Brazilian artist Sheila R. Giovanni specializes in incredibly detailed, hand-drawn portraits of celebrities, some of which cannot be told apart from high-resolution photographs.

Over the last twelve years, we’ve featured some talented portrait artists on Oddity Central, but Sheila R. Giovanni is definitely one of the best. Using only colored pencils, she is able to create photo-quality masterpieces perfect to the tiniest of details. Looking at some her best works, it’s no surprise that Sheila can spend up to 100 hours on a single project, as her attention to detail is pretty obvious. From expertly-placed shading and glows, to strands of hair and even the reflections in her subjects’ eyes, Giovanni’s artworks really are almost as life-like as photographs.

Photo: Sheila R. Giovanni/Instagram

Anyone who has ever attempted pencil portraiture knows how difficult it can be to nail a subject’s tiny features and imperfections on the level that Sheila R. Giovanni is able to do. The artist’s over 200,000 Instagram fans constantly praise her and some even call her an “art genius”.

Sheila R. Giovanni posts her incredibly realistic pencil drawings on her Instagram, but for aspiring artists wanting to hone their skills, she also holds online classes in color pencil hyper-realism, via her official website.

For more mesmerizing colored pencil artworks, check out the celebrity portraits of Alena Litvin and the still life masterpieces of Kohei Ohmori.