You've seen photomosaic posters in shops, in magazines, on television: artworks like the Mona Lisa, or portraits of celebrities, rendered as a single image made up of thousands of smaller photographs.

Have you ever wondered what your portrait could look like?

According to Wikipedia, Joseph Francis was the first to use this mosaic technique in 1993 - a modernised take on the 9th century art of micrography which utilises letters and symbols to create larger images - when he tiled photos to create a face. He was a brave man.

Having attempted this myself years ago, I can guarantee you that finding and tiling images manually is not a task to wish upon your worst enemy.

Was I successful? Back then, not a chance, but thanks to the ever-evolving internet, creating one of these complex masterpieces is a pixel of cake!

Visit the Image Mosaic Generator, upload your photo and magic: you have a photo mosaic! You can download it as a relatively large image to print and admire, preferably from a few steps back to appreciate the full effect of the tiny pictures blending in a hyperactive optical illusion.

Above: Before, on the left and a close-up of my eye, after.

The clever folks who created this fantastic little application use images from the photo sharing website, Flickr as the building blocks of the portrait, so on closer inspection you can expect to find plenty variety in the tiny pictures - portraits, to sunsets, to holiday snaps, to pets - hiddden in your features.

I was glad to see that everything from a bum and cleavage to a kitten and a swiss army knife had been used in mine.

Delight your friends and family with a totally cheapskate gift they will treasure forever. Give it a go!