Photo-realistic art is really on its own level in the art world. While some may ask what the point is when taking a picture is so much easier, to these artists the point is obvious: painstakingly creating a tiny piece of fiction that looks good enough to be fact is a feat of artistic talent. Is it really possible for an artist to recreate reality so perfectly? It is, and it’s the specialty of the artists below. Their skill is so great that sometimes, you just have to double-check to make sure their paintings really aren’t photographs.

Roberto Bernardi

Roberto Bernardi is an Italian artist who has been painting since he was a small child. After a stint as an art restorer and some time spent exploring his own personal style, he discovered photo-realism. The style struck a chord with him because of his strong perfectionist tendencies, and photorealism still allows him to express himself artistically while being precise. His biography sums up photo-realism beautifully: he calls it an “intense and spectacular” type of painting.

Maria Medina

Also experimental and curious about what she could create, Maria Medina has dabbled in several different types of art, from hat making to sculptural metalwork. Her photo-realistic oil paintings, though, capture a playful beauty that is truly spectacular. She’s able to imbue a sweet personality into even inanimate objects.

Doug Bloodworth

Influenced by Sunday comics, Mad Magazine, and BB guns, Doug Bloodworth uses inspiration from his own life to create his photo-realistic paintings. Every painting has a story, which the artist relates on his website. Bloodworth also paints murals on Lynx buses in Central Florida, and they are every bit as impressive as his smaller works.

Denis Minamora

Denis Minamora came by his photo-realistic style naturally. He was raised in a tradition of storytelling and pictographic art, and he calls upon that tradition to create his unbelievably realistic paintings. He combines watercolors, pen and ink, and chalk pastels to make vivid, intense and strikingly lovely pieces of fine art. Having an additional history as a photographer, Minamora is keenly aware of the subtle difference caused by perspective and lighting when viewing art. He has take that into account and uses those differences to enhance the realism of his paintings.

Rob Hefferan

The undeniable grace captured in Rob Hefferan’s portraits is a testament to his talent. The English artist does commercial work which is stunning, but his bridal portraits and other figure work are absolutely breathtaking. If it’s possible, they seem almost more realistic than photographs, displaying the living warmth of each of the subjects.

D.J. Hall

American artist D.J. Hall has gone through an incredible metamorphosis as her career has progressed. She has gone from painting smiling blond ladies of luxury to relaxing her subjects a bit more, letting their personalities shine through. She has said of her early work that she was reacting to a difficult childhood and re-enacting happy moments at her grandparents’ poolside, where everyone would smile widely for the camera. Her ultra-realistic paintings are almost heartbreaking in their sense of longing and loss hidden behind a sparkling facade. Hall continues to create, but her more recent paintings are more honest – though many still depict swimming pools, one of her favorite settings.

Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts grew up in Wales as the child of artists, and he followed in their footsteps to become a talented and well-recognized painter. But when he became a rock star with the band Sniff’n The Tears, he let painting fall to the side for a while. Regardless, his amazingly realistic paintings remain impressive enough to win him continued worldwide acclaim. His paintings have been described as being rather like uncomfortably realistic dreams, but the artist’s intention is simply to capture the energy of life on canvas.

Audrey Flack

Audrey Flack’s considerable talent can be seen in any of the multiple types of art she produces, but some of the most well-known and memorable is her photorealistic art. She was among the first to use this vivid style in the US in the 1960s, and her work remains today just as impressive as it was then. She continues to influence artists all around the world, and she currently lives in Long Island.

Gregory Thielker

The amazingly realistic art of Gregory Thielker manages to transport the viewer to another time and place. Look at his paintings and your mind inevitably drifts to a memorable rainy day, a drive through bad weather to see someone special, or a specific moment in time that is called up by these magnificent yet often gloomy images. His use of rain drops and weather to obscure the details of the background make his paintings seem all the more photographic in nature.

