Italian artist Franco Clun uses only pencil and paper to create these incredibly realistic portraits that can easily be mistaken for photographs. Believe it or not, he’s a self-taught drawing master who has never studied art…

I’ve always found hyperrealism fascinating, and the collection of articles on this amazing art genre that I’ve posted on Oddity Central throughout the years is proof of that. I never get tired of looking at drawings and paintings so masterfully executed that they resemble high-resolution photos, and I consider myself lucky whenever I discover the works of truly gifted artists, like Franco Clun. The Italian-born master of the pencil says he has never taken art classes and that everything he knows he learned from experience and from reading some drawing manuals. I guess you can say he’s living proof that practice makes perfect, and that following your passions in life can truly lead to amazing things. Although he has had to take a long break from drawing to dedicate himself to other things, his love for graphite remained strong, and now he’s wielding his trusty pencils again to create marvelous works of art.

And as if his insane ability to capture every little detail of the human face in his detailed portraits wasn’t enough to make you love him, Franco Clun also wins points for choosing some of the coolest characters from today’s films and TV series, like Dr. House, the X-Men, or Thorin Oakenshield, from the newly released “The Hobbit”. His DeviantArt profile also features beautiful animal drawings and expertly-executed landscapes. Clun definitely deserves to be mentioned alongside established hyperrealist graphite masters like Paul Cadden, Kelvin Okafor or Dirk Dzimirsky.

Photos © Franco Clun