Photorealistic paintings gained accelerated prominence during the recent years. But what actually is Photo-realism? It was refined from earlier expressionist techniques and gradually developed into a new stream of art which uses photographs to develop paintings that often compete with real photographs. This specialized stream of painting came into life in the late 1960s and many prominent artists joined this movement. This idea gained momentum with the wide acceptance of modernism.
It was considered to be the reproduction of “reality”. The photo-realistic paintings were also termed as hyper-realism and super-realism.
Style of Photo-realistic Paintings:
- The camera is the primary instrument used by a photorealistic artist. The information is collected from a photograph and it is the technical ability of the artist that creates the hyper-realistic work.
- Photo-realism is all about precision and technique.
- The image is transferred to the canvas either by traditional grid technique or other mechanical means.
Photo-realistic Artists:
Photorealistic painters includes first generation artists like Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings, Robert Bechtle and many other artists of this time. Some of the eminent photorealists of this era are Roberto Bernardi, Linda Bacon, Robert Neffson, Luigi Benedicenti, Predro campos, Gus Heinze and Alyssa Monks.
How To Paint Photorealistic Paintings:
If you are interested in photo-realistic art, the below tips may be for you! If you wish to paint photorealistically, you may can choose any of the mediums-oil paint, water-color, pastel or colored pencils.
- First make sure that you have all the materials required for the work.
- Next step is to transfer this photograph image to the canvas. For this step you can use the transferring paper, grid method or a projector.
- Finally apply your skills! (It demands a lot of time and patience). Photorealism is all about technique and finest details of painting.
NOTE – Some people criticize photorealistic paintings with this question ” Why not just take a photo?”. In their point of view, photorealistic paintings are just the mere copy of photographs and artistic creativity is not involved in such paintings. But there are a lot of people who support this style. According to them, these paintings are more real than real photographs.
Photorealistic Paintings
Check out some of the incredible photorealistic paintings here.It is quite hard to believe that the below images are paintings!!
Photorealistic food paintings of Luigi Benedicenti:
Luigi Benedicenti is an Italian photorealistic artist who created delicious and amazing paintings that surpassed the limits of reality. He is known for his food paintings that are packed with rich sense of real life food images.
Painting by Luigi Benedicenti
Painting by Luigi Benedicenti
Luigi-Benedicenti-painting
Photorealistic painting of Predro campos:
The below painting showcase the talent and technical skills of the photorealistic artist Predro Campos. This work is completely hand-made and the medium used is oil paint. Check out more works at : http://www.pedrocampos.net/
Photorealistic painting by predro campos
Photorealistic painting by Dru Blair:
Dru Blair is a talented and well-known photorealistic artist. The below portrait of Tica took around 75 hours to finish. He used the air brush technique and the stunning skin texture was created using eraser and color pencils. Check out his photorealistic paintings at http://www.drublair.com/
Photorealistic Painting by Dru Blair
photorealistic painting process-Dru Blair
Paintings by Yigal ozeri:
This Israeli photorealist is known for his oil portraits that brings the real sense of beauty and technique. Check out here for more hyper-realistic oil paintings of Yigal Ozeri.
Painting by Yigal ozeri
painting by Yigal Ozeri
Photorealist Yigal Ozeri at his studio
Hyper-realistic Paintings of Cheryl Kelley:
Cheryl Kelley is a Texas based artist who experiment with oil paints to create luxurious and elegant paintings of automobiles. Her works reflect a high-gloss finish and use of rich colors for dynamic compositions. For more paintings of Cheryl kelley, visit : http://www.cherylkelley.com/
painting by cheryl kelley
painting by Cheryl Kelley
Painting of Ralph Goings:
Painting by Ralph goings
If you know about other great photo-realistic paintings, please share them through comments.
The idea is not bad…. but the fact is that , creativity is limited in to a camera frame….
Yes, there is no creativity..but it involves great talent to reproduce the image as such!
Hard to believe some of these are paintings…add more paintings
It is hard to believe, but these are paintings that compete with original photographs..I will be updating the list soon..
Its new to me. Thanks for intrnducing
Why can’t you do a painting of a subject in front of you instead on a photo? A artist can see the elements more clear in reality then in a photo. All you are doing is copying from a photograph; a photo has limits but your 20/20 eye don’t.
Yes, you are right Jonathan. It is true that an artist can see beyond photographs. But here it is something about photo-realistic paintings. It also requires great technique and patience to create an exact copy of a photo.
Hi, since you say to copy exactly from photo, but a person that is real life, will how more element as you move closer or move farther. But photo have one element in time. For example, if see skin more close, can see subtile and light pattern, instead of one color for a whole, except shadow is one color as whole. Which I can see it is not real because shadow is one color. Can any medium cause all to be so real that you can’t tell it is real or photo?? I notice some photo that show shadow to have pattern than white one, which white one should have pattern, but shadow have no pattern but hard to see because of shadow. I did compare on my skin when I cover with my shadow, it is darker as not noticleable, but it is there. So, can any medium do that?? can a person with any medium to match exactly the same as real life in black and white and color?? I am sure black and white photo is harder because it have no pattern that you can see in color. It is more smooth and look more real. Know a person that can do that or various of person with different medium to do that on website?? Do a person draw or paint the real person in time, instead of photo?? Will it look real if that person do instead of photo?? As real life show more details?
Real stuffs will fail…. No words to describe such a talent….
مستحيل انا لا اصدق
I liked the last one
Amazing. it is hard to believe these are paintings !
My art can be seen at http://contemporary-artist.info. Be warned there is an extremely graphic and confronting photorealist painting of a suicide bomber somewhere in there
oooowwwwwwwwww..i cudnt evn imagine..
thank you very much… so great jop
hi there This is my new style and technique no body did it before i wish you will injoy it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIv-9AStFj8
Hi AlAstad,
I watched your video. It is really amazing and the technique is unique. Congratulations ! 🙂
You are a blessed artist…Thank you for visiting my blog.
Would like to see more of your artworks.
Check out:
http://www.simontaylorart.co.uk
for more photrealism
Hi,
Welcome to my blog!Thank you for the suggestion!