Great artworks sometimes come in an unexpected form . A Chinese university professor has created a series of vivid portraits of well-known figures using tiny pieces of jeans , reported the People 's Daily Online . The largest of all , an image of a Buddha , measures two metres ( 6.6ft ) in height and comprises more than 10,000 pieces of denim . Wang Xiaolei , an associate professor at Wuhan Textile University , started creating what he calls ‘ denim paintings ’ after visiting a town in China in 2007 which specialised in processing off-cut cloth pieces but had a terrible effect on the surrounding environment in doing so . Creativity : Wang Xiaolei , working on a portrait of Audrey Hepburn , embarked on the unusual endeavour of 'painting ' with unwanted denim after witnessing how scrap cloth factories destroy the environment . Variety : Mr Wang 's paintings cover a wide range of figures from Chairman Mao to David Beckham ( centre ) Vividness : The professor 's interpretation of Zhang Yimo ( left ) , a famous Chinese film director , and Mo Yan ( right ) , a Nobel Prize-winning Chinese author . His interest was strengthen after an academic visit to the University of Manchester in 2008 , during which he learned more ways of recycling scrap cloth . Since then , Mr Wang has collected tens of thousands of old jeans for experimenting with his art . He says denim has a three-dimensional quality so it is easy to make shapes with . To make a portrait , he first cuts jeans into large pieces and separates these pieces into different colour shadings . Then he goes into a trail-and-error stage of setting out the outlines and establishing the different shades of colours of the particular picture , and this could take more than 100 alterations to get right . Fashion : Mr Wang 's unique style has created a trend among his students at Wuhan Textile University who regularly paint with him in the studio . In this picture , he is holding a portrait of Andy Lau , a renowned singer and actor from Hong Kong . Process : The professor first cuts jeans into large pieces and separates these pieces into different colour shadings , before creating artworks of figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio ( left ) Effort : To set the correct outlines and colour tones of a painting sometimes takes more than 100 alterations . Mr Wang creates portraits of a range of Chinese and international figures , including Chairman Mao , Fan Bingbing , David Beckham , Michael Jackson , Audrey Hepburn and Leonardo Dicaprio . His wife Taohui , who also collaborates on him with his ‘ denim painting ’ , says Mr Wang is so absorbed in his work that he spent one New Year ’ s eve in his studio . Extended periods of concentration on these denim collages , separating the cloth into almost identical shades of colour , has also resulted in his eyes almost always being bloodshot . Mr Wang ’ s hard work finally paid off when his paintings attracted the attention of a director of the Cultural University of Japan , who invited the denim warrior to hold an exhibition in Japan . He has also produced portraits for the eight invited guest speakers at the World Textile Conference last November . Devotion : Mr Wang 's wife says her husband is so absorbed in his work that he spent one New Year 's Eve in his studio . Landscape : Apart from portraits , Mr Wang also creates landscape pictures with denim such as the one pictured above . Home decor : Chairs have also had the denim treatment from Mr Wang .
Wang Xiaolei started ‘ denim paintings ’ in hope of protecting environment . His interest was strengthened after visiting the University of Manchester . Subjects range from Audrey Hepburn to David Beckham . A painting could contain 10,000 pieces of denim and take 6 months to make .