I looooove photorealism!! You killed this piece, the details are absolutely insane🔥

I think the hardest part of photo realism is that there are no short cuts. I’m super fascinated by paintings that look like blobs up close but make a super detailed paintings from far away.

I love that you’re getting out of your comfort zone! It’s so inspiring and so fun to watch!!

This drawing is stunningly beautiful!! 💕 You really captured the essence of the original photo

Lovely! We think mixed media paper was a good choice, much more durable than standards sketch stock, stands up to rigorous blending, with an absorbent surface good for building dense, deep blacks. We liked the breakdown into planned stages, too!

Actually, the hardnesses of the pencils depend on how much actual graphite is in them. Back in the day, pencils used to be made out of pure graphite, until they started inevitably running out of it. So, this scientist invented a new recipe for pencil lead that consisted of clay, graphite, and water. B stands for black and contains more graphite than clay, and it is usually very dark, buttery smooth, and matte. H stands for hard, and it means there's more clay in the pencil than graphite, which makes it light, hard, and shiny. The more you know.

When Rae said realism she ain’t joking.. It’s amazing!!!

you did such a great job, particularly using that paper!!! a couple of great tips i've learned as i dabble in hyperrealism: -Get your dark background values down sooner rather than later. it will make pulling out highlights easier -Faber Castell pitt graphite matt pencils are epic, they go up to 14b and are a graphite/carbon blend so graphite shine is greatly reduced -make up blenders on large areas help with the blending stick and hand cramp problems 🙂

I know I'm really late but I'm a photorealist and I'd like to share my thoughts on your amazing work! First off, the fact that you did this in 9 hours is insane! I'll be happy to get the eyes, nose, and mouth done in 9 hours. A portrait like this would take me about 20-25 hours. Ok, now I'm most impressed with the hair. For the hair, you actually did way more work than you needed to, honey. There's no detail in the hair, which was why I thought you chose this reference. I thought you were being a coward, but no. Not only did you execute the hair nicely, but you added your own highlights and details! That's amazing. Unnecessary for photorealism, but you definitely get style points in my book for that one. You got guts! Very nice blending on the whole thing, especially considering the fact that you used a paper with such a heavy tooth. Again, you got guts for even doing this portrait on the paper you did. Most of us use smooth Bristol paper. You literally blend it with a cotton swab for 2 seconds and you're like, "this has to be cheating, why is this so easy?" I died of laughter when I saw all those poor blending stumps! The shoulder problem is not a problem at all. Your drawing paper wasn't the same size as your reference photo, but you tried to compensate. Stay true to your light board, and make sure the sizing/ration between your reference and drawing are consistent. Nice eyes, but you added extra highlights, I know it's tempting, and it looks good, so no problem there. Just make sure that, whenever you add things that aren't there, make sure they're possible. I only really have 2 problems with this, and only one is really important. So, you need to get away from lines. In the lips and the nose, the lines are too harsh, there are no lines in reality, only harsh value changes. Her left nostril shading is way too dark, you can barely see it in the reference. And that's a part of photorealism: if you can't see it, don't include it. Should have just done something for 2 seconds to give the impression of that shadow. The bottom of the bottom lip, that line needs to go, like ASAP. That would be your biggest improvement, just remove some of the obvious lines, and your photorealistic skills would improve by like 50%, not even joking. The 2nd critique I have is that you went a bit too crazy on the forehead hair highlights. I know you wanted to use that ink, and I get what you were doing, but she looks like she just did an hour-long spin class. You don't need those aggressive highlights, they're barely visible in the reference. Sorry, I don't mean to roast your work, you did a phenomenal job, and if this was your first time, it's mind-blowing. You definitely have the ability to draw photorealism, and I'm glad I saw this from you! It was actually quite inspiring for me. You showed guts, passion, and skill. Well done. Just an amazing job. It's hard to say anything negative about this drawing because it was done in only 9 hours on suboptimal paper, and you added extra stuff to it. Truly remarkable.

I swear that every left-handed person is the best artist 😂Moriah Elizabeth, Rae, and SOOO many more! Btw this is so good I could never- I still draw stick people 💀

This reminds me of a book series from when I was a kid, called 'Sideways Stories From Wayside School'. In one of the stories, a young girl was super popular for drawing and consider volume to be the top achievement, producing hundreds of drawings everyday . . . yadda yadda yadda . . .she learns the lesson of quality over quantity and the story ends with her friend asking for a picture and she proudly proclaims something along the lines of, "Tomorrow I doubt I'll have even finished on of the ears."

