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Talented artist turns 20 000 emojis into lifelike portraits of celebs

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PHOTO: YUNG JAKE – TRIPOLI GALLERY / CATERS NEWS / WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
PHOTO: YUNG JAKE – TRIPOLI GALLERY / CATERS NEWS / WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA

Cape Town - Thought emojis were only meant for text messages?

Well, this artist turned 20 000 emojis into amazing life-like portraits of celebrities including Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez, Leonardo DiCaprio and many more.

Yung Jake, from Los Angeles, spends between 30 minutes and a week turning emojis into facial details. Headphones morph into hairstyles and eggplants into expressions.

A post shared by jake (@yungjake) on


Yung, whose real name is Jake Patterson, has been constructing the rather unusual pieces for two years and has created everyone from Willow Smith, Kanye and Kim Kardashian West to Seinfeld and The Powerpuff Girls.

To produce one of his masterpieces he uses an image of the celebrity and combines emojis based on colour and subject matter to create the face and hair.

"My business partner Vince McKelvie created a web app emoji.ink and I just happened to be good at it so I did a bunch of celebrities," Yung says.

"I find a picture or take one of someone then I capture what I can with emojis using a mouse, I use the web app emoji.ink."

A post shared by jake (@yungjake) on

"I pick them [the emojis] based on shape, colour and content if it relates to the subject.”

A magnificent portrait of Leonardo DiCaprio was achieved using heart emojis, pigs, musical notes, thunderbolts and numerous other emoticons.

Yung has received "good" reactions to his art and says his favourite piece is The Powerpuff Girls.

"I selected people based on how famous they are and whether I follow them."

A post shared by jake (@yungjake) on


"I like the one I did of The Powerpuff Girls, it is minimal and pleasing to look at. I like that other people like them," he says.

comment emojis if u want more of these

A post shared by jake (@yungjake) on

Sources: Magazine Features

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