Antonio Capel

Antonio Capel portrays a brighter, softer type of photorealism. His subjects are varied and have included buildings, baskets of kittens, bullfighters and much else in between, but his most compelling works of art are his figures. Mostly women and young girls, their images are sweet, innocent, and intimate. The talented Spanish painter breathes a warmth into his paintings that few others can match.

Richard Estes

Richard Estes was one of the pioneers of the photorealism movement in the 1960s, and his timeless urban landscapes are still some of the most intricately detailed photorealistic paintings out there. After moving to New York City in 1956, he worked as a graphic artist for a decade before finally being able to support himself by creating art. Asked why they are so gritty and realistic (sometimes depressingly so), Estes has famously said of his paintings “I don’t enjoy looking at the things I paint, so why should you enjoy it?” .

Chuck Close

Chuck Close is another of the photorealism pioneers, and also one of the most amazing stories in the art world. In the 1960s and 1970s, he made a name for himself as an exceptionally talented photorealist artist, and he was known for using some unconventional techniques. He was paralyzed from the neck down by a rare spinal artery condition in 1988, but worked hard to regain some use of his limbs. He still paints using a paintbrush taped to his wrist, working in low-resolution grid squares to create paintings that are amazingly realistic at a distance.

Cees Penning

Holland-born artist Cees Penning was once a successful photo retoucher, but when digital photo retouching left him without a job, he began to focus on other types of work. He works now in several different fields but devotes his free time to painting in watercolors and oils. He says that he’s been an artist since kindergarten, and his oil painting is completely self-taught. His background as a photo retoucher has compelled him to create paintings that are as realistic as possible.

Alastair Lockwood

Frustration and artistic boredom nearly drove Alastair Lockwood to give up art completely. Luckily for everyone who has ever seen one of his incredible pieces of art, he was lured back to art by the creative drive within him. Today, he creates these amazing photorealistic colored pencil drawings, feeling the thrill of being his own boss and creating what he wants to create. His website is full of charming English self-deprecating humor as well as his own unique brand of photorealistic art.

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Remember going to birthday parties or the carnival as a child and getting your face painted? Face painting is fun and magical, and it lets us temporarily transform ourselves. You can be just about anything, from a fierce animal to a dainty fairy to a weird celebrity look-alike. Unfortunately, most of us stop getting our faces painting when we become adults. James Kuhn, however, picked up the habit as an adult – and ran with it.

James Kuhn has considered him an artist for his whole life, but it wasn’t until he grew up that he began painting his own face with a new theme every single day. He decided to do one new face painting a day for a year, in the vein of the other “365 days of self portraits” projects. He didn’t enjoy other 365 projects, saying they were self-indulgent or silly. So he decided to take another (arguably also silly) route by creating a masterpiece every day.

All of James’ paintings are done on himself, and he usually takes his own pictures as well. These are some of the most unique self-portraits ever, since he looks quite different in every one of them. If additional pieces are needed, he usually cuts them out of cardboard, paints them, and sticks them to his face as needed.

James is always looking for new inspiration for his creations. He has used everything from cartoon characters to his favorite foods to famous duos and groups, and everything in between. Some of the most amazing face portraits are those featuring two or more people. It’s fun to decipher how he divides up his existing facial features to create features for the characters.

His particular form of artistic body painting is just for fun, though his other artwork has been displayed in galleries. He believes that, overall, making money from art shouldn’t be an artist’s top priority; their goal should be to push through their fear and their conventional thinking to create something new and thought-provoking. His incredible face painting has gained him international attention, and he’s been featured on TV shows and in newspapers around the world.

The artist, who lives in Michigan, describes himself as a face paint illusionist, drag queen, performance artist, and full-time Christian. He’s recently been featured in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! picture book, and although the 365 days of self-portraits are over, he continues to create masterpieces on his own face. You can see many of his face paintings come to life on his YouTube channel.

