10 Stunning Artworks You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photographs

No matter if you appreciate art or not, some artists are so technically skilled that their work leaves you stunned and in awe. These days everyone thinks they can take a photo (although most are just Instagrammers), but not many can produce artwork so life like it could be mistaken for a photo.

Photorealism as an art movement only dates back to around the late 1960s and like most new art forms received a lot of criticism. Artists working from photographs was seen as cheating. Thankfully these attitudes have faded and artists no longer feel they need to hide their process.

Carla Grace painting using photos on her computer.

Cairns based artist Carla Grace produces hyper-realistic drawings and paintings mainly of wild animals, an obsession she’s had from a young age growing up in different parts of Africa. She begins by browsing the internet to find an image that matches the idea in her head. Sometimes she combines multiple images. She then contacts the photographers for their permission before starting to work directly from the photos.

“If I can’t see the detail, I can’t paint it,” Carla explains. The lengthy process of “getting to know” her subjects then follows taking on average “four days of me trying and failing with different colours until I get it right and then I spend the next six days painting with those colours”. No one could call Carla a cheat as she’s certainly not taking any shortcuts!

Below are 10 awe-inspiring artworks you won’t believe aren’t photos:

Lion Love by Carla GraceWatermelon by Anne-Marie Zanetti