter handle: @imakefings

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