Artist creates World Cup players' portraits by dribbling paint-covered football across giant canvas (6 PICS)

World Cup fans and art aficionados alike are getting a kick out of this: A Shaghai-based artist has created portraits of star players, using a soccer ball as her only painting utensil.

Armed with eight trays of paint and a large-scale canvas, ‘Red’ Hong Yi produced colorful renderings of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazil’s Neymar and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

Ms Yi posted a time-lapse video to YouTube June 10, which shows the artist deftly gliding the ball across the impressive piece and sheds light on her process: She first uses yellow pigment to outline the three players, before filling in their facial features and brightly hued jerseys.