Pointillize with processing.org

pointillize.pde.java

PImage img;	
int iterations = 0;

void setup() {
  img = loadImage("me-small.jpg");
  size(img.width,img.height);
  smooth();
}

void draw() {  
  pointillize(16);
  pointillize(8);
  pointillize(4);
  pointillize(1);
  screenshot(500);
}

void pointillize(int _size) {  
  int x = int(random(img.width));
  int y = int(random(img.height));
  int loc = x + y*img.width;
  
  int any_pixel = img.pixels[loc];
  
  loadPixels();
  
  float r = red(any_pixel);
  float g = green(any_pixel);
  float b = blue(any_pixel);
  
  noStroke();
  
  fill(r,g,b,100);
  ellipse(x,y,_size,_size);
}

void screenshot(int every) {  
  if (iterations++ % every == 0) {
    saveFrame("out/" + iterations + ".png");
  }
}

Trim your image to size with ImageMagick:

$ convert me.jpg -resize 10% -auto-orient me-small.jpg

And then to make a gif:

$ convert `ls *.png | sort -n` -delay 55 can-you-see-what-it-is-yet.gif