Extreme photorealism: Nope, that is not a photo!

Believe it or not, the image above is not a photograph of a woman. In fact, it is a painting done by artist Dru Blair.

Working a maximum total of 75 hours, Dru describes his technique and process in the following way:

Detail of final painting showing skin texture. Subtle nuances created by an xacto knife, an eraser, and some colored pencil can build convincing skin texture. The etcetera technique also helps the believability of the skin and hair texture. Fine hair is created using my shield-reveal technique, and my split frisket technique. Airbrush constitutes about 99% of the image.

Man! If you look at the large image it’s hard even up close to tell that it’s not a photo. This is simply amazing work and the process in which it was completed is so fascinated to read through. No doubt about it, this is the most realistic painting I’ve ever seen.