Incredible photo-realistic Drawings by Diego Fazio

Incredible photo-realistic drawings by Diego Fazio, a self-taught Italian artist. “Each portrait is done with just a pencil and paper and can take up to 200 hours to finish.” It’s hard to believe these pictures are not photographs. They are pencil drawings made by Diego Fazio, a 23 year old self-taught artist living in Italy. Also known as DiegoKoi on Deviantart, Diego started off as a tattoo artist but eventually began drawing bodies instead of drawing on them. Each meticulously detailed portrait can take up to 200 hours to complete. Born in 1989 in Lamezia, Italy, the emerging talent is self-taught; starting his career as a tattoo artist. He cites the artwork of Katsushika Hokusai, a highly influential Japanese artist from the Edo period, as one of his early inspirations. Each artwork can take hundreds of hours and Diego says he only began drawing in 2007.