IS IT REAL?

A photorealistic acrylic painting of a crystal skull.

Silex (acrylic on canvas) - Jason De Graaf

Hyperrealism is an extension of photorealism, where artists endeavor to create a painting or sculpture that closely resembles a high-resolution photograph.

My background is in illustration.

So for me, the LINE is king. I learned how to use the “line” to suggest not only form but mood, lighting, shading, and depth. Line weight and tapers could suggest depth and lighting. Crosshatching and pointillism could suggest shading and texture. Color and painting techniques were quite honestly persona non-grata to me as so much of my art existence had been regulated to a prism of black and white. (And occasionally, the two or four-tone color pallet when making a screen print poster or t-shirt design.) I rejected the world of color for my art until I saw some photorealistic paintings.

My introduction to photorealistic paintings went something like this:

Portrait of a young woman with dark hair and green eyes.

Digital portrait - Iraki Nadar

INTERWEBS: Here is a painting.

ME: Whoa, nice photograph.

INTERWEBS: No, no, this is a painting.

ME: GTFO! How can this possibly be a painting? It looks so - real.

But ultimately, Interwebs was right, and I was completely dumbfounded!

I immediately started looking into more examples and researching techniques for creating hyper-photorealistic portraits, and my mind began to spin with possibilities. The most exciting thought was if I could master hyper-photorealism, then I could capture any scene out of my imagination and present it to a viewer as a “photograph.” It would be as if I could casually walk into the landscape of my mind, see an idea or thought, snap a picture, and slap the photograph down in front of you as if that idea was as real as a coffee mug in your hand.

There are tons of resources for learning photorealistic painting. Many top photorealism artists like Iraki Nadar share their techniques, either in behind-the-scene snippets of their process on their social media platforms or through their educational courses. As a digital artist, you can learn a lot from studying photorealism, especially when it comes to workflow, color, blending, and customizing brushes to achieve the effect you want. You will also learn that photorealistic portraits can take a long time to complete. You could reasonably be working on a piece for 60 hours or more with some hyper-photorealistic images taking an artist months to create.

A photorealistic painting of a table set with teapot and tarot cards.

Professor Calculus (acrylic on canvas) - Jason De Graaf

So then, what are the advantages of bringing photorealism to your art?

The biggest advantage that photorealism brings is the “Wow Factor.” There is something immediately captivating to viewers when they cannot immediately reconcile how an image looks so real when they know it isn’t. And ultimately, isn’t that what we want our art to do? Stop a viewer in their tracks, occupy their mind, and hold their attention? Photorealism is an excellent tool for accomplishing that. Even if the entire work isn’t photorealistic, you can also use it sparingly to significant effect as people marvel at how “real” her eyes look or how they can almost feel the softness of the satin of her dress. Use it to highlight aspects of your painting you want to draw attention to.

Notice how, in the next examples, French-Italian painter Charles Frédéric Joseph Soulacroix uses photorealism to draw your attention to the dresses and fabrics of his portraits while skimming over his human subjects as if they were a mere afterthought.

A painting of three women in elegant dresses having tea.

A painting of three elegantly dressed women sharing a bit of gossip.

A painting of a lavishly dressed woman reclining on a couch, reading a book.

The dresses and fabric are the real stars of these portraits and your attention is drawn to them simply because of how realistic they look.

HOW REAL IS TOO REAL?

A hyper-photorealistic portrait of flowers in a clear vase with earbuds on a table.

Lobelia (acrylic on canvas) - Jason De Graaf

But photorealism’s usefulness has its limitations.

My biggest issue with photorealism is why spend three months painting a photograph when it would take you less than a second to snap it? Go grab a camera. My first forays into photorealism were wildly unsatisfying. After all, I had spent so much time recreating a photograph that after the initial sense of achievement faded; I was left with a sense of dismay because it looked just like the photograph. If I had gone to Kinko’s and made a copy, it would have had the same effect, except I would have saved so much time.

A black and white photorealistic portrait created by Iraki Nadar.

Digital Painting by Iraqi Nadar

Also, photorealism doesn’t take full advantage of the medium of painting. Photography is bound by specific rules - the physics of light and color, the mechanics of lenses, and the anatomy of physical objects. As portrait and digital artists, we use these things as well, we should study and be overly familiar with them, but we are not bound by them! We can exaggerate and alter, bend and blend, shift and subvert, giving the viewer of our work a different experience than they could achieve with photography alone. I equate it to a singer who has developed this highly technical way of singing that sounds just like human speech. It may be an outstanding technical achievement, but it just sounds like people talking when there is such a more fantastic range of experiences a vocalist could offer.

Although I’m not a super fan of hyper-photorealism in painting, I still use photorealism techniques and photo-compositing to highlight the narrative or focus the viewer’s attention. And I still find hyperrealism very compelling in sculptures, like the work of Sam Jinks or Jamie Salmon.

An installation of hyperrealistic sculptures by Sam Jinks.

Installation of sculptures by Sam Jinks

Be Well. Question. And Create.

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How Photo-Realism Can Help and Hurt Your Art