Diego Fazio, a 22-year-old artist in Italy who also goes by DiegoKoi online, is known for his “precise lines and Oriental techniques,” according to his DeviantArt page. But just how precise and technical his work can be is best exemplified by how realistic his drawings appear.
Take this one.

(Image: DiegoKoi via Facebook)
One might be tempted to argue and say the above image is photograph, but Fazio created it entirely with pencil. Here’s the piece, which would be considered photorealistic, while still in the works.

(Image: DiegoKoi via Facebook)
The artist’s work began gaining recent traction after being posted on Buzzfeed.
According to DeviantArt (translated by Google), Fazio was first a tattoo artist but eventually left to focus on drawing bodies, instead of drawing on them. Fazio’s “hundreds of shades” are said to lead him “to create contrasts that touch the soul of the one who observes his works.”
Fazio has been awarded several honors for his work over the last few years. Below are a few more of his drawings.

(Image: DiegoKoi via Facebook)

(Image: DiegoKoi via Facebook)

(Image: DiegoKoi via Facebook)
Learn more about the artist on his DeviantArt page here or see more images of his on Facebook here. Check out Fazio’s blog here.
If you liked this story, check out these photorealistic paintings TheBlaze featured by Pedro Campos.
(H/T Gizmodo)





















































































































Comments (64)
yukon42
Oct. 24, 2012 at 4:29pm“He didn’t build that”!
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TruthBeToYou
Oct. 24, 2012 at 8:24pmAm I the only one that can see the deception. You cant draw that detailed on canvas with a pencil. You cant draw clear water with a pencil. Or that fine of detail with a pencil free hand, drawing from one side to the other. Can’t anybody tell the man is standing in front of a partial laid over canvas photo to give the apparence of drawing. And a lot of people just fell for it. The man is lying or may be part of a group that is fed funded to learn how to fool us. If people did not see the photo of him in front of his drawing there would be very different post on here. Last image is pencil not the first. Remember the phrase, Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see. The best lie is rooted in trust and truth.
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Gustav
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:05pmTruthbetoyou: umm? Your an idiot. Everything is a conspiracy to you. You sit around and see others doing things that you could never even imagine doing in your life so you tear it down and call it fake. Typical loser hating those who are not. How about spending a fraction of your time sitting on your dirty couch and look into these things. The picture is 100% real. Hate it? No, you hate yourself and deflect to fool yourself. I’ve lost brain cells just reading your pathetic dribble and may have to ask this artist to draw me some more after he draws you a life. But you wouldn’t believe that either. The”Matrix” was just a movie! Wake up and smell the fake coffee that your not drinking because the glass isn’t really there….
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Mr.Fitnah
Oct. 25, 2012 at 9:52amSorry TRUTHBETOYOU
You just don’t know things like, you can draw on other things than canvas,
and the pictures are so “poorly done”* they are clearly done by hand .
Check the light reflection in the eyes ?
The folds of skin around the eye ?
The lack of pores is areas where they are generally very large?
The sudden transitions from texture to very smooth skin?
These are hints that they are drawings.
* poorly done as an attempt to fool one into convincing one they are looking at a photograph.
He is very talented and learning.
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matcotoolman
Oct. 24, 2012 at 4:14pmQuote: “One might be tempted to argue and say the above image is photograph, but Fazio created it entirely with pencil. Here’s the piece, which would be considered photorealistic, while still in the works.”
seeing as the artist did not draw any of the images on my computer screen, I have to argue that all the above images are photographs. though they may or may not be a photograph of a pencil drawing.
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TruthBeToYou
Oct. 25, 2012 at 9:31pmGustav and Mr fitnah
When I was a teen I had a job making all types of artist accessary’s to be painted or drawn on. I can tell just by looking at it its construction, it is what we used when we loaded a picture in the computer and mass produced pictures or painting. We also could put enlarged photographs by the 1000′s and lay them on the canvas or paper. I made lots of canvas and paper frames so I at least know what I am looking at. I am also not a hater or a conspiracy theorist .Think why is he in black and white also, plus I was only talking about the top picture. Its not very hard to trick the mind on something unless you know what your looking at. When I work for a govt contractor under Clinton admid we worked on some very advanced radar systems off base at are shop. Now you see them on the military channel. We could not tell anybody what we were working on at the time. Here is your conspiracy of mine, when we pick up the hardware it was from a contact in the back of a newly opened custom cabinet shop. When you walked in they treated you as if you were a customer, I would ask for so and so they then have me pull around then give me the goods. The whole time this is taking place the men in the shop are still making cabinets as if they had a order to fill. At the time it was huss huss not top secret so I learned a thing or two about how things are not always as they seem. There are lots of things I learned and could tell you but you would never believe.
