Designing realistic human forms has long been a prized goal of the world’s digital artists. Small details made us realize whether the person we were looking at was real or simply a 3D model.Now better design techniques, modeling software improvements and more powerful hardware are enabling 3D designers and artists to render models that are almost indistinguishable from real-life objects. Unless of course, a subtle change gives it away – like a swamp frog smoking a cigar.

These 20 amazing works of digital art  – depicting fictional characters, environments, historical personalities and celebrities  – demonstrate how artists can produce works that are in essence indistinguishable from reality.

So sit back, relax and feast your eyes on these beautiful works without wondering whether they’re real – they’re not. But could you tell the difference?

Stalemate by Luis Deckard

‘Stalemate’ was inspired by Craig Mullins’ concept and modeled in ZBrush, detailed in XYZ and textured in SP and Mari, rendered in Arnold.

Daniel Craig portrait by Luc Bégin

Luc created this model in V-Ray for 3ds Max, did the hair with Ornatrix and rendered it in Corona renderer.

Guesthouse by Benjamin Springer

Benjamin spent weeks working with Cinema4D and Corona render for this project. This beautiful piece contains 24 million polygons and takes 36 hours to render on an i73930 with 32GB RAM!

Portrait of Sean Frandsen by Ian Spriggs

Ian Spriggs says this work was inspired by Vermeer’s ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’. Modeled in Maya, sculpted/textured by using Mudbox, rendered in V-Ray with some touch ups done in Photoshop.

Portrait of a wolf by Felix Benjamin Bader

Felix created this portrait as a part of a fine art book print project by using ZBrush for sculpturing, Mari for texturing and Maya with Arnold for rendering. He did the fur in Shave and Haircut with some postproduction in Photoshop.

Black Rose by Piotr Rusnarczyk

Piotr played around with a stock model and Arnold renderer for Maya to create this wonderful piece.

Dick Smith by Kris Costa

Dick Smith notes that this is a ‘work in progress’, sculpted and textures polypainted in ZBrush. The artist created his own textures, alphas and brushes for this portrait.

Phil Heath fan art by Gaurav Kumar

Gaurav sculpted this wonderful study of human anatomy in ZBrush and rendered it in KeyShot. The photorealism of this work is fantastic and it even transfers to 3D printing!

A cricket in the house is good luck by Courtney Hopkinson

Courtney brought the superstition ‘A cricket in the house is good luck’ to life by using a combination of V-Ray for Cinema 4D, ZBrush texturing, and architectural visualization from Evermotion.

Abraham Lincoln by ShaoNian (少 年)

The detailed wrinkles, especially under the eyes, are what make this ZBrush sculpt of Abraham Lincoln come to life.

The Table by Marlindo Dias Pontes

Marlindo used photographic references to create this scene by using 3ds Max, V-Ray, Marvelous and Photoshop.

Old Man by Valentin Erbuke

Valentin Erbuke took up the challenge of aged human skin and upped the difficulty by adding a full spectrum of interaction with light. He textured the model with Texturing.xyz.

Woods by Leon Labyk

Leon used nature models he had created in Maya and textured with Megascans atlases, optimized them with PBR textures to make the scene suitable for VR. Rendered in CryEngine V.

Barbara Palvin by Galal Mohey

Galal worked with Mohamed Alaa to sculpt this model in ZBrush and enhance it with Texturing.XYZ maps. Rendering was done in Arnold using ALshaders and Xgen for hair.

Old frog by Daniel Midholt

Daniel took some shots of a swamp he lives nearby and got to working with Maya and ZBrush to put this grumpy frog into the scene.

W. Churchill portrait by Eduardo Simon

Eduardo used ZBrush, KeyShot and Photoshop to create this amazing model of Churchill.

Big Friendly Giant by Brett Sinclair

Brett got inspired by Disney’s BFG to create this piece in ZBrush, textured it in Mari and rendered in Maya with the Arnold plug-in.

Super Sweet by Yilu Hao

Yilu used ZBrush, Substance Painter and Maya with Arnold to produce this wonderful piece.

