LONDON.- Buckingham Palace has been lit up by thousands of self portraits by children from across the UK which have been projected on to the frontage of the palace to form a montage image of HM The Queen. Launched at by Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton, The Face Britain projections will run until Sat 21st April.

Face Britain is a unique project created by The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts and brought to life by PhotoBox to provide a platform to celebrate the nation’s children and young people in the lead up to HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, The London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Prince's Foundation for Children & the Arts is an educational charity established by HRH The Prince of Wales to enable disadvantaged young people to access and engage with professional arts. Face Britain is their most expansive project to-date.

Children aged 4-16 years of age were invited to produce their own self portraits, enabling them to explore their creativity and to consider their own identity and place in history as the 2012 generation. Portraits at all levels of skill, and in any medium were acceptable, including drawing, textiles, 3D, painting, graphics, and photography.

The Face Britain projections are powered by 24 video projectors, each with 20,000 lumens of power. The entire 110m x 25m frontage of Buckingham Palace is covered with animated images and effects. The image of The Queen is 15m x 10m and is duplicated throughout the projection cycle in a number of variations.

The projection has been created by artist Ross Ashton of The Projection Studio and is made possible by the generous support of Creative Technology. Ross' previous work includes HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee, the closing ceremony of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup and the London 2008 New Year's Eve celebrations.

As well as the projection on to Buckingham Palace the images are simultaneously being screened for 24 hours on BBC Big Screens in 18 public locations across the UK.

The montage image will be attempting to break the Guinness World Records title for the Most artists working on the same art installation – the current record is 28,267 artists who contributed to an installation in Israel in 2009. Following the projection of the montage onto Buckingham Palace, Guinness World Records officials will assess whether a new world record has been set.

The children's self portraits will be stored in perpetuity for the nation by the British Library.