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Barcodes may be a potent symbol of consumerism, but they aren’t just found on product packaging anymore. Whether imbued with meaning or merely appreciated for their visual impact, barcodes are turning up everywhere, from tattoos to graffiti to home décor. These 15 forms of barcode art take these ubiquitous black and white lines and make them fun, provocative and beautiful.

Product Barcodes Made Fun

(images via: Design Barcode)

The team at Design Barcode asked themselves, “Why has the barcode never changed?” That led to a flurry of amazingly creative ways to reinvent the ubiquitous set of black lines, helping companies add a little more personality to their valuable product real estate. They’ve created barcodes for major Japanese brands such as Suntory, Calbee, Wacoal and more.

Barcode Chandelier

(image via: SuperMobilet)

The transparent acrylic used as a base for this barcode chandelier light fixture from Super Mobilet makes it seem like it’s hovering overhead, like the specter of modern consumerism. The design was so popular, it sold out almost immediately.

Stop the Traffik – Barcode Billboard

(images via: Adland)

Another clever play on the barcode and all that it stands for is this billboard, designed by Leagas Delaney London for Stop the Traffik, a coalition working to stop human trafficking. It depicts silhouettes of human figures amid the bars, symbolizing the commoditization of human beings.

Art Lebedev Barcode Posters

(images via: Art Lebedev)

How many different ways can you portray a barcode using totally unrelated images? Russian design firm Art Lebedev creates posters that create their barcode logo using images like icicles, melons, columns on a building and even human eyelashes.

Barcode Portraits by Scott Blake

(images via: BarcodeArt.com)

Artist Scott Blake has truly turned the barcode into an art form, using it to create portraits of iconic pop culture figures like OJ Simpson, Charles Manson, Oprah and Jesus. He also creates barcode stencils that he calls ‘word paintings’, and barcode graffiti, like an image that simply says “Scott Blake was here.”

Of his barcode portraits, Blake says, “I started making art with barcodes right before Y2K, inspired by the year 2000 computer bug, and threatening digital apocalypse. Barcode Jesus was born in Photoshop, by creating mosaics with simple shapes. I first tried circles and then squares. The tile patterns morphed into a cluster of lines, and before I knew it, I was staring at a bunch of barcodes. I assigned the numbers to describe each pixel’s grayscale value and grid coordinate.”

Barcode Building in St. Petersburg, Russia

(images via: Best Top Design)

Russian architecture firm Vitruvius & Sons designed this bright red barcode building called Shtrikh Kod, which means ‘barcode’ in Russian. Located in a bleak, gray residential area on the banks of the Neva River, the ‘bars’ on the building are actually the shopping center’s windows.

Barcode Pedicure

(image via: Justin Shattuck)

With all of the barcode-related images and products out there, it’s not too surprising that someone thought to apply the design to a pedicure. It may not be high-concept, but it’s certainly creative.

Illuminated Barcode Sofa by Demuzz Designs

(image via: 2Modern)

Barcodes have even made their way into furniture design, with this sofa by Jason John Muscat of Demuzz Designs. Each individual bar is made from foam-covered plywood, fixed onto an acrylic platform with LED lights incorporated into the base.

Barcode Graffiti

(images via: Jan Timm, DevlBaby, a_kep)

Barcodes are a common theme in graffiti, but none are quite so well known and iconic as a Banksy design that depicts a leopard escaping a barcode cage. Barcodes are often used as jail bars in art, usually symbolizing slavery to consumer culture.

Barcode Tattoos

(images via: Jet City Orange)

The barcode is also an increasingly common motif in tattoos. Some have meaning and some don’t – well done barcode tattoos may actually scan, while others don’t have any inherent meaning other than the barcode itself. For those seeking something less permanent, barcode artist Scott Blake creates custom temporary tattoos using Code 128-style encryption.

