Make-Up Artist Spends Hours Transforming into Marvel and DC Comic Characters
By Tom Gillespie @TomGillespie1
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Videographer / Director: Argenis Pinal
Producer: Tom Gillespie, Nick Johnson
Editor: Sonia Estal
The gifted make-up artist spends around four hours transforming into Marvel characters including Spider-Man and Thor, as well as DC creations such as the Joker and Wonder Woman.
Argenis Pinal, from Pauma Valley in California, teaches hair and beauty at a college in nearby Temecula.
But it is his extra-curricular make-up activities that have made him a hit on social media.
In less than a year the 31-year-old has racked-up roughly 112,000 followers on Instagram.
His incredible creations have also attracted praise from celebrities including Chris Brown, Christina Milian, and skater Bam Margera.
However his proudest moment was when Stan Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, praised his work in a blog post.
Lee co-created some of the most iconic superheroes including Spider-Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and Iron Man.
Argenis said: "That was definitely a dream come true. I still can't believe it.
"He actually took the time to write something about my work and call me a hero.
"I guess right now the dream is to actually meet him in real life and have him sign the article which I am going to print and frame."
Argenis has been fascinated by comic book heroes since he was a child, and would fantasise about having super powers of his own.
It wasn't until he painted one of his students to look like Superman character Lois Lane, that he became inspired to start undergoing his own incredible transformations.
Since October last year Argenis has masked himself as the likes of Wolverine, Two-Face from Batman, and Thing from the Fantastic Four.
His ability to make himself look like female characters such as Harley Quinn from Batman, and superhero Scarlet Witch, has also stunned those who have seen his work.
One admirer even flew all the way from Australia so that Argenis could paint him as a Superman-meets-Cyborg crossover.
The make-up artist, who takes several hours to complete his works, said: "The least amount of time is two hours and that's the basic face painting, they have now progressively gotten a little longer.
'They've been taking more like four hours.
"But the longest I have ever done is my cyborg superman on my model Anthony Rufus who actually flew from Australia so I could paint him.
"That took me 11 hours.
"I feel like I could have still kept going, I really feel like it wasn't done. But I think that's something fascinating about my work, in that within each piece I am building and creating."