Realistic sculpture is eyerywhere, from ancient Greece through to the modern day.

But realistic painting?

Art guides concentrate on how paintings differ from real life, by being impressionistic, overemphasising light and shade, lack of “warts and all”, etc. In addition, many paintings have a crude background, or false perspective, imperfect proportion, etc.

So, which paintings display reality more accurately than those of Vermeer?

mollwollfumble said:

Realistic sculpture is eyerywhere, from ancient Greece through to the modern day.

But realistic painting?

Art guides concentrate on how paintings differ from real life, by being impressionistic, overemphasising light and shade, lack of “warts and all”, etc. In addition, many paintings have a crude background, or false perspective, imperfect proportion, etc.

So, which paintings display reality more accurately than those of Vermeer?

There are paintings that are of photographic quality. Seems to be a sub speciality.

There are some really amazing photorealistic tattoos as well.

To be more specific as an example, what is the most realistic painting of a kangaroo?

Including background with proper perspective.

This is an oil painting:

these are acrylic:

this is also acrylic, but includes spherical distortion and perspective:

The acrylic paintings are by Jason de Graaf; the oil painting is by Robin Eley. Try googling “hyperreal paintings”.

btm said:

This is an oil painting:

these are acrylic:

this is also acrylic, but includes spherical distortion and perspective:

The acrylic paintings are by Jason de Graaf; the oil painting is by Robin Eley. Try googling “hyperreal paintings”.

Wow!

btm said:

This is an oil painting:

these are acrylic:

this is also acrylic, but includes spherical distortion and perspective:

The acrylic paintings are by Jason de Graaf; the oil painting is by Robin Eley. Try googling “hyperreal paintings”.

Some amazing stuff being done.

kii said:

btm said:

This is an oil painting:

these are acrylic:

this is also acrylic, but includes spherical distortion and perspective:

The acrylic paintings are by Jason de Graaf; the oil painting is by Robin Eley. Try googling “hyperreal paintings”.

Some amazing stuff being done.

I love those. The supposed hyperreal stuff I had seen before was all surrealism, which wasn’t what I’m looking for.

PS.

I can see that neither of the bottom two are actually real because both contain effects generated by camera lens, namely the asterism and blur circle.

mollwollfumble said:

PS.

I can see that neither of the bottom two are actually real because both contain effects generated by camera lens, namely the asterism and blur circle.

And the top two have crude to nonexistent backgrounds. So, not real enough yet.

Here’s another of Jason’s paintings that mimics photographic effects

dv said:

Here’s another of Jason’s paintings that mimics photographic effects

Does he use a program to properly render the reflection/refraction/distortions and then paint it

Cymek said:

dv said:

Here’s another of Jason’s paintings that mimics photographic effects

Does he use a program to properly render the reflection/refraction/distortions and then paint it

Possibly I am being stupid as its a painting of real glasses not a guess work from scratch

dv said:

Here’s another of Jason’s paintings that mimics photographic effects

Yeah that’s the problem. That’s photorealism, not realism. There’s a big difference.

Have you got one that is actually realistic?

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

Here’s another of Jason’s paintings that mimics photographic effects

Yeah that’s the problem. That’s photorealism, not realism. There’s a big difference.

Have you got one that is actually realistic?

Fair point.

Perhaps not exactly what Mollw is asking, but just the once when I was in an art gallery, I looked at a painting and for a brief moment I felt like I was really there. It was Cape Chudley, Coast of Labrador, by Isaac Jenner. I could feel the power of the wind over the churning water and the waves crashing into the rocks.
Just for a moment, it was quite powerful.

Spiny Norman said:

Perhaps not exactly what Mollw is asking, but just the once when I was in an art gallery, I looked at a painting and for a brief moment I felt like I was really there. It was Cape Chudley, Coast of Labrador, by Isaac Jenner. I could feel the power of the wind over the churning water and the waves crashing into the rocks.
Just for a moment, it was quite powerful.

It was

sibeen said:

Spiny Norman said:

Perhaps not exactly what Mollw is asking, but just the once when I was in an art gallery, I looked at a painting and for a brief moment I felt like I was really there. It was Cape Chudley, Coast of Labrador, by Isaac Jenner. I could feel the power of the wind over the churning water and the waves crashing into the rocks.
Just for a moment, it was quite powerful.

It was

It was just a fan.

Err, buggered if I know what happened there.

Spring frost by Elioth Gruner makes me feel the frosty morning.

sibeen said:

sibeen said:

Spiny Norman said:

Perhaps not exactly what Mollw is asking, but just the once when I was in an art gallery, I looked at a painting and for a brief moment I felt like I was really there. It was Cape Chudley, Coast of Labrador, by Isaac Jenner. I could feel the power of the wind over the churning water and the waves crashing into the rocks.
Just for a moment, it was quite powerful.

It was

It was just a fan.

