You could be forgiven for thinking that these portraits are photographs, but believe it or not they’re actually drawings by Italian artist Emanuele Dascanio.

Some of them take up to 780 hours to complete, and it’s easy to see why when you look at the artist’s amazingly lifelike creations. He draws them using a combination of charcoal and graphite and the subjects are often illuminated with a single source of light that gives every piece a certain renaissance quality about it. This isn’t just a coincidence however, as Dascanio was taught the oil techniques of the old renaissance masters by Italian painter Gianluca Corona. He then combined this knowledge with his own unique style in order to create the beautiful portraits that perfectly blend the classic with the contemporary.

Credit: http://www.boredpanda.com/photorealistic-pencil-drawings-renaissance-hyperrealism-emanuele-dascanio/