40 Incredible Digital Painting Portraits

Wow, some of these are absolutely stunning.

I gotta say though, some of these are so photo real that surely a photograph would do.

These are really amazing and astounding what they can do now with digital art. The two of Johnny Depp are really great especially the one of him in real life though the Capt. Jack is really good as well. I agree that they look so realistic that it seems to somewhat defeat the fact that they are drawn.

GO HUGHIE XD!!!!!

Wow these are great, some of them you can hardly tell they aren’t photos. Carlzon Portrait is my favorite, thats just awesome!

these are gorgeous. I think it’s funny how originally painters always made an attempt to make a painting look like a photo and now in the digital age, graphic designers are making photos look like paintings.

Some do have videos or in process pictures linked from the deviantART page.

Just wanted to point out that a couple of these are not digital paintings but actually 3D renders (Captain Jack Sparrow for one).

Not saying they didnt take skill, effort, talent, just that calling them paintings is incorrect. It is an entirely different process to create an image on a 2d plane than to build one in a 3d environment.

Boring. By art school standards…brilliant.
Here…boring

Really amazing portraits. Most of them look like a photograph.

mate these are incredible. Really top work. my hat goes off to you…

Incredible ability.
I had to look very closely to see that some of those were in fact painted.

These are great. thanks for posting…

I enjoyed these very much, I love any form of pics,especially portraits,wish I could do this!

Ezine – no, by art school standards these are also boring. DESIGN school, these might be useful as illustrations, but even then, from a commercial point of view they would be impractical. No client would pay for a reproduced photograph.
Which brings me to my point. As obviously (technically) talented the artist(s) is/are, I fail to see the artistic merit in reproducing a photograph. If you want it to look like a photograph, take a photograph. And leave it as a photograph.
Surely the early 20th century artists must have taught us that the camera is here to stay, and painters need to move in a different direction. These are not paintings because they do not have any interest in the concerns or history of painting as a continuum of art.
Move on!

Absolutely mind blowing talent. I can’t imagine the work involved to create these.

It is interesting to me how digital painting has kind of brought back that kind of Roman verism where every detail is rendered so carefully. Perhaps it is the sign of the times, but the overly polished digital constructions always looks fake to me. How ironic right?

No matter how hard they try to look gritty a digital painting always looks less than truthful to me. It takes immense skill no doubt, but I can’t help, but feel that I am being lied to.

I am shocked not only at the skill of these paintings, but the insults posted. There are so many condescending messages posted here, suggesting that they are so much more creative or better. Perhaps these pictures do not portray artistic creativity, but they display the work of a few very talented people. As a fellow digital painter, I know this process is tedious and time consuming, but it is loads of fun. So I applaud these designers incredible dedication and work, and continue to display my disbelief that there would be anyone who would post a message suggesting these are good by school standards, not even. Perhaps we could look past the idea of these images being created for ourselves, and maybe these artists did it because it is what they enjoy.

Yes, I’m aware that it is Heath Ledger. That’s the title the artist gave it.

These make my drawings feel insignificant 😉

flawlesss

Wow, incredible paintings!

Truly inspirational! The life in the eyes is amazing!

the digital paintings..here r very ex….elent and….extra ordinary works, really i love them, and very much inspired, thank u for posting them…….

awesome! I love this entry

awesome! I love it, its amazing! incredible paintings.
i love the hair and the skin, beautifully done.

awesome!
I can’t believe. in Some paintings you can’t even distinguish between real and fake.

Regards
Jenney MaC

first time looking at digital art it’s kool

Joni,
They’re not embedded. I took screen prints, uploaded them to my server and placed them in the post. Hope that answers your question.

If this stuff impresses you, you know nothing about Art. Literally, you are at a kindergarten level in the mind.

None of these “portraits” tells you anything about the sitter or about the artist who made them. They are empty technical demonstrations by people without talent or insight.

And, they are only copies from photographs–mainly “painted” right over them.

Someone has a lot of learning and growing to do and very little time to do it.

Hello,

I love this art work. I am really impressed with the results. May I ask what software was used?

PAINTINGS??? Or OVER painted photographs.

that “chris” photo – anyone in this world would not tell that is painted. it looks real

Wow, great and impressive.

Excellent selection. I can’t imagine how much work has gone into some of those.

very amazing pics 🙂

@ Dave: If u click on any of the above photo it will give u a link for youtube where u can watch the artist draw and paint these photos from scratch…

considering that, its a pretty neat job!

princess: . . . Yes, there are some very talented digital painters, but you are mistaken if you think ALL of the above “paintings” were done “from scratch”. I didn’t mean to lessen the impact of the digital art, it is just that most people don’t know that these were started with cloning the original photograph and then manipulating it to look like a painting.