I’ve never personally been a fan of photorealism, because I want my art to look like… well… art. But I certainly can appreciate the talent and work that goes into it, and this is no exception. Well done! 😊

i draw portraits and whenever you said you were gonna use mixed media paper, i was skeptical. then seeing now that you’re having trouble because of the bumps, i kind of had a feeling that was going to happen. when i draw portraits, i use the smoothest paper i can possibly find. hobby lobby has some good options. you can get really good details with that too. i saw that you traced the template of the drawing first and i have never done that before but it’s a good idea to get the shape of everything and anatomy perfect to the real thing.

I stopped crushing candy for this video, Rae, I don't do that for just anyone. 😉😊 Edit to add I love your Rob Zombie shirt!

It looks really realistic but not photorealistic. I would not mistake it for a picture. Good job tho :)

This only took you 9 hours??? I’m amazed at that. I’ve spent a longer time on much simpler drawings before. Very impressed!!!

As someone who practices photo realism, I found this weirdly hilarious. You did a great job!

Considering the paper was giving you issues, I'm impressed with how your picture came out. It was so like the photo. You are such a skilled artist Rae. God bless you and those you love. Have a great day!

I've been drawing faces since I'm five or six. I'm in my 70s. Did you trace her face first? Is that what people do now? That's something. Makes it a lot easier. No, I never do every detail like that but it's very hard to get a likeness. I just use charcoal. So the realism is in the patience, not in the actual drawing. So interesting.

For hyper-realism drawings, I suggest next time using Arches hotpress watercolor paper. It's super smooth! :)

I actually did a research paper on the realism art style, and included photo-realism. It’s a very interesting subject and one day I hope my art can be photo-realistic. Thank you for inspiring me!❤

Holy crap!!!! That was gorgeous!!!!! Being able to draw photorealism is a huge goal of mine. I've been drawing as a way to take care of my mental health, which has included my struggles with PTSD. I want to show the "realness" that mental illness can bring, and I feel that photorealism can do that. I would love to be able to reach that level of detail that you were able to portray.

I love how Rae can fit a ✨ MASTERPIECE ✨in 12 minutes

That's amazing. Congratulations on powering through 9 hours of something deeply out of character to get it done. It's gorgeous, I love at 11:18 when you're rotating it and there's a brief glimpse of the sheen that it is with all that graphite. Get a scale and weigh that drawing compared to a blank sheet.

You know you can clean the blending tools by rubbing them on a piece of sandpaper, right? Love the art💕💕

Omg I love this! Photorealism is my JAM! I can't do any other style 😅🤣🤣 It's so fun to see how others figure it out in their styles though 😍

Feel like size is everything. Photo Realistic portraits are pretty large by scale. 8:55

i legitimately got chills when you zoomed in on the eyes at the end. GIRL, that looks INSANE! you're crazy talented, i absolutely love your content

You did an amazing job! I’ve been doing (or attempting) photorealistic portraits for about 12 years now and it’s certainly not easy! I definitely prefer smoother paper for graphite pencils, it feels great to use and ends up looking so smooth

it's definitely not a hyper realistic piece, it's still just realism but it's good

Dear, Rae, I have been a subscriber of yours since 2017 but I have to say that this was absolute FIRE!! Igot so excited just by the title, because I was really hoping to see you using my favourite media , which is graphite pencils!I loved it!!Great result! BRAVO! Keep up the good job! thanks for everything you have shared with us the past years! greetings from Greece!

I learned graphite drawing for photo realism back in high school for this self portrait project. I got so used to it I now struggle with branching out of that style even after switching to digital art. I always revert to some form of sketch / paint or realism drawing even if I didn’t originally intend for it to be.

This was probably the most amazing way to show how truly talented you are. Probably my favorite thing you’ve done before

This is hands down amazing!! The level of detail you put into this painting is out of this world! The gentle texture of the skin is perfection of the imperfection. This really inspired me to test my art skills as well. I haven’t made a realistic painting since my first attempt as a child 😂 also will be buying a print!

UWAAAH THE ARTS GORGEOUS !!! ive been a long time fan and its nice to see u branch out in artstyles more !!

The detail is AMAZING. Great job

Speaking honestly, I aim for photo-realism with my pencils occasionally, but I always seem to fall (very) short, so it's amazing to see you succeed! From experience, it's a lot more difficult than people give it credit for. I always have to settle for semirealism, even when it wasn't my original goal. Excellent contrast and beautiful shading!

