Emanuele Dascanio is a super-talented artist whose graphite and charcoal pencil drawings look like high-resolution black-and-white photographs.

Looking at some of 37-year-old Emanuele Dascanio’s masterpieces, it’s easy to see why he sometimes takes hundreds of hours to complete a single piece. He often works 12 to 14 hours a day, often sacrificing his private life for art, but he sees it as an investment, if he sows a lot today, he’ll have more results to harvest in the future. The level of detail he is able to achieve using simple pencils is mind-blowing, making it easy to understand why is considered one of the most gifted hyperrealists of this generation.

Photo: Emanuele Dascanio/Instagram

Born in Garbagnate Milanese, Italy, on June 7, 1983, Dascanio realized that he had a knack for the arts early on, and by age 18 he knew he wanted to become an artist. He enrolled at the Lucio Fontana Art School of Arese, from which he graduated in 2003, and in 2007 he met his mentor, esteemed Italian painter Giancarlo Corona, himself a student of the great master Mario Donizetti.

“Gianluca Corona taught me to connect the arm and the mind with the heart, and that without this trinity and intercommunication, no true artwork can emerge,” Emanuele told Cindy Wider of DrawPj.

Over the years, Emanuele Dascanio has won numerous awards for his breathtaking drawings, and has exhibited his creation in art galleries all over the world. His artworks are highly sought-after by private collectors.

For more of Emanuele Dascanio’s amazing hyperrealistic drawings, check out his official website, as well as his Instagram and Facebook.

For more incredibly detailed pencil drawings, take a look at the incredibly realistic-looking creations of Jono Dry, the picture-perfect portraits of Arinze Stanley, or the ultra-realistic portraits of Sheila Giovanni.