As I said, I do both digital and traditional portraits. I offer digital portraits for people who do not have the money for a traditionally painted portrait which cost thousands instead of the few hundred dollars digital portraits cost. I also know how to paint a portrait digitally, record it to show on UTube, and it looks like it was done from scratch, but it wasn’t, it is nothing more than photo manipulation. Sorry. I guess I’m just more honest than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5JoiC0p68

I have only a basic knowledge of Photoshop and Corel Painter. There are many others with much more training or understanding of these programs that do much more than I am able to do and much better too. But I believe anyone with a basic understanding of graphic applications can do this. (and the money to invest in the proper hardware and software.)

I also believe the artists that create this type of work, completely enjoy the minutes or hours it takes to make these creations. Yes, digital painting is much easier than starting out with a blank canvas and using artist’s oil paints, but it is none the less enjoyable and creative. I get so lost in the process, time just flies by and when I think only a half an hour has passed, three or four hours have actually gone by! I love it.

Anna,
Actually, I did not use the blur tool. The actual painting done on the video was using Corel Painter X with a 15″ Macbook Pro, and a Intuos3 Wacom Tablet. I typically only use Photoshop to adjust the colors and set the composition then do the actual painting in Painter.

You can download a free trial of Painter at http://www.corel.com for either Macs or PCs and I’m sure you will have loads of fun messing around with all the brushes, and yes, no mess and no waiting for the paint to dry!

If you’d like more details on how I use Painter, just holler at me at the email address on my web site. And, no, I do not charge for this info. lol I have so much fun doing digital art that I just like to share the joy. lol

Wow.. these are so… ordinary.

Hi,
That was awesome………
Is it possible 2 get our photograph done somewhere?

Husna,
You could contact some of the artists to see about getting a portrait done.

Absolutly Beautiful. Incredible talent.

wonderful site

Wow!! My favorite is the Jimi Hendrix portrait.

To answer to those who question the “value/purpose/point” of digital realism: I think that photorealism (whether digital or traditional) is not so much an outlet for “artistry/creativity” (although I’ve seen spectacular artists like Linda Bergkvist achieve both simultaneously), as it is an attempt to recreate life. Does that make sense? It is, after all, what realism is about: to convey to the viewer a sense of something that is “more real than real life”. There’s something very satisfying in painting something that so accurately imitates life that people have to look twice to tell that it’s actually a painting and not a photo.

The graphic skill is indeed amazing.
I just wish most of those people would actually study art and _anatomy_ before attempting portraits. So easy to have broken and wrong face features.

impressive!!one of my favorite pirates,captured just the way I imagined

Some of these, like the portraits of Jack Sparrow, Elena and Gerard Butler, I have seen before, but the rest are simply mind blowing…These are beauties and nothing less…the sepia effect given to the Scarlett Johansson is simply awesome…In my opinion the Water Self Portrait Study is by far the best in the list….Mood1, Angry Look, Portrait Drawing and Pintura Digital are my other favorites in the list…I just loved each one of these….Thanks for sharing this….

Most of these are piss poor paintovers.

beutiful

Well of course they are “photoshopped” as the morons like to call it. it’s digital artwork. you get a little stylus and draw.

As for the rest its very good work;) keep it up

woow that is amazing out standing i really want to stand up for this type of art my eye can not believed but good work thanks for share 🙂
love you so much

Dear Poop . . . Digital Painting has its place and there is some talent required but mostly knowing how to use Photoshop and/or Corel Painter.

My problem is the artists that try to pass digital art off as “Original Oil Paintings” without admitting to the fact that they never opened up a tube of paint. If all artists would just be honest about how they create their art it would go a long way toward the acceptance of other art forms such as digital art.

And I agreee to Rtone as well..
when I exhibited my digital paintings in UNI, everyone asked me, k how u made it. my answer was straight forward that I made them in CS4.. bt still everyone loved them..

Shadcarlos is a great artist, i love this painting..
I recomend visit this peruan artist 🙂

eh…. they’re ok looking

hey m dying to c ur all DPs.its amazng boss………..

These are not really ‘art’ because there is not interpretation of the subject matter, there is nothing apart from a mechanical (sometimes awful) copy of a photographic image. That is not art, if anything it is closer to ‘illustration’, but I wouldn’t even insult illustrators by calling them that either. You fanboys and girls may whoop over how great these are but it shows a high degree of visual illiteracy to try to defend these as ‘art’. There is some skill required to copy a photograph its true but these could just as easily be traced over in Photoshop and that shows no craftsmanship or artistry and they are all quite soulless as far a I can see. Major yawn, there is much better digital painting going out there that is original and exciting.

whose carlo? . .does anybody knows him? . .