I’ve been doing realism for about 6 years now and all I use is mixed media paper. For me I find blending stumps to harsh on the paper especially if your trying to really blend and smooth things out. That’s why I prefer using tissue or cotton swabs! It help some much when smoothing things out.

YES! I LOVE these kind of videos, Rae. Just straight up art, no challenges or hacks.

Absolutely beautiful Rae! Ya know i get so excited when I see your new videos! You are so very talented and not to mention that beautiful smile and positivity always makes my day. Realism is always been my fav, and you do it beautifully! Thanks so much for sharing all your talents and knowledge, and for being you!! 🌻

Tombow Mono Zero is my go-to all-time favorite drawing tool. You can even shave it down to a sharper point with a blade. Your finished drawing looks terrific!

Hyperrealism is incredibly hard so hats off to you for making it look even better than the reference!

omg girl.. I love ya to bits... When I found this channel back in the day I loved your art and you have grown so so much.. You are CRAZY talented and it shows I love that you always push yourself and that you are one of the FEW people I watch that STILL does art... Thank you for sharing this its AMAZING!!

Bro, I could never and because of that I have even more total respect for you and everyone who can do this sort of hyper-realistic stuff, it's super impressive!

Dude, this was absolutely amazing to watch! I mean, sorry to your poor achy hands, but what an end product you turned out! Super admirable of you to go out of your comfort zone and I loved how you did let us know of your challenges during the project! I still have so much trouble with realism it's honestly not even funny. Gimme a landscape, or better yet anime/cartoon style any day! XD

This was great! I also just attempted photo realism for the first time and when I tell you I said the same thing about my shoulder in the picture 🤣...I think at this point I have added details to it about 9 times after saying I was done. Awesome job and way to go outside your comfort zone.

The shading and lightening is so on point. Damn, it looks awesome!!

We love a dedicated queen 💟 and that portrait was amazing the detail is insane

That video just made my day, thanks rae for everything. You inspire me a lot

IMMEDIATELY CLICKED ON THIS VIDEO AS SOON AS I SAW IT! I love your channel so so much, you're such a big inspiration to me! You give me motivation to keep drawing :)), I'm grateful to have found you on KZfaq. Sending all my love

WOWW it looks super amazing the photo realism challenge you did kind of inspired me to work on my own art again thank you Rae for being such a big inspiration for me and other artists as well!!

OMFG you really ate this up 😍 the drama in the shadows and the contrast, not to mention the perfect blending/realistic texture on the skin, the drawing turned out so much more beautiful than the original photo 🙌🙌

I think this is your best piece to date! Wonderful. Photorealism is usually done on a much larger scale than 1:1 too. Incredible you were able to get that level of details.

Rae is again back with an amazing video

This is beautiful. I really like that you can still tell it's a drawing in places especially along her left jaw. Lovely job ♡

Amazing work on this Rae, this looks great! Photorealism is hard to do and mad props to those who can pull it off, but I could never do that style myself xD

hi rae ur videos help me so much and ur review s r awesome thanks keep going.. 💫❤💐

Maybe I just buy weird mixed media paper, but mine is always perfectly smooth, so Rae's issues with the paper kinda surprised me. Bristol board is probably the way to go with pencil-based hyperrealism, though, since not only is it very heavyweight paper, but you can choose between textured and smooth (and some brands do both together, textured on one side and smooth on the other so you always have access to both). That drawing came out soooooo well, though.

I’m really bad with realism and one thing that helps me is to have both a digital and printed out version beside me. My art teacher taught me that and seeing someone step outside their comfort zone is really inspiring to me. Great work Rae

HOLY CRAP??? THAT IS AMAZING!!! there's so much attention to detail and just,,, oh my god. you did so good

You should have drawn without traceing and use the grid method i stead it helps trust me otherwise awesome

Damn Rae over here drawing a realistic af photo while I'm over here struggling to draw a SIMPLE BODY

The short clip of Rae laying on the desk while still working on the picture made my day.. Been there! So relatable! love what you do!

Ahhhh! It warms my heart to see others draw in the same art styles I do! I’m 16 and my favorite art style is extreme photo-realism. I’m more of a Digital artist, but old fashion pencil and paper can do just the same.

One thing that im curious about, why do u always buy new supplies when u have a bunch, a big bunch at home? Also love the artwork

I honestly don't get why Rae has to go shopping at the local craft store EVERY VIDEO.... She has those insanely wonderful handcrafted pencils and I guarantee she has so much paper that she was ACTUALLY familiar with. I absolutely knew she should have used actual Drawing paper. Mixed Media Paper = bad at everything.