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thomas
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:49pmOne of the greats!
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sillyfreshness
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:56pmNow that guy is in a class all by himself. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I would swear those were b&w photographs. Wow he’s good!
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rp454
Oct. 24, 2012 at 1:43pmAll I can say is WOW! What a talent.
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boogietheclown
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:49pmJust remember, he didn’t draw that. Someone somewhere made that pencil he was holding. The man-god obama said it so it must be true.
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Cowell
Oct. 24, 2012 at 1:05pmHe needs to start working on video games.
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The citizen who cares
Oct. 24, 2012 at 3:43pmTotally!
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Chuhyona
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:54pmAnything I draw looks like realistic stick figures.
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Eastinfection
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:17pmCHUHYONA…
lol!…..
< like this?
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thomas
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:50pmLol
lol
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midnightvelvet
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:42pmAmazing that he could make it look so much like a photo, so why not just look at a photo and skip him? Not saying that he shouldn’t do it, but why so much work for something indistinguishable from a photograph?
To each his own, I guess.
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smokie
Oct. 24, 2012 at 1:33pmIt makes him happy. Sometimes it’s okay to do something that makes one happy. His work is excellant. The level of concentration to excel like that is amazing.
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BigBoss305
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:16pmI’m not sure I follow your logic. I look at “a photo” and a drawing as two pieces of art on their own separate merits. Why would you want to just “skip” one?
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Eastinfection
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:28pm@MIDNIGHT…
Do you go into wax museums and wonder why they don’t just use actual dead people?
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AllLost
Oct. 24, 2012 at 4:00pmA photo does not create what is in the mind, but what is in reality. To have an image in your head and be able to reproduce it like this is astounding.
Since I flunked kindergarten finger paints I envy this man.
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romadave
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:13pmReminds me of a character in a Kurt Vonnegut book. He painted hyper realistic scenes and no one could make the subject look more lifelike. He had perfected the art of portraiture…. Then photography was invented and put him out of business.
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romadave
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:23pmThe name I’m thinking of is Dan Gregory… mentor to Rabo Karabekian. Books are Bluebeard and Breakfast of Champions.
Looks like a similar thing to vinyl records. First technology puts them out of business, then people get nostalgic for the analog.
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thegreatcarnac
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:46amFantastic! Remarkable talent!
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mrs.janet.murgatroid
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:37amI’m calling fake on that first one with the lady and water running down her face. Look how he’s completed every detail on the right side of her face and doesn’t even have the shape of her head sketched in on the left. Don’t you start with a general overall outline and then sketch in the details?
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G-WHIZ
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:42amAn artist has the complete picture in his brainas he/she does his/her sketch.
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Shaqfuey
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:17pmIf you look at the artist’s page, you can see the “work in progress” picture that shows the rough sketch of the woman’s left side on the paper/canvas.
Pretty amazing stuff.
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Drifterbill
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:27pmBecause it’s pencil and hes righhanded it makes sense to me that he would start on the left and work right.. No smudges!!
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GENE BLISTER
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:35pmSome artists do, Mrs. