Hyper realistic art is stunning for a variety of reasons: it pushes the limits of skill, it’s incredibly detailed, etc, but what really elevates the style is creating something in high definition that is even brighter and more detailed than possible in life. For the casual observer, however, it’s the dissonance between looking at something that must be a photograph, and realizing it was actually created by hand that makes it jaw-dropping.

Diego Fazio

Diego Fazio is an Italian artist whose careful portraiture is notable because his subjects are active. There are few things as tough to capture withe a pen or pencil as splashing water across a human subject, but Diego does it with excellent effect in Sensazioni, the piece on the left of these examples. The top right piece is Il Silenzio Del Dolore (English: The Silence of Pain), and the bottom right image is titled Come Il Vento (English: Like the Wind). According to Diego’s DeviantArt page, he began as a tattoo artist and then decided he preferred to draw bodies rather than draw on them. If there weren’t photos of Diego working on his pieces, it would be difficult to believe they were drawn by hand. Still can’t believe it? Check out the progression here, here, and here.

Dirk Dzimirsky

Dirk Dzimirsky is not playing around. When he wants to capture a moment, he captures every miniscule detail. One can look at Dirk’s collection here (warning, some images are NSFW). In Dirk’s artist statement, he discusses why he chooses drawing over painting. He notes that drawing allows him “to create many layers over layers of lines and dots which react to each other in order to create a vibrant texture with directions and movement” and argues that this layering makes his portraits more warm and alive than a photograph would. Picture above are four of his works. Clockwise from top left: Drawn Face VI 2009, Black Sun 2011, Frozen 2010, and Breath 2010.

Paul Cadden

Paul Cadden is a Scottish born hyper realist artist whose incredibly popular art is prized for its detail and subject matter. Cadden doesn’t shy away from the gritty, and uses subjects with an incredible amount of character. In describing hyper realism on his site, and how he draws based on photographs, he hits on a point that seems to be a lesson in hyper realism, that “the virtual image becomes the living image, an intensification of the normal.” All of Paul’s work can be found on his main site paulcadden.com (some of the portraits are nude, and possibly NSFW).

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These Arent Photos 28 Examples Of Hyper Realistic Art

Recreating absolute realism in paint typically takes time, tiny brushes and a quiet, well-lit work space. Those are three things that street artists don’t usually have at their disposal – and yet some of them manage to create large-scale paintings that look like they could be photographs. These 37 works of photorealistic street art by artists like Smug One, CASE, Mesa and MTO blend realism with stylized elements for creative results you just can’t capture with a camera alone.

Smug One

(images via: smug_one flickr)

British street artist Smug One is known for his incredibly detailed, photographic murals, including characters that a few comic book and Star Wars fans will recognize. Of his creative evolution, the artist told London Street Art Design, “At first it was just flat colour with a bold outline, and then I’d start cutting back that outline and making it perfect – then blending my colours and moving up and up and up, continually challenging myself. Even to this day, I think that photo realism is the hardest thing for me technically – letters are tough too because I’m never completely happy with the outlines, but every single time I do photo realism, it’s seriously challenging but then, I do love that drive to keep pushing myself.”

Mesa

(images via: el_messa flickr)

Graffiti artist and muralist Mesa of Barcelona, Spain is known for large, realistic, mostly black-and-white figures punctuated by bits of color. Mesa uses painterly brushstrokes to add detail to his human figures and animals.

Trans

(images via: fresh pictures gallery)

Some of artist Trans’ works are so incredibly photorealistic, it’s hard to believe that they were painted at all, let alone created with cans of spray paint. Trans’ talent really comes through in the eyes of his subjects, which are remarkably lifelike and nuanced.

El Mac

(images via: elmac.net)

Miles ‘Mac’ MacGregor combined the classic European painting that inspired him at a young age with the contemporary influences of graffiti and photorealism into a signature style that has led to commissioned murals around the world. El Mac often works with fellow artist Retna, juxtaposing his own representational figures with the latter’s typography and graphic design.

Mr. Dheo

(images via: mrdheo.com)

Bold, bright and graphic, Mr. Dheo’s works of art are impossible to pass on the street without giving them some notice. The Portuguese artist started painting after seeing some graffiti in a rap video. Opting not to get a formal art education, Dheo started experimenting on his own, gradually working up to photorealism. “For the last 7 years I’ve kept doing photorealism because it’s still something I find difficult,” he says. “I’ll move out of this phase when I feel it’s at the right level, in order to take the next step and do something new. I guess now I’m mixing everything I did previously into my art so I’m preparing new stuff and I hope I do well at it!”

MTO

(image via: fatcap)

MTO of Berlin has made a name for himself painting large-scale portraits of pop culture icons, primarily in grayscale. He did a series of movie characters in Berlin, including Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in The Shining, as well as a series of musical icons like Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles.

