The stunning pictures will make you do a double-take, but these are the masterpieces an artist has created – on her own face.

Ankita Debnath, 22, created the series of art features using her face as the canvas. Each design takes almost 5-7 hours to bring the look into life.

The 22-year-old girl from Dibrugarh has created ripples on social media platforms by painting various kinds of unique and innovative designs on her face. Her innovative face painting art is a skill that she learned during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Ankita in her leisure time used to practice the art daily, “I recreate the looks created by the well-known faceartists as well as the underrated ones, also get inspired from the pictures on Instagram and Pinterest. I observe those pictures and try to recreate them on my face. That’s how I have been doing it,” reveals the artist.

Debnath is a Zoology student who recently appeared for final semester exam in Bachelors, and has become popular especially among the youths on social media platforms by making paintings on her face.

When asked about the idea of painting, Ankita said, “It was absolutely unplanned. I always wanted to do it but never got the chance to try it because of the unavailability of the products and the lack of confidence in myself.”

“When I uploaded my first art back in March, people appreciated it much more than I expected and those appreciations and motivation helped me continue with this,” Ankita told TIME8.

Earlier, face painting was often viewed as a form of entertainment one finds at local fairs, carnivals, and other events where both children and adults are present. Although face painting does not have a strong tradition in fine art, however, professional artists and cosmologist’s ploy their trade for theatre and film productions where there is a strong tradition for face painting.

On the current scenario of face painting in Assam, Ankita said, “To be very honest, there was not much exposure to this art form before, here in Assam. But during the lockdown, I have seen people getting involved in faceart. People are gaining interest in this. I really hope this enthusiasm in the people continues in the future as well.”

At the initial stage Ankita started face art to check her bucket list and to experiment something new. But then she realized that there is much more to it. “I believe the best way of expression is through art. Most importantly it makes me very patient and satisfies my inner-self,” she explained.