Art that’s good enough to eat: Incredible jelly bean portraits that each use more than 10,000 sweets
Channeling creativity can be hungry work, but at least these jelly bean artists know that if they get peckish - they have thousands of brightly coloured sweets to snack on.
Several jelly belly artists have spent hours painstakingly recreating iconic images using the colourful beans.
Malcom West, 52, from Hersham, Surrey, is the only accredited Jelly Belly artist in the UK and uses around 10,000 sweets on each creation.
Sweet siren: Pin-up Marilyn Monroe still manages to look glamorous even when she is made of sweets
Magic beans: Harry Potter reincarnated in a sweet form - Malcom West, from Hersham, Surrey, is the only accredited Jelly Belly artist in the UK
Mr West says that he treat every 'bean like a gem' and approaches each work of art in the same way.
'The process is the same for all the pictures. I develop a rough image and with that complete, I create a tight colour composition which becomes my guide for the mosaic.'
'I soak the beans in clear glue, wet the painting with more glue, and then slide the appropriately coloured beans into position,' he added.
He says that he mixes a variety of colours to create an 'impressionistic look' and uses all fifty official colours.
Royal touch: Mr West, created a royal wedding portrait of Prince William and his bride-to-be Kate Middleton - using a staggering 11,000 jelly beans
Jelly belly conviction: American wartime propaganda poster produced as an inspirational image to boost worker morale still looks just as striking when made out of sweets
Labour of love: Queen Elizabeth n her jelly belly finest. Mr West says creating the portraits can be a a 'very fiddly, messy process'
'The effect is very exciting. In the end, after about 6 weeks pretty full time work, I have a mosaic of Jelly Belly jelly beans.'
Last year he created a royal wedding portrait of Prince William and Kate Middleton - using a staggering 11,000 jelly beans.
Mr West, used a photograph, taken when the royal couple officially announced their engagement, as a reference.
He spent up to ten hours a day over a period of more than five weeks painstakingly sticking each sweet on to his extraordinary creation.
The mouth-watering masterpiece includes 15 different Jelly Belly flavours.
The work featured is a mix of Kristen Cummings, Malcom West and Roger Rocha's work.
Jelly Belly Art was the brainchild of San Francisco artist Peter Rocha, the self-proclaimed king of Jelly Belly art in 1982.
Girl With A Pearl Earring: This iconic painting was painstakingly recreated by artist Kristen Cumings
Mona Lisa: The famous painting has never looked so tasty
Silver screen tribute: Actor George Clooney was also given the sweet makeover
Bean creation: 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan
After President Reagan publicly expressed his fondness for Jelly Belly beans, artist Peter Rocha looked at them and impressed with the range and brilliance of the colors of the beans, he decided he could turn them into art.
He began with rough pencil drawings using photographs of the subjects.
He then painted a tight color composition and finished his unusual work by applying a mosaic of Jelly Belly beans.
The first portrait, appropriately of President Reagan, took Rocha over six months to complete as he painstakingly dipped each bean in the glue and placed it in a mosaic pattern.
He ultimately refined his process, developing a faster method and more polished look by preparing the beans in the trays, applying them in groups of colors and correctly placing the final beans with chopsticks or by hand.
Rocha retired in 2000 and his nephew Roger Rocha, took up the calling, creating 2002 portraits seen here of Queen Elizabeth II, the iconic Marilyn Monroe and George Clooney.