From Barcodes to Abstract Art

(images via: Barcode Plantage)

Scan or key any barcode into the Barcode Plantage website, and you’ll not only get the details of the country of origin, manufacturer, product number and sum – you’ll also get an abstract work of art and a melody based on the bars. Barcode Plantage calls each design “a unique tree in the garden of globalization.”

The Barcode Plantage website explains, “Once a bar code is keyed or scanned in, the program sends a request to the database, which returns a master file data. This master file data is then analysed to define positions, curves and colours of Bezier curves of the tree structure. The number of these curves will vary correspondence to the number of figures in the code. Simultaneously, the user will hear a melody, which is based on the figures of the bar code.”

Photoshopped Barcode Art

(images via: FreakingNews)

Photoshop contest website FreakingNews.com challenged its artists to create barcode-based art to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the first barcode patent. Contest entrants incorporated barcodes into photos in various ways, from the strings of a harp to the stripes in the American flag.

Barcode Basketball Court

(images via: meophamman)

Playground, or prison yard? This London basketball court has had previous graffiti covered over by a giant barcode design on all of the walls, giving it a sense of incarceration.

Barcode Watch

(images via: TokyoFlash)

For those tired of having the time spelled out for them the traditional way, a barcode watch from TokyoFlash actually displays the time and date in barcode fashion with LED lights.

“The first two columns show hours; in column 1 each light equals 5 hours, in column 2 each light equals 1 hour. The second two columns show minutes; in column 3 each light equals 10 minutes, in column 4 each light equals 1 minute.”

Barcode Wall Sticker

(image via: Nest Living)

Fans of stark, high-contrast graphic design appreciate the barcode for its looks alone. This wall decal by Ferm Living might not have any deep meaning, but it looks pretty striking on a white surface.

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Unlike the human eye, the lens of a camera can’t judge spatial relationships, and photographs can only ever show a flat representation of a subject. But what happens when you take those flat, two-dimensional images and create three-dimensional sculpture?

South Korean artist Gwon Osang pioneered a new form of art called photographic sculpture with a series called ‘Deodorant Type’. For each sculpture, Gwon took hundreds of photographs of a single model and layered them over mannequins for a result that is sometimes true to the form of the model, and sometimes altogether different, veering into bizarre proportions.

Sometimes, the strangeness of the work reveals itself slowly, as you view one fragment at a time. But in others, the deviation from reality is evident – a man with two tiny heads on his shoulders, or two torsos attached to a single pelvis wrestling with each other.

As an art student, Gwon wanted to work in a medium that would be lightweight and easy to transport. He was experimenting with photography at the time and decided to blend the two, enjoying the way that the combination allowed him to form his subjects into unusual or downright impossible poses while maintaining that sheen of realism that the photos lend each sculpture.

“I often tell my acquaintances that I like the concept of ‘an artist sent from heaven’ or an artistic genius, but that I don’t believe in such,” Gwon said in an interview with Arario Gallery curator Ju-hyeon Lee.

“I believe there are two types of people, those that really do not believe in the existence of a genius and the other, only denying the existence of a genius to be modest (where in reality, they believe they are the ‘genius’). I think I belong to the latter case. Not to brag that I’m a fabulous artist, but to show that I have a certain conviction in my work..’”

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Amazingly, none of these beautiful pieces of art are photographs. They were all made with various methods, but all of them are part of the photorealism genre. The movement got its start in the US in the 1960s and 1970s, but since then, it’s taken on new forms. Some artists prefer to work in paints, some with computer graphics, and some use materials that are a little more unusual. Whatever media they use, these 10 artists elevate photorealism to new heights with their monumental talent.

Juan Francisco Casas

Believe it or not, these incredible pictures were all made with ballpoint pens. Juan Francisco Casas‘ ultra-realistic pen drawings have been causing double-takes all over the internet. Casas works on huge canvases, using nothing more than a blue Bic pen to recreate candid photos of playful young people. The Spanish artist has exhibited his remarkable art all over the world.

