Can you believe that these portraits are NOT photographs?

These realistic-looking images produced by a young Spanish artist are so lifelike, you’ll forget that they are paintings.

03/02/13 25,211 Views 41 Comments

A PICTURE IS worth 1,000 words, but the pieces by young artist Rubén Belloso Adorna may be worth even more than that.

Born in Seville, Spain, Belloso is trained in the fine arts from the University of Seville. His primary medium is pastels, and now his name is becoming legendary in the art world for his realistic-looking portraits of both real and fictional characters in a style of art known as hyper-realism.

Belloso, who also teaches classes on how to work with pastels, shared some of his beautiful masterpieces with us. They’re so lifelike, you might forget they’re only drawings.

Can you believe that these portraits are NOT photographs?

Previous 1 / 5Next

Elia Vazquez Diaz, Belloso's maternal grandmother
'Estudio Portugal 4' - based on a photo by Javier Pardo
"Heroes cotidiano" (Daily heroes) - realities of immigration
"Lobo del mar" (Sea dog)
"Olvido" (Forgotten)

- Melissa Stanger

Already a fan? Connect below...

Get breaking news from TheJournal.ie via Facebook.
Just click Like.

Short URL

Published with permission from:

Business Insider

Business Insider is a business site with strong financial, media and tech focus.

See more articles by Business Insider

Contribute to this story:

Comments (41 Comments)

Ordered By: Popularity

Popularity Date

Leave a comment

Richard Griffin 03/02/13 #

5 309

Superb

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Stephen Ennis 03/02/13 #

5 210

Incredible pieces of work, truly talented !

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Ted Power 03/02/13 #

5 109

Artistic mastery.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Andrew Telford 03/02/13 #

14 180

Amazing… It’s slobbering to be reminded what a human is capable of in a world where we are spoilt with computer generated images

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Kieran Harvey 03/02/13 #
  
  9 144
  
  Make sure you tidy yourself up now after all that slobber. :-P
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Paddy McGowan 03/02/13 #
  
  44 68
  
  You completely misunderstand how much artistic skill is required to generate cgi, you dont just hit a button and get a dino ya know.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- cholly appleseed 03/02/13 #
  
  5 54
  
  Oh we know, everyone knows you have to hit two buttons for a dino
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Fred O'Sullivan 03/02/13 #

5 82

Beautiful ! Isn’t there great beauty in an older face , the wisdom in the eyes . Pity we have lost the ability to see the beauty in every individual and have started sculpting faces into what we think they should be …

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Cannabis Freedom 03/02/13 #

7 77

Wow, they’re really amazing, you can actually see the emotions in the facial expressions, thanks for sharing Journal.ie

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Chris Massey 03/02/13 #
  
  18 117
  
  I’d imagine you see a lot more than the rest of us!!
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Debi-Nikita Rathbone-Rentzke 04/02/13 #
  
  0 1
  
  Comment of the week, Chris.. Gave me my morning smile. :-)
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Eoin Doyle 03/02/13 #

21 112

Great to see people can still create real art. Not just write their name on a urinal and stick it in an art gallery, or throw a few tins of paint at a canvas and sign your name..

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Emmet Purcell 03/02/13 #
  
  21 71
  
  There’s no such thing as ‘real art’, it’s entirely subjective. Damien Hirst addressed this in an interview a few years ago and said that if he realistically painted someone and then stuck it up in a pub and if everyone agreed the painting looked like the person, then that would be seen as “art” in the eyes of most people.
  
  Don’t get me wrong, these paintings are fantastically detailed, but thankfully there’s no limits on what art is or can be.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Eric Kelleher 04/02/13 #
  
  0 1
  
  Nails it, fair play.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Louise Ni Riain 03/02/13 #

7 48

Brilliant

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Sergé 03/02/13 #

2 20

Very realistic but I don’t think you can mistake these for photographs. There is an artist under the pseudonym DiegoKoi who became famous throughout the Internet for his photorealistic pencil sketches. Take a look at this for example. You cannot possibly tell it apart from a black and white photo unless you look close but it’s a pencil sketch.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=diegokoi#/d5hk8nb

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Liam 03/02/13 #

4 27

Phenomenal work, really well done.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Dave O'Shea 03/02/13 #

0 7

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200233688746881&set=pb.1292462376.-2207520000.1359908309&type=3&theater

This is a guy we have in our gallery

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Khaosan Roche 03/02/13 #
  
  0 3
  
  A legend.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Paul Curley 03/02/13 #

4 17

Good one Chris.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Gary Walsh 03/02/13 #

2 10

Amazing- he is very talented.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
doozerydoo 03/02/13 #

0 4

Check out work by Kelvin Okafor, pretty amazing too!

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Frank Cluskey 03/02/13 #

1 6

wonderful

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Paddy McGowan 03/02/13 #

3 9

Excellent work, theres a history in each drawing.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Maddy Nelson 03/02/13 #

2 7

Incredible!

