Kelvin Okafor - Photorealism Art, page 1

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ATS Members have flagged this thread 2 times

Topic started on 7-3-2013 @ 02:24 AM by speculativeoptimist

Kelvin Okafor's works incorporate amazing technique and perspective. He spends around 100 hours on each piece. He works from both pics and memory, but mostly memory. Kelvin creates these mirror images using mostly pencil and occasionally some charcoal.

‘I draw in sections. I’m right-handed so I work from left to right. After I’ve finished the left eye, I work the nostrils, then the left side of the cheek, then the lips. I always work in that order.I work for four hours in one go, take a half-hour break, work another four to five hours, then have another half-hour break. After that I’ll work for as long as I can. Sometimes I might work ten to 15 hours in one day. It takes me on average 80 to 100 hours to do a portrait

www.dailymail.co.uk... os.html

YouTube Link

Okafor is 27 and lives in Tottenham, north London where he grew up. He went to Middlesex University. But his drawings are self-evidently a personal fascination: something he has to do. The soft, subtle accuracy of his style can mimic the contours of a photograph. But is that art? Personally I think pictures as skilful as these have an absolute claim to be art whereas most of the art that gets shortlisted for the Turner prize (and I say this as a former judge) has only a relative claim to be art, which future generations may or may not agree with.

www.guardian.co.uk...
I too feel this is art, and not only the end result, but the process and the discipline of the artist.

Viewing the works as they are being drawn is interesting, as the crystallization of the image/face surfaces, genuinely bringing to life a vision.

A nice scroll slide perspective A scroll slide perspective

Vids of the process -

YouTube Link

Hope ya duggit

Peace,
spec
ETA:More crazy Photorealism - Paul Lung

edit on 7-3-2013 by speculativeoptimist because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 02:45 AM by alfa1

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
Kelvin Okafor's works incorporate amazing technique and perspective.

Perspective (and lighting) are quite easy to achieve if you're just copying already existing photographs.

I'd have more respect for his work if he drew them as originals.

Edit - much like the drawings of photos by Samuel Silva that have been discussed before.

edit on 7-3-2013 by alfa1 because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 03:05 AM by Lucid Lunacy

reply to post by speculativeoptimist

Hard to tell it apart from reality!

The lips are the most telling aspect. Not surprised.. the lips are the hardest for me in 3D sculpting. Doesn't seem like they would be but I find the rest of the face anatomy easier in comparison.

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 03:55 AM by Severin

reply to post by speculativeoptimist

Its very nice work and I'm sure most people would struggle to get this amount of detail, but when drawing in monotone pencil it is somewhat easier to produce these results. The addition of colour is a whole other ballgame though.

This is some work by Robin Eley, in my opinion one of the best hyper-realist artist to date...

My head hurts to look at his art

Robin Eley

edit on 7-3-2013 by Severin because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 06:24 AM by Iamschist

Always enjoy looking at beauty. Great way to start my day. The drawings are spooky, hard to believe they are drawings. I also enjoyed the other photorealistic art posted on this thread!

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 09:36 AM by speculativeoptimist

reply to post by alfa1

I don't know about "easy" for this degree of realism, but I get your drift. It still amazes some of us.

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 09:37 AM by speculativeoptimist

reply to post by Lucid Lunacy

Thanks for the reply, and I agree. The Mother Teresa has incredible detail, lips included.

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 09:39 AM by speculativeoptimist

reply to post by Severin

Wow, that is unreal(and yet so real) Much thanks for the addition, I had not heard of this artist, nor seen color photo/hyper realism before. awesome!

Peace

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 09:40 AM by speculativeoptimist

reply to post by Iamschist

Thanks Iamchist, I was hoping you would drop in for a comment.

Hope ya have a good day

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 02:39 PM by Gazrok

reply to post by speculativeoptimist

Wow, he is really incredible! 80 hours on one of these? Yikes, that's a long time.

I thought I was pretty good (see below), but this guy is amazing. The one below took me about 10 hours total. It's a friend's grandfather (I did it for him for Christmas, after he lost his grandfather that year). It was done from an old war-time pic. I used a combination of pencils. I saw that the artist in this thread uses some charcoal too...must be what he uses to get those blacks.... I use what's called an Ebony pencil for them, which is basically like a black Prismacolor pencil.

edit on 7-3-2013 by Gazrok because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 04:06 PM by Lucid Lunacy

I am a digital artist, so I tend to appreciate this medium. If anyone here knows what 'Vector' is can also appreciate how insane these are. Photorealistic vector art (no photos):

Click this link

Wiki: Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics.

reply posted on 7-3-2013 @ 04:15 PM by Gazrok

The fact that he freehands this without any reference points, is just amazing. I have to use a light grid over the photo and the paper, just to be sure I'm getting the proportions right...because if you are even slightly off on a person, it will not look like them. (you can see this in his Adele drawing, which while impressive, isn't the same caliber as his other work....no doubt due to him spending far less time on it.)

Its very nice work and I'm sure most people would struggle to get this amount of detail, but when drawing in monotone pencil it is somewhat easier to produce these results. The addition of colour is a whole other ballgame though.

No doubt. I would not yet ever be able to achieve the same degree of realism in a color painting or drawing, as I can in black and white...no way.

edit on 7-3-2013 by Gazrok because: (no reason given)

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