Italian pencil artist Marco Mazzoni‘s work goes far beyond technical perfection. His representation of historical healing women is enigmatic and sublime. Often leaving the eyes blank or covered with an abundance of birds, butterflies and flowers, he gives the impression of a deeper inward focused sight, as well as obscuring the identity of the individual. Many female healers in the past – both medicine woman and midwives – were brutally persecuted by religion, some even burnt as witches… Mazzoni’s work captures their deep connection with nature and their innate power and femininity with delicacy and beautiful detail.

Using acrylic paint, 19-year old Japanese student and artist Chooo-San has transformed the bodies of herself and a handful of lucky volunteers into ones that appear to be from another planet. Bored with technology, she wanted to see how far she could go with creating eye-catching illusions in the real world, rather than relying on programs like Photoshop.

SEE ALSO: «A frightening-realistic Body Art by Chooo-San»

Competitors take part in the International Medieval Combat Federation World Championships at Scone Palace on May 10, 2018 in Perth, Scotland. Thousands of visitors are expected to attend the crowning place of Scottish Kings, Scone Palace for the IMCF World Championships which has five hundred competitors and officials from all over the world, from the UK to as far afield as Australia, South Africa and Mexico. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

The worst drought in 40 years has a cruel grip on Somalia. A struggling young government and militant violence have compounded to bring crisis to 6.7 million lives. The town of Baidoa is facing some of the harshest conditions. Surrounded by territory controlled by al-Shabaab militants and amid ongoing attacks, 160,000 people have had to leave their farms and are surviving in camps where hunger, thirst and cholera await them. (Photo by Peter Caton/Mercy Corps)

Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian documentary photographer living in Paris. He has produced several books, and his work has been exhibited extensively around the world. His latest work, «Genesis», premieres at The Natural History Museum in London on April 11, on view through September 8, 2013. Photo: On South Georgia, a barren island in the far South Atlantic, a pair of southern elephant seal calves beckon before a colony of king penguins. “The male seals can grow to almost five tons,” says Salgado, “but these are just babies. This one looked at me with beautiful eyes”. (Photo by Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas/Contact Press Images)

A knife is seen beside a bowl containing blood after a ram was killed as a sacrifice in front of a shrine at the annual voodoo festival in Ouidah, Benin, January 10, 2016. In Ouidah, a small town and former slave port in the West African country of Benin, the annual voodoo festival gathers visitors from far and wide. It's a week that brings together priests and dignitaries, rich and poor, locals and visitors from as far afield as the Caribbean and France. The festival commemorates the estimated 60 million people who lost their homelands and their freedom during the African slave trade. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Mystical Forest. Tracey Jennings photographed this seven-gill shark in a kelp forest just off the shore of Simon's Town near Cape Town, South Africa. You don't need to travel far from cities to visit Narnia. This 7 gill shark was photographed in a kelp forest just off the shore of Simonstown near Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Tracey Jennings/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)