Dru Blair

This particular painting has been surrounded by controversy and disbelief as it’s made its way around the internet. It’s so realistic and so finely detailed that many people had trouble believing it is, in fact, a painting. But Dru Blair, the artist responsible, is a well-known photo-realistic artist. He began the piece for a class, but finished it later on his own. His amazing airbrush art has been featured in hundreds of advertisements, magazines and book covers. Aviation art is a favorite subject for the artist, and his first aviation painting, “Power,” is the highest selling aviation print in the world. If you’re interested in learning this style, Dru Blair runs the Blair School of Art in Blair, South Carolina.

Alyssa Monks

Alyssa Monks describes her work as portraying “simultaneous empathy and detachment,” which seems an accurate assessment. Her incredibly detailed oil paintings usually show unguarded moments, but with a certain amount of distance. Much of her work features water, which she renders perfectly. Monks is currently an instructor at both Montclair State University and and the New York Academy of Art.

Bert Monroy

After spending 20 years in the advertising industry, Bert Monroy ventured into digital art on his own. He has used pretty much every commercially available digital art program to experiment and create some unbelievably realistic pieces. When asked why he creates photo-realistic images rather than just, say, taking a picture, Monroy points out that the process is what thrills him, not necessarily the final product. Bert Monroy is an accomplished teacher, writer and lecturer, and part of the Photoshop Hall of Fame.

Eric Zener

Eric Zener creates worlds of gentle escapism, both for himself and for the viewer. While they do show very deliberate moments in time, they are infused with the temporarily carefree attitude we adopt when swimming, lazing in the sun, or simply resting for a moment. What’s even more incredible is that Zener’s art is created not with a camera, but with paint. The painstaking detail he puts into each and every painting perfectly balances the sweet, airy nature of the subjects.

David Kassan

David Kassan’s life-size paintings set the soft and vulnerable human form against gritty urban backgrounds to create images that are, according to the artist, both real and abstract. Kassan combines a tender look at the subject with a detachment that allows the viewer to make up their own mind about both the subject and the image as a whole. Though he cites many realists as inspiration, Kassan’s work has a singular aching beauty that is all his own.

Ralph Goings

Is there beauty in a crusty old ketchup bottle? What about a box of donuts or a tired old hot dog stand? Ralph Goings has been finding the beauty in everyday objects for more than 40 years. His unique brand of realism puts mundane objects into an extraordinary light by highlighting their every curve and corner, and examining the way the light plays on their surfaces. When Goings joined the photorealism movement of the 1960s and 1970s, he was pleased to note how much his art seemed to disturb some people who didn’t believe that his exceptionally realistic paintings were really art.

Wayne Forrest

Wayne Forrest, known to the DeviantArt community as GMesh, turns to the internet for inspiration. When he sees an image that catches his eye, he recreates it himself using programs like Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, Indesign, and Swift3D. Forrest began working with CG after his retirement from the Canadian military, and he has obviously dedicated himself to learning his art. His digital paintings show the level of work he has put into learning all about computer graphics.

Diego Gravinese

Diego Gravinese’s work is breathtaking, and not only because of its realism. His work displays a gentle understanding of his subjects, an intimacy that is infused with playfulness. The series of three paintings above show the process the Argentinian artist went through to arrive at a spectacular end product. His oil and acrylic paintings are definitely not to be missed; down to every last detail, they portray a level of care and amazing skill that are hard to find in modern painters.

Adam Beane

Though he doesn’t work in paint or computer graphics, Adam Beane’s work most definitely deserves a mention. The commercial sculptor uses his talents to create eerily realistic tiny versions of famous people, which are then used to make action figures. Looking at photographs of the unpainted sculptures in Beane’s hand feels like looking at creepy Photoshop jobs with Beane acting as the hand of God. What’s most amazing about his work is that he’s only been sculpting since 2002.

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