Err, buggered if I know what happened there.

been making a few of those errors lately, leaving stuff out and posting. I see similar things with the oldies i deal with.

AwesomeO said:

Spring frost by Elioth Gruner makes me feel the frosty morning.

mollwollfumble said:

Realistic sculpture is eyerywhere, from ancient Greece through to the modern day.

But realistic painting?

Art guides concentrate on how paintings differ from real life, by being impressionistic, overemphasising light and shade, lack of “warts and all”, etc. In addition, many paintings have a crude background, or false perspective, imperfect proportion, etc.

So, which paintings display reality more accurately than those of Vermeer?

Found what I was looking for, I think.

Why the above hyperreal paintings fail the realism test.

Model might be standing in front of a studio screen.

AwesomeO said:

Model might be standing in front of a studio screen.

Or a white wall.

The objection to camera artefacts is fair enough, but to suggest that the first one is less realistic than the painting in the book from your last post seems to be stretching things a bit to me.

My response to photographically realistic paintings tends to be: “OK that’s one of those paintings that looks like a photo”, and then move onto something more interesting.

Unless the painter has some particularly persuasive reason to want his work to look photographic, it seems pretty artless to me.

The Rev Dodgson said:

AwesomeO said:

Model might be standing in front of a studio screen.

Or a white wall.

The objection to camera artefacts is fair enough, but to suggest that the first one is less realistic than the painting in the book from your last post seems to be stretching things a bit to me.

OK, I meant “Realism” as a style is something I hadn’t hear of and now want to look into. The background in the painting in the book is also awful. So I agree totally.

As a humorous note, how much realism would you say is in these oil paintings by Phillip Barlow? Yes, this is photorealism, too.

kii said:

Nice one, kii.

> My response to photographically realistic paintings tends to be: “OK that’s one of those paintings that looks like a photo”, and then move onto something more interesting. Unless the painter has some particularly persuasive reason to want his work to look photographic, it seems pretty artless to me.

My painting style, personally, is abstract with rough brushstrokes (if I use a brush at all). I’m a big fan of Mondrian and Kandinsky, for example.

But I’ve always had admiration for those who paint in the exact opposite style. I’m interested in the painstaking artistry of making by hand something that is more real than the camera sees.

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

AwesomeO said:

Model might be standing in front of a studio screen.

Or a white wall.

The objection to camera artefacts is fair enough, but to suggest that the first one is less realistic than the painting in the book from your last post seems to be stretching things a bit to me.

OK, I meant “Realism” as a style is something I hadn’t hear of and now want to look into. The background in the painting in the book is also awful. So I agree totally.

As a humorous note, how much realism would you say is in these oil paintings by Phillip Barlow? Yes, this is photorealism, too.

As a myopic astigmat (My astigmatism is oblique, so my images are “stretched” at 45/135 degrees), I reckon those are pretty realistic. The distortions look right.

buffy said:

mollwollfumble said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Or a white wall.

The objection to camera artefacts is fair enough, but to suggest that the first one is less realistic than the painting in the book from your last post seems to be stretching things a bit to me.

OK, I meant “Realism” as a style is something I hadn’t hear of and now want to look into. The background in the painting in the book is also awful. So I agree totally.

As a humorous note, how much realism would you say is in these oil paintings by Phillip Barlow? Yes, this is photorealism, too.

As a myopic astigmat (My astigmatism is oblique, so my images are “stretched” at 45/135 degrees), I reckon those are pretty realistic. The distortions look right.

The one of the left looks like a bokeh photography effect.

mollwollfumble said:

kii said:

Nice one, kii.

> My response to photographically realistic paintings tends to be: “OK that’s one of those paintings that looks like a photo”, and then move onto something more interesting. Unless the painter has some particularly persuasive reason to want his work to look photographic, it seems pretty artless to me.

My painting style, personally, is abstract with rough brushstrokes (if I use a brush at all). I’m a big fan of Mondrian and Kandinsky, for example.

But I’ve always had admiration for those who paint in the exact opposite style. I’m interested in the painstaking artistry of making by hand something that is more real than the camera sees.

In the art school crit session the dreaded question was ‘what have you brought to this that couldn’t have been done better with a photograph?’

Some painters are now painting “in the style of” Vermeer and other painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Like this.

btm said:

This is an oil painting:

the oil painting is by Robin Eley. Try googling “hyperreal paintings”.

Thanks btm, out of all the paintings I’ve been looking at on the web, this is still definitely the most realistic. Better than Realism, modern recreations of the Dutch golden age, academic art, neoclassicism and other attempts at accurate portrayal.

Googling “hyperreal paintings” gives a screamingly large number of face close-ups without background.

I see that Robin Eley is recently repainting plastic-wrapped Vermeers on https://www.robineley.com/ LOL. But not what I’m looking for.

I still haven’t seen a realistic landscape painting anywhere.