Pastel HeART

(images via: sa creative network)

An artist of many talents and mediums, South African ‘pastel heART’ works in graffiti, tattooing, digital illustrations, chalk art, fine art, photography, styling and fashion. His large-scale murals are noted for their striking realism.

CASE

(images via: sexyartcase.com)

German artist Andreas von Chrzanowski – better known as CASE – creates beautiful spray-painted murals with all the complexity of oil paintings. In fact, CASE often works in oils, displaying his art in galleries in Germany, the United States and the UK. A founding member of graffiti crew Ma’Claim, which combines stylized elements with realism, CASE lives and works in Frankfurt.

True artists don’t need anything fancy to make awe inspiring works. These ballpoint pen artists can come out with something that’s photo realistic and vibrant in color (or equally vibrant in contrast).

(Images via crookedbrains, oneplusinfinity)

These works look like heavily-filtered photographs, but they’re actually drawn by hand using simple ballpoint pens. Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas (pictured above with one of his works) has mastered the art of creating epic and realistic murals with one of the simplest materials. You can find more of his work here (some nsfw).

(Images via eatsleepdraw, helablog, huffingtonpost)

Amanda Ortiz has some truly epic artwork on her site, including this great ape showing his angry face. Portugal based attorney Samuel Silva creates gorgeous and colorful ballpoint pen artwork as a hobby. These two animals are based on photographs, and look almost too real to be true (but I promise, they are).

(Images via inspix, lifeartworks)

Artist Mark Powell uses nothing but a ballpoint pen and an envelope to do his art, and the choice of medium works incredibly well at giving it a transitive feel. Vanessa Prager’s “Love You Too” series is full of colorful pen pieces that illustrate a slightly abstract emotional landscape.

(Images via boingboing, crookedbrains)

Juan Francisco Casas was mentioned earlier in this post, but his work deserves further exploration. The camera man likely much prefers this portrait over the one he took with his camera, and Juan has done an amazing job at capturing every shade and wrinkle of these two girls.

(Images via jazjaz, steelturman, designfolio)

Arguably Samuel Silva’s most stunning work, this piece is based on the photograph of a fiery redhead and does her real justice. Dave Archambault created this piece of a young girl wearing a shawl and does a fantastic job at recreating the threads and folds of her headwear. Finishing up is an action shot by Juan Francisco Casas.

Beautiful photography, isn’t it? Except these aren’t photos. Welcome to the wonderful world of hyper realist art, where artists use incredible techniques to make photo-realistic paintings so realistic that it seems impossible they were painted by hand.

Yigel Ozeri

(Images via mymodernmet, bitsofteeniness, artlistpro, afewreviews)

Yigel Ozeri is a New York-based artist who loves painting young women, and the only way to tell these aren’t true photographs is by checking out the background, which is just too out of focus for your typical photo.

Stephen Shub

(Images via discoveredartists, frontiernet, discoveredartists, discoveredartists)

Stephen Shub loves cars, and while his paintings concentrate mainly on America’s classic vehicles, he also showcases his skill with intricate paintings of what seems like impossible complexity.

Simon Hennessey

(Images via likecool, thecuriousbrain)

Simon Hennessey concentrates on human faces, one of the most difficult subjects for hyper realist masters to tackle. Humans are hardwired to pick up details of other’s faces, so it’s a testament to Simon’s skill that he’s able to bypass our subconscious and trick it into believing his paintings are real.

Raphaella Spence

(Images via designyoutrust, fineartamerica, recave, zupi)

These images are not postcards from famous locations, they’re hand painted studies by Raphaella Spence, a master painter whose still life subjects are quite larger than most.

Mikel Glass

(Images via 9to6, artisticthings)

Mikel Glass does not always concentrate on the hyper realist aspects of a painting, though some of his works display an ability that puts him in the top tier of this style of artist.

Deborah Rubin

(Images via deborahrubin, artistsnetwork, rmichelson, springfieldmuseums)

Part of the fascination Deborah Rubin’s fans have with her work has to do with the fact that her hyper realist paintings are done using watercolor – a medium not well suited for incredibly accurate paintings.

Davis Cone

(Images via 163, artnet, wfreese, wfreese)

Davis Cones loves to capture every detail of remnants of America’s past. The vintage movie house on main street will be preserved through his paintings long after it’s replaced by a generic pharmacy.

Ron Mueck

(Images via brooklynmuseum, eklektz, rustylime)

Ron Mueck is unique in that his hyper realism is exhibited in sculpture. Imaging walking into a gallery and facing down an oversized human, and being unable to tell (without touching) that they’re fake. It’s a blessing that Ron tends to exaggerate features, or it would be easy to overlook his sculptures as just another person strolling through the gallery.