Cork wine caps "paintings"

I have no idea what you should use to put the corks on, other than whatever will hold them secure when you glue them. Make a shallow box the size you want your picture, maybe out of cardboard and arrange them into the picture you want. You can then take them out to secure them in their permanent home in the order you want them.

My thoughts were very similar to Nancy. I would build a frame, build your portrait within the frame work on a flat surface that can be left undisturbed, (think jigsaw puzzle), while not working on it.

I would find a picture of what you intend to make and take it to a graphic designer who can pixelate it, or if you have Adobe Photoshop do it yourself, and then send out for a large scale picture on paper. Glue the paper to your board and go for it matching the corks to the colors of the pixels. All photos are composed of pixels. There are photo banks online where you can buy photos of just about anything.

Any graphic software can pixelize a picture. You don't need a large scale picture. Printing out on regular 8 1/2 X 11 paper should work. Follow the picture and lay out the corks. Similar to drawing/printing a picture of a project I plan to make out of wood. I would use thin wood for the backing like lauan plywood.

I think wood is best as a canvas for cork. You will get a few ideas ideas from my paint chip portrait tutorial: http://birdzofafeather.ca/craft-rehab/paint-chip-portrait/