I just rewatched this video and still think it is a beautiful rendering of photo realism. The phrase that stuck out to me this time was "I've made an executive decision". I frequently make executive decisions when doing my art and it encourages me to know someone who is so talented sometimes has to make them as well. Thank you again for sharing your talent with the rest of us. Blessings.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! you are so inspiring and i have loved your art for years! ❤️❤️

"Compressly densed"

Cool video, some areas required extra work, like value and shading accuracy like the neck area, Also, the face proportions feel strange because you traced an image that may have optical distortion. Thank you for sharing your experience!

The details of the final are insane man! One small thing though, literally earlier today, one of my professors told me that the Copic white paint is IDENTICAL to white-out but with a fancier bottle and an insanely high price. Next time you can probably get away with the office supply and a thin brush ;)

I'm completely speechless. This is absolutely incredible!! You're an artist that continues to inspire me so so much 🥰

Photo realist portrait artist here, and I find it amusing the complaints about taking 3 hours to do certain parts of the face. I can spend anywhere between 40-100 hours on portraits. 😆😭

Not extreme photo realism imo but definitely still awesome looking keep up the great work

This is so beautiful! Congratulations on your success with it

10:54 That was SOOO CUTEEE🤩🤩

What? This is the hardest artstyle? I grew up thinking this was the standard because of how every artist in my country starts in this artstyle.

Rae, this was a such fantastic video and drawing!! Being an aspiring photorealism artist myself, I was elated to see you do this! You've been such a great inspiration to me for years :) Thank you!!!

You knocked this out of the ball park! Beautiful work. I ran into same issues with Multimedia paper for my drawings. I switched to 140lb hot press Watercolor paper. Made all the difference for me.

Rae you did an amazing job this just looks stunning 😍 thank you for being such an amazing inspiration to me.

Please do not take this critique as a bad one but you need to add a lot more layers to cover the tooth, not smoosh it down with stumps. Photorealism and shortcuts do not work.

The fact that it's even possible for a human hand to make something so insanely detailed and precise absolutely blows my mind! To the point where, if it were the 1600s, I'd probably be accusing Rae of witchcraft right now 😅

I LOVE THIS! It is amazing all the detail, shading, blending, every part of it ❤️ Thanku for inspiring me to become a better artist. Your artwork is beautiful! 😊🥰🦄🌈

I love how cheap your artwork is on your website or everything in general. you seem so relatable . like you and jazza are my favorite artists for frickin real.

Well no hate it is not photo really good some comparing to other videos I have seen of realistic drawing you tried your best

Unpopular opinion: photo/hyperrealism art isn’t commercially viable. It’s a great flex and may work well for private portraits and contracts but the vast majority of commercial buyers won’t pay ten times the price for something a DSLR and PS can do in an hour. Secondly hyperrealism from one artist is indistinguishable from another’s a lot of times. Usually when someone wants your art it’s because they can recognize it at first glance.

I know it took forever, but I love that you stepped into a more technical zone again! The piece came out great!

Thank youuu for showing the painstakingly detailed process, so often do people forget about that

A massive challenge within photorealism is getting the proportions correct, and by tracing over the image you immediately discredit the amount of talent other artists have - who painstakingly work for hours to get the face looking perfect before even beginning shading! Bad example to set to young artists. Tracing should be used very rarely.

This is not the ‘hardest’ type of art. It tests technical ability but that’s it. There’s a reason why Picasso said it took him a lifetime to know how to paint like a child

This is absolutely stunning Rae. 👏👏

Yooo I got so happy when I got the notification for this video! I really love your channel and you always make me so happy. It lights up my day when I see that you have posted something new

It’s funny how she’s claiming she did photo realism and her first step was tracing.

Really don't think photorealism is the hardest style considering all you're doing is copying what you're seeing. Drawing characters from scratch such as comics, animation, or manga is a lot harder since the only reference is your interpretation of the world. Although I already have a bit of distain for realism not because I don't recognize the talent but just because that art should be interpretation not imitation if i wanted a photo I would've taken one don't be a camera be a artist.

I literally love your videos and you inspire me! Whenever I watch you I just wanna create something!❤

Wow that’s incredible! That is perfection! So talented!

uhm she traced?

Why not freehand this?

THis is so cool! love ur art rae

It almost nearly perfect!! Well job Rae...♥️