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Mike Clinton 03/02/13 #

1 4

Just amazing. What talent.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
My Anarchic Trek 03/02/13 #

3 6

A truly remarkable talent, – would’ve become a rich man overnight centuries ago, but, in this age of Gigapixel photography, Portraiture, & art in general, are more about brilliantly varying severe thematic rules & regulations that you impose upon yourself, rather than excruciating detail.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Seán Ó Briain 03/02/13 #

19 11

Now this is real art – not all that abstract bollocks.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Robert O' Connor 03/02/13 #

0 0

Very impressive!

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Eric Kelleher 04/02/13 #

0 0

Plenty of irish talent as good if not better than this chap. Conor Harrington or Con Cremin. Unbelievable painters.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Joe McDermott 03/02/13 #

27 9

Its great work but they would never be mistaken as photos.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Daniel Martin 03/02/13 #

1 1

Hyperrealism at its best

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Kaja Farrell 04/02/13 #

5 2

Hours and days of work to create a painting that looks exactly like a photograph? What a complete waste of time.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Keith Wizzy 03/02/13 #

189 15

Nice but bit blurred some of em ;)

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Paul 03/02/13 #
  
  5 131
  
  The blurred one is called ‘forgotten’. I imagine it’s blurred as part of what the artist is communicating.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Anthony Murray 03/02/13 #

464 17

Photoshopped!

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Jed I. Knight 03/02/13 #
  
  6 55
  
  And you base this allegation on what exactly?
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
Arbitrasure 03/02/13 #

25 1

When I enlarge them on my PC using graphics software you can clearly see that these images are pixellated. I can only conclude that they were produced by a computer.

Reply
Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Jed I. Knight 03/02/13 #
  
  1 18
  
  These are reasonably small images, in the case of the first one, the grandmother, it’s 407 x 528 pixels so of course its going to appear pixelated. In fact if you take any image and zoom into it enough it will appear pixelated, this is not proof that it is artificially created. Many artists who face this sort of criticism will have pictures taken during the creative process of their art to prove its real and the original works can be quite larger than expected. I suggest you google this artist.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Stacks 03/02/13 #
  
  0 13
  
  I really hope that was a joke.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment
- Paddy McGowan 03/02/13 #
  
  0 3
  
  Now that is just awe inspiring conclusions there, a realitivly small image which you are viewing on pixelated display unit, the image being comprised of a finite amount of pixels, looks pixelated when you blow it up. Ever heard of display resolution.
  Try taking a picture with a resolution of only 800×600 pixels on your phone camera, blow it up on your computer screen and see what you get.
  
  Reply
  Tweet | Share | Report this comment

Add New Comment

Log in to comment:

Share This Comment on Facebook or Twitter

Most Popular Today

1	McDonald’s creates its highest calorie menu item ever 31,983 65

2	Elderly woman’s thumb bitten as she fights off car thieves 16,622 35

3	BBC ‘very sorry’ for offence caused by SF/IRA jibe 16,529 163

1	Ansbacher: 10-year time limit on prosecutions is ‘fair and balanced’ 4,380 12

1	As it happened: Ulster v Leinster, RaboDirect Pro12 Grand Final 16,004 40

2	As it happened: Borussia Dortmund v Bayern Munich, Champions League final 9,364 46

3	Leinster refuse to bask in happiness as Ulster test out secret weapon 9,095 20

1	Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Will, Carlton and Jazzy Jeff reunite 25,106 60

2	Poo in the pool? 11 of the worst things about going swimming 17,370 55

3	The 7 jobs that were the bane of your childhood 15,012 79

Trending Tags

LONDON

Betting shop employee killed in south London – reports

About Us

Corrections

Report Content

Policies

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

News images provided by Press Association and Photocall Ireland unless otherwise stated. Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography unless otherwise stated. Wire service provided by Associated Press.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Switch to Mobile Site

Tags

Tags

Can you believe that these portraits are NOT photographs?

These realistic-looking images produced by a young Spanish artist are so lifelike, you’ll forget that they are paintings.

Elia Vazquez Diaz, Belloso's maternal grandmother

'Estudio Portugal 4' - based on a photo by Javier Pardo

"Heroes cotidiano" (Daily heroes) - realities of immigration

"Lobo del mar" (Sea dog)

"Olvido" (Forgotten)

Published with permission from:

Contribute to this story:

Read next:

Embed this post

Email “Can you believe that these portraits are NOT photographs?”.

Feedback on “Can you believe that these portraits are NOT photographs?”.

Report a Comment

Comments (41 Comments)

Add New Comment

Read Next:

Most Popular

Most Commented

Download our app

Trending Opinions

Most Popular Today

Trending Tags

About Us

Follow Us

Corrections

Policies

Blow the whistle or share a story

Please log in to comment

Please log in with facebook to Share

Please log in

RSS feeds available here:

Report an error, omission or problem:

Create Email Alert

TheJournal.ie Facebook Edition