Artist nails the perfect portrait - using tens of thousands of SCREWS

This artist could be accused of having a screw loose after spending the last two years drilling screws in attempt to nail the perfect portrait.

DIY Da Vinci Andrew Myers creates unique portraits of his friends and family by drilling everyday screws into planks of wood.

The 31-year-old artist spends over six months and uses up to ten thousand screws to create just one of his three-dimensional portraits.

Andrew Myers creates his unique portraits by drilling everyday screws into planks of wood

The Californian said he first came up with the idea while he was working at a church two years ago.

'I was doing bronze reliefs depicting the life of Saint Catherine and thought how cool would it be to create something entirely out of screws.

'I'd always wanted to work with screws, I got the idea and that was it, six months later I had completed my first piece.

To create the unique portraits, some of which are four foot tall, Andrew firstly spends weeks drilling holes into a piece of wood.

Each work of art requires between 8,000 and 10,000 screws and can take up to six months to complete

He then carefully drills in the screws, making sure each one is positioned correctly before painstakingly painting each screw head by hand.

'I do it from a photograph, but I also have to have to meet the subject in person first to make sure I get their facial features are just right.

'I can use between 8,000 and 10,000 screws per portrait and each one takes months to complete.

'I have created eight portraits in total, three large ones which measure 4Ft by 4Ft and five smaller ones that measure 2ft by 2ft.'

He has sold all five of the smaller portraits for $9,000 each and the larger pieces are set to fetch up to $35,000 each.

But despite the hefty price tag, Matthew said the portraits were not a big earner.

'Household screws are cheap if you need to hang a few pictures, but when you need to buy tens of thousands of them, the price soon adds up.

'This kind of art is unique enough that I have to keep going with it, but it's costs so much to create each piece, it's not as financially rewarding as you may think.

'They are more a labour of love.'

Andrews copies photographs in his work but insists on meeting his subjects to ensure he gets their facial features 'just right'