Illustrating a photorealistic portrait, a time-lapse

Australia-based illustrator Neeyellow specializes in photorealistic and hyperrealistic drawings, illustrations that look like photographs. In the time-lapse video above, he creates a portrait of a man with glasses using Faber Castell Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils on A4-size Stonehenge paper, 250 gsm (grams per square meter).

I used the white polychromos pencil to help create the hair details and I used it a lot in the blending process.

It would be hard to believe this is a drawing if it wasn’t for the time-lapse proof. How does Neeyellow make the man’s face look so real? In a few other tutorial videos, he explains that values, hard and soft edges, and layering are just a few of the ways he’s able to achieve the illusion.

Then explore more videos about drawing.