Arresting Hyperrealistic Portraits by Mike Dargas

German artist Mike Dargas creates extraordinarily realistic seductive portraits that could easily be mistaken for photographs. Many of his work create an unforgettable impact as they measure over two metres in height.

Featuring obsessive precision acquired from his days as a tattoo artist, Dargas’s oil paintings explore the idea of veiling the skin, or covering it enigmatic liquid substances resembling honey, oil and chocolate. Some of his newer series feature translucent paper veils, showcasing the different aspects of his incredible hyperrealistic technique.

And let’s get real for a minute – it certainly helps he chooses models that are easy on the eye. One of his most recent series, for example, captures former Victoria’s Secret model Toni Garrn.

Mike Dargas was born in 1983 in Cologne, Germany. As a young schoolboy, he discovered the works of Salvador Dali, Caravaggio and HR Giger, who became his strong influences as his moved towards adolescence. At the age of eleven, Dargas exhibited his talent publicly, drawing old masters’ paintings with pastel and chalk on the pavement in front of the Cologne cathedral. He later got accepted in an art school, from which he graduated after a year and a half as the only child in a class of adults.

In his early twenties, Dargas built a solid reputation in the tattoo scene, winning numerous prizes and awards. His work attracted worldwide attention, above all due to the rapid distribution of his works through social media.