Thanx for reminding everyone that digital PAINTINGs can be made HONESTLY!!

I am a digital painter and professional photographer with dyspraxia. My condition makes it almost impossible to create paintings and drawings from scratch but by combining my knowledge of photography and my perseverance in photoshop, I am able to create works of art that I would struggle to make without digital tools and the ability to backtrack and re-do things I get wrong. The amount of time and effort that goes into creating these works of art is commendable and the skill of the artists should not be underestimated. anyone who doubts the skill involved should create a better image themselves first!

This is ART!!
my favorite is mr. john lennon.

greetings from bremen.

I do both digital and traditional art/illustration in all mediums. Better get used to accepting digital visual creations at art, just like the artists in the last century had to accept that photography was a new form of art. Webster’s defines art as ” the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects” That makes some of these portrayals “ART” it may not be traditional fine art, but it is art. Now to be honest a fair amount of the images above are pitiful examples of creative digital portrayals. Most of the traditional fine art I see in the local galleries are pitiful portrayals as well that have plenty of creativity and lack any skillful execution. To be a fantastic portrait artist requires an acute study of form, lighting, volume, color, shade, perspective, etc. Those same rules apply regardless of the medium being oils, pixels, film or whatever. I think what beefs folks is the fact that they are trying to separate intuitive, imaginative creation with skillful recreation or reproduction. It’s the old “Did you freehand that or trace it?” Many, many successful fine artists use grids, projectors, tracing paper, etc. No one complains. I would suggest that everyone take a tour of portraitartist.com. There you will find fantastic portraits that show intuitive and even imaginative styles, BUT you will also find many portraits that are painted in a super realist manner as if attempting to mimic a photograph. There is a following for both styles. One thing I’ve noticed – The very best digital artists (including the best smudge painters) can pick up a brush and paint and bust out a alla prima canvas. I suggest that you traditionalists try to do a digital portrait. You will be surprised to learn that it is damn tough to paint over a photo without screwing it all up. After all when you do a paint over you are covering up the very detail that you are trying to copy. It really doesn’t work very well at all, and as a digital artist matures they usually find out that it is far easier to just speed paint it from reference rather than smudge it. As for you digital artists. I suggest that you stop painting these celebrity fan images ala Deviant art and try to turn your hobby into a real artistic endeavor. The best artworks above are the ones that were dreamed up rather than copied from somebody else’s photo. Learn to take your own photographic reference, or start with a scanned pencil drawing. Seek to let your intuition guide you and impart some style into your digital paintings. Learn all that you can about composition, lighting and most of all gesture. Be patient on both sides of the fence here. It’s tough to be a digital artist. We have no concrete definition yet as how to tell folks what medium we use. I can tell you that the public seems to think that there is a “portrait” button on the keyboard. Funny how they don’t seem to think that photographers have a “portrait” button on their camera. I suppose it’s because everyone has tried to take artistic photo portraits at home and gave up trying. Finally – Why “artify” a photo? The same reason we retouch magazine covers, use illustrations instead of photographs in advertisements, and still love to watch animated films, especially the new uber real 3d ones. For me it’s because my clients had a life changing moment in their life and the snapshots that someone took just didn’t capture the moment. I take their disappointing photo and apply all of my artistic training and experience (traditional and digital) to create a portrayal that is more faithful to the way they remember that event. I have to admit that I am making a considerable amount more income today than I ever did doing my old stuck in the art school artsy fartsy painting mode and the number of clients in my locale that could afford to have me paint a $25,000 dollar Daniel Smith style executive portrait I could count on one hand.

Sorry for the long post and remember there are hacks on both sides of the fence, but don’t criticize them for trying, rather encourage them to try more.

These are seriously cool… amazing !!!!!!!

Great Collection. They are beautiful people!

WOW….THESE ARE TRULY AMAZING!!!!

These are absolutely amazing although I have to agree that some are so close to a photograph, that a photo would simply do the job. I prefer the images where brush strokes are visible. I once cam across a site called flutter-brush that will create your own digital drawings.

very nice art. i also want learn digital painting.

coated with imagination .. Thanks for the inspiration .. 🙂

Awesome images! your pictures are one of a kind! Keep up the great work.

Thank you for sharing and inspiration .. 🙂

awesome work……………….