Woody Allen by Zbygnek Kysela

Zbygnek used ZBrush and Maya with Arnold to create this stunning model of his favorite personality.

H.A.S.H. by Piotr Rusnarczyk

Piotr Rusnarczyk strikes again! He used Photoshop to tweak the texture and ZBrush for this study of skin shaders. Rendered in Octane.

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Is it Real or Realistic? 20 Pieces of Photorealistic Digital Art first appeared on Concept Art World

Freelance concept artist and illustrator, Kekai Kotaki has been posting some great collection of knight inspired sketches and illustrations.

Link: Website | Tumblr | Instagram

All images © Kekai Kotaki or their respective copyright holder.

The post Knight Sketches and Illustrations by Kekai Kotaki first appeared on Concept Art World

The MerMay challenge is coming up next month, so we’ve collected a few sketches, illustrations and concept art pieces to get you inspired. This collection showcases an assortment of mythical creatures such as mermaids, mermen and sirens created by the many talented artists featured on Concept Art World. If you participate don’t hesitate to share and tags on Twitter.

Bayard Wu

Mingjue Helen Chen

Charlie Bowater

Cory Loftis

Guangjian Huang

Naomi Baker

Jake Parker

Ross Tran

Atey Ghailan

Donato Giancola

Scott Kikuta

Ricardo Bessa

Vadim Sverdlov

Viktor Titov

Lois Van Baarle

Luke Mancini

Kai Carpenter

Ty Carter

Mauricio Abril

Daren Horley

Dana Guerrieri

Jakub Javora

Ashley Mackenzie

Saiful Haque

Gem Lim

Thomas Brissot

Oleg Saakyan

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Mermaid Concept Art and Illustrations first appeared on Concept Art World

This selection of work showcases book cover art created by the talented concept artists and illustrators featured on Concept Art World. These books range from a variety of genres including fantasy, science fiction and horror. Have you created art for a book and would like to get featured? Be sure to follow and message us on Twitter or Instagram.

Total War: Warhammer Game Guide by Wiki Guide, Cover Art by Slawomir Maniak

The Book of Dust(German) by Phillip Pullman, Cover Art by Bruno Gentile

The Call of Cthulhu(French) by H.P. Lovecraft, Cover Art by François Baranger

La Reine de la Folie(French) by Sébastien Thréhout, Cover Art by Pierre Droal

The Golden Rose: Book Two of the War of the Rose by Kathleen Bryan, Cover Art by Donato Giancola

Archmage: Homecoming Book I by R.A. Salvatore, Cover Art by Aleksi Briclot

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson, Cover Art by Miranda Meeks

Dune by Frank Herbert, Cover Art by Sam Weber

The Warren by Brian Evenson, Cover Art by Victor Mosquera

Les Abîmes d’Autremer, l’Intégrale(French) by Danielle Martinigol, Cover Art by Jessica Rossier

The Blackest Heart (The Five Warrior Angels) by Brian Lee Durfee, Cover Art by Richard Anderson

Stardust (Rebel Stars Book 5) by Edward W. Robertson, Cover Art by Juhani Jokinen

Hardcore(Combat-K) by Andy Remic, Cover Art by Marek Okon

Call of Cthulhu RPG Keeper Rulebook: Horror Roleplaying in the Worlds of H.p. Lovecraft, Cover Art by Sam Lamont

Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko, Cover Art by Yongjae Choi

The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories by A.C. Wise, Cover Art by Reiko Murakami

Champions of Aetaltis by Several Authors, Cover Art by Mitchell Malloy

HALO: Hunters in the Dark by Peter David, Cover Art by Kory Lynn Hubbell

Ronin: Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai (Osprey Wargames) by Craig Woodfield, Cover Art by Jose Daniel Cabrera Peña

Le Royaume de Tobin(French) by Lynn Flewelling, Cover Art by Gary Jamroz

Mission Mars(French) by Philippe Nessmann, Cover Art by Ronan Le Fur

Leviathan (The Antediluvian Legacy, Book 1) by R. M. Huffman, Cover Art by Lucas Graciano

Dangerous Women(French) by Gardner R. Dozois and George R. R. Marti, Cover Art by Simon Goinard

Starfire: A Red Peace by Spencer Ellsworth, Cover Art by Sparth

Sword Sisters: A Red Reaper by Tara Cardinal, Cover Art by Arman Akopian

Special Metal: A Tale of the Bloo Cluster by Mark T. Skarstedt, Cover Art by Geoffroy Thoorens

Dune by Frank Herbert, Cover Art by Henrik Sahlström

The Martyr’s Tears (The Chronicles of the Martyr Book 2) by Joel Gavin Manners, Cover Art by Bayard Wu

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Book Cover Art Inspiration first appeared on Concept Art World

We’ve collected an assortment of sailing ship illustrations, sketches and concept art pieces created by the talented artists that have been previously featured on Concept Art World. If you would like to participate in a future theme for the Inspiration section, be sure to message us on Twitter or Facebook.

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Sailing Ship Concept Art and Illustrations first appeared on Concept Art World

Concept artist and illustrator Atey Ghailan has posted a great collection of art inspired by the Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli. His artwork includes illustrations and sketches featuring characters from movies such as Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke.

The post Studio Ghibli Inspired Artwork by Atey Ghailan first appeared on Concept Art World

Conceptual artist Paul Gerrard was kind enough to share some of his re-imagined art for Masters of the Universe. He has recently worked on feature films such as Hellboy :Rise of the Blood Queen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and television shows like Into the Badlands and The Shannara Chronicles.

In my career I have been asked to re-imagine many an iconic character but none that have influenced me as much as the MOTU characters. As a child I was obsessed with these wildly imaginative , incredible works of fiction. Robots, creatures, medieval warlords. So I set out to have retro fun and create them in my own style, in the Gerrardian way. To get into the mindset and the core essence of each character, then bring that out in the design. If I could I would illustrate them all.

Be sure to also check out his art book, Gerrardian Vol 1: Monochromatic Beginnings.

Link: Website | Twitter | Instagram

The post Masters of the Universe Re-Imagining Art by Paul Gerrard first appeared on Concept Art World

To celebrate the return of Netflix’s Stranger Things, we’ve collected a few fan art pieces created by the talented artists featured on Concept Art World. This collection of artwork includes concepts, illustrations, and sketches inspired by the retro science fiction-horror series created by the Duffer Brothers.

Simon Goinard

Pablo Carpio

Furio Tedeschi

Miranda Meeks

Meg Park

Rayner Alencar

Trudi Castle

Jason Chan

Sam Kallis

Seamas Gallagher

Nicholas Kole

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Stranger Things Fan Art and Illustrations first appeared on Concept Art World

To celebrate the release of Blade Runner 2049 directed by Denis Villeneuve, we’ve collected a few art pieces created by the talented artists previously featured on Concept Art World. This collection of artwork includes concepts, illustrations, and sketches inspired by the neo-noir science fiction film, Blade Runner.

Brennan Massicotte

Finnian MacManus

Roberto Robert

Simon Weaner

Colie Wertz

Pascal Blanche

Joseph Kim

AJ Frena

Neil Blevins

Toby Lewin

Andrian Luchian

Jonas De Ro

Tony Holmsten

Andreas Rocha

Marek Okon

Ronan Le Fur

Maciej Kuciara

Artur Sadlos

Emmanuel Shiu

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Blade Runner Inspired Concept Art and Illustrations I first appeared on Concept Art World

To celebrate the release of Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, we’ve collected a few illustrations and concept art pieces inspired by the science-fiction horror franchise. The fan art showcased here was created by the talented artists previously featured on Concept Art World, so be sure to follow the links to see more of their work.

Alejandro Mirabal

Dominic Qwek

Benoit Godde

Kory Lynn Hubbell

Pascal Blanche

Furio Tedeschi

Ken Barthelmey

Jesper Andersen

Kevin T. Chin

Luke Mancini

Marco Nelor

Marek Okon

The post Alien(Franchise) Inspired Concept Art and Illustrations I first appeared on Concept Art World

Concept artist and illustrator Björn Hurri has been releasing a series of steampunk character illustrations as a tribute to the Star Wars universe. Be sure to check out more of his concept artwork and illustrations here.

Link: www.bjornhurri.com

All images used with permission by the artist. © Björn Hurri or their respective copyright holder.

The post Steampunk Star Wars Illustrations by Björn Hurri first appeared on Concept Art World

To celebrate the release of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we’ve collected some great fan art created by the talented artists featured on Concept Art World. This collection of artwork includes illustrations, paintings, and sketches inspired by The Legend of Zelda series.

Mingjue Helen Chen

David Palumbo

Andrew Theophilopoulos

Quentin Regnes

Tim Löchner

Trudi Castle

Tyler Edlin

Kekai Kotaki

Kevin T. Chin

Romain Mennetrier

Mike Yamada

James Zapata

Jake Parker

Rayner Alencar

Ross Tran

Jonas De Ro

Steve Jung

Abe Taraky

Jeremy Fenske

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post The Legend of Zelda Inspired Concept Art and Illustrations I first appeared on Concept Art World

Freelance concept artist and illustrator Simon Goinard has shared some of his recent work inspired by Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction series, Dune. With a focus on meticulous detail and a clear admiration for Herbert’s universe, Goinard’s art offers fresh interpretations of the landscapes, characters, and technology found within the Dune saga. Through his distinctive style, he brings to life the harsh yet mesmerizing environments of Arrakis, the intricate cultural nuances of the Fremen, and the political complexities that define the narrative.

Links: Website

The post Dune Inspired Concept Art by Simon Goinard first appeared on Concept Art World

To celebrate some of the classic western movies such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, Tombstone and the most recent incarnation of the science fiction thriller Westworld, we’ve collected some wild west inspired art. The illustrations, sketches and concept artwork seen below were created by the many talented artists previously featured on Concept Art World.

If you would like to share some of your artwork don’t hesitate to tweet at us @conceptartworld.

Kekai Kotaki

Andrei Pervukhin

Jessica Rossier

Emrah Elmasli

Andrew Theophilopoulos

Tyler Carter

B. Börkur Eiríksson

Sergi Brosa

Atey Ghailan

Richard Anderson

Samuel Aaron Whitehead 

Eytan Zana

Calum Alexander Watt

Jeremy Fenske

Chad Weatherford

Ivan Smirnov

John Park

Maciej Kuciara

Kai Carpenter

Piero Macgowan

Tim Löchner

Simon Goinard

Giorgio Grecu

Isaac Orloff

Angelina Stroganova

Jake Gumbleton

Karl Simon Gustafsson

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Western Concept Art & Illustrations I first appeared on Concept Art World

We’ve compiled another great collection of concepts, illustrations and fan art inspired by the Star Wars universe. This selection includes artwork created by some of the talented artists previously featured on Concept Art World.

Frank Hong

Gary Jamroz

Nicolas Pierquin

Marco Teixeira

Alexander Ovchinnikov

Kevin T. Chin

Daryl Mandryk

Levente Peterffy

Matt Rockefeller

Mark Molnar

Zezhou Chen

Sebastian Gromann

Roberto Robert

Goro Fujita

Furio Tedeschi

Michal Kus

Simon Goinard

Meg Park

Jake Parker

Mingjue Helen Chen

Steve Wang

Samuel Aaron Whitehead 

Guillaume Menuel

Claire Hummel

Emrah Elmasli

Colin Fix

Bobby Pontillas

Bjorn Hurri

Encho Enchev

Anthony Jones

Ricardo Bessa

Atey Ghailan

Bastien Grivet

Emmanuel Shiu

The post Star Wars Concept Art and Illustrations II first appeared on Concept Art World

Below are several concepts and illustrations inspired by the Dark Knight himself, Batman. This collection includes artists previously featured on Concept Art World. If you’d like to participate in a future theme for the Inspiration section, be sure to message us on Twitter or Facebook.

Juhani Jokinen

Hethe Srodawa

Florent Auguy

Matt Allsopp

Reynan Sanchez

Jung Park

Henrik Sahlström

Furio Tedeschi

Adam Nichols

David Muñoz Velazquez

Eduardo Peña

James Zapata

Jason Norton

Jackson Sze

Jan Ditlev

Calum Alexander Watt

Saiful Haque

Julien Renoult

Arman Akopian

Richard Anderson

Brad Wright

Colin Fix

Joseph Kim

Yap Kun Rong

Evan Shipard

Morgan Yon

Admira Wijaya

Igor Kieryluk

Nicolas Pierquin

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Batman Concepts and Illustrations I first appeared on Concept Art World

Now that Pacific Rim 2 is back on track we’ve collected a few kaiju and jaeger inspired concepts created by artists previously featured on Concept Art World. If you would like to participate in a future theme for the Inspiration section, be sure to message us on Twitter or Facebook.

John Liberto

Dominic Qwek

Daryl Mandryk

Kouji Tajima

Bastien Grivet

Johnson Ting

Pat Presley

Bradley Wright

Ricardo Bessa

Emmanuel Shiu

Emerson Tung

Justin Fields

Brett “2D” Bean

The post Kaiju and Jaeger Inspired Concepts first appeared on Concept Art World

Concept artist and illustrator Ronan Le Fur a.k.a Dofresh, has created a great series of concept art pieces inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu.

What if the Old Ones really came back? What if Lovecraft was right?

Link: Tumblr

All images used with permission by the artist. © Ronan Le Fur or their respective copyright holder.

The post H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ Concept Art by Ronan Le Fur first appeared on Concept Art World

Below are some inspirational examples of Samurai illustrations, sketches and concept art pieces created by some of the talented artists featured on Concept Art World. If you would like to participate in a future theme for the Inspiration section, be sure to message us on Twitter or Facebook.

Pierre-Etienne Travers

Joon Ahn

Benoit Godde

Jonas Ro

Darren Bartley

Paul Christopher

Slawomir Maniak

Karl Lindberg

Alex Figini

Nicolas Ferrand

Mitchell Mohrhauser

Björn Hurri

Richard Anderson

Mark Kent

Juhani Jokinen

Jason Scheier

Rayner Alencar

John Wallin Liberto

B. Börkur Eiríksson

Armand Baltazar

Zen Wang

Bruno Gauthier Leblanc

Carlos NCT

Izzy Medrano

Kekai Kotaki

Levente Peterffy

Melody Cisinski

Eytan Zana

Dehong He

Eric Chiang

Armand Serrano

All images are the © copyright of their respective owners.

The post Samurai Concept Art and Illustration first appeared on Concept Art World

Now that we’ve had our first official glimpse of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, we’re excited to showcase this collection of concepts, illustrations and fan art inspired by the Star Wars universe. This collection includes artwork created by some of the talented artists previously featured on Concept Art World, enjoy.

Ryan Church

Simon Goinard

Anthony Jones

Bruno Werneck

David Palumbo

Gustavo Mendonca / Colin Fix

Gary Jamroz

Chris Rosewarne

Mikaël Léger

Stephen Chang

Michal Lisowski

Mark Molnar

Kai Carpenter

Kevin Demuynck

Guillaume Menuel

Michael Pedro

Bobby Pontillas

James Zapata

Joshua James Shaw

Lorin Wood

Carlos NCT

Jan Urschel

Michael Pasquale

Tara Rueping

Daryl Mandryk

Amy Beth Christenson

Alex Chen

Björn Hurri

Billy George

Furio Tedeschi

Pat Presley

Brenoch Adams

Anthony Eftekhari

Dermot Power

Cristi Balanescu

Alex Charleux

Izzy Medrano

The post Star Wars Concept Art and Illustrations first appeared on Concept Art World