Frequently Asked Questions

Pintillism art is a unique visual and tactile 3D art form that fashions an image from an irregular distribution of pin nails shot into a board. Tones and textures are simulated by varying the density of nails, with higher densities corresponding to darker tones. Pintillism art is essentially the 3D analog of stippling or pointillism, which are traditional artistic methods for rendering images using dot patterns. Pintillism art uses headless pin nails instead of dots to produce stunning 3D artwork.

Wolberg Studio is inspired by the work of British artists David Foster and Marcus Levine. They leveraged the concept of image stippling and pointillism to produce beautiful works of art based exclusively on the use of nails. Each of their nail art pieces can take many weeks to complete as they utilize thousands of nails that are positioned free-hand without any tracing on the board. Not surprisingly, their gallery work commands high prices. We are motivated by the desire to lower the production cost of this stunning art form to make it accessible to a larger segment of consumers. George Wolberg pioneered a novel process to achieve cost savings by exploiting digital technology and a proprietary production technique to streamline design and manufacturing. All of our art is designed by hand and assembled one pin nail at a time with our customized hardware. Our proprietary process faciliates the production of Pintillism art at an unsurpassed level of detail.

George Wolberg's interest in Pintillism art stems from his fascination with Pointillism, which forms images through the use of many distinct dots. It is a product of the classic art form first developed by neo-Impressionist painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in the 1880s. The allure of Pointillism is that it distills images into primitive dot patterns, and challenges our brain to fuse them to perceive continuous tones. The economy of dots in Pointillism is a refreshing counterpoint to images marked by hyper-resolution and color vibrancy. Pointillism sits at the opposite end of the spectrum, allowing us to relish in its abstraction and in our interaction with the piece to explore meaning from multiple viewpoints and levels of resolution. Wolberg's use of pin nails to extrude flat dots into their 3D counterparts is a 21st century twist that allows us to add another dimension to the classic art form.

Wolberg Studio utilizes a two-stage system to produce Pintillism art. First, we remove the background from a color photograph and convert the foreground into a grayscale image. We then apply a stippling/pointillism process to convert that image into an irregular distribution of black dots. Tones are simulated by varying the densities of these dots. Their positions are collected to form a blueprint that specifies the locations of the bronze-colored nails on a white board. In the second stage, we use a nail gun to shoot nails into the board at each prescribed location of the blueprint. Premium 18"x24" and 22"x36" canvas-wrapped boards are used as the artwork substrate. All of our art is designed by hand and assembled one pin nail at a time with our customized hardware.

Pintilliism art resembles a dotted image when seen from a distance. As the artwork is approached more closely, the art comes to life as the viewer notices that the dots are actually thousands of pin nails that harmoniously coalesce to form the big picture. The viewer then appreciates the art over multiple distances, observing the forest (image) from the trees (nails) and the trees from the forest.

Pintillism art engages the viewer to observe this 3D art across a wide range of distances and angles, where lighting and shadows induce varying appearances. In addition, the self-occlusion of the pin nails makes the image appear darker and change tonality when viewed obliquely from the side. This ability to view the art differently across large distances and angles makes the viewing of Pintillism art a very visceral and active experience.

The number of pin nails varies based on the image and the board size. Generally, though, there are about 10,000 pin nails in the smaller 18"x24" boards, and about 20,000 pin nails in the larger 22"x36" boards. Multi-panel options are available upon request.

Pintillism art is normally a monochromatic abstraction of a photograph since all the pin nails have a single bronze color. However, it is possible to make the artwork available in color by modifying the background upon which the pin nails are applied. Please contact us for color options that may be available at an additional charge.

You can have us create Pintillism art directly from a digital photo (jpg) that you supply. To create custom art from your photo, select the "Upload photo" link to fill out a form and upload your jpg file. We will email you renderings of the Pintillism art for different sized boards. If you are satisfied with our simulated results, we will send you instructions to pay for the desired size so we can create your custom artwork and ship it within 1-2 weeks. Our artwork is available in two sizes: 18"x24" and 22"x36".

We offer a two-tier pricing model. Pintillism art made on 18"x24" boards cost $750, while 22"x36" boards cost $1300. Pintillism art at these two price points typically have around 10,000 and 20,000 pin nails, respectively. The unframed artwork is wired for hanging and ready to ship in 1-2 weeks.

"Pintilllism" is a fusion of two essential elements of our art: pin nails in the service of Pointillism. Our use of headless pin nails appear as points in our dotted art, which follows in the spirit of classic Pointillism.