Remember plastic Perler beads from when you were a kid? Those brightly colored macaroni-shaped beads that you align on a little pegboard and then fuse together using an iron? They're Wisconsin-based artist Steve Moore's, aka PXL8R, material of choice. Moore creates Chuck Close-like photo-realistic portraits of celebrities like Steven Colbert, Tina Fey, Christopher Walken, and Snoop Dogg and sells them on Etsy. He'll also create your portrait if you ask him to.

I caught up with Moore to find out what inspired the project.

Wired: Why Perler beads?

Steve Moore: In the simplest terms, I work with Perler beads because I have a bad memory. As a result, the few things that I do remember from my childhood I tend to get pretty obsessive about. Perler beads were one of those memories, and as an adult, I was psyched to share them with my kids.

I started with a big bucket of mixed beads, and working alongside my kids, gradually began pushing the limits of what I could do. Now as a trade-off for my poor memory, I have a strong mind for color and patterns, which allowed me to push those limits pretty far.

The first portrait I ever made was of myself, so that if it was grossly terrible I wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings but my own. I went on to pixelate my family and friends, who strongly encouraged me to share my odd little art with the world.

Wired: What's your process like? Do you use a computer or is it all done by sight?

Moore: Most of my work is in custom orders, for which customers send me photos of their family, friends, pets, whoever. I take their photos and pixelate them digitally.

The real artistry comes in appropriately matching the digital pixel colors with the most appropriate bead colors, which is done largely by eye. The other piece of this art is time – these are labor-intensive, making it very difficult to produce a reasonably priced piece on which I can make more than minimum wage.

I do this because I love doing it, though, so just being able to share my work and support my art is good enough for me.

Wired: How long does it take you to complete a typical portrait?

Moore: At this point, one of my standard 11" x 11" portrait takes me about 3 to 4 hours to complete. I start to see shapes of colors, honestly most often in the form of chess moves – a knight's two-forward, one-sideways movement – and four-block Tetris pieces. These patterns seem to lend themselves to proper shading and dithering, which helps me to speed up my process. I imagine that the use of these shapes usually goes unnoticed, but if you look closely at my pieces, you'll find them.

__Wired:__Have any of the celebrities you've done portraits of bought one of your pieces?

__Moore:__I've not yet had any of my featured celebrities purchase their own portraits (that I know of). Larry David was the first celebrity I pixelated. He's an absolute genius, and I think that if he purchased his portrait from me, I could die a happy man.

To see more of Steve Moore's work, or to purchase a piece, visit his Etsy shop.
He's also created a video portfolio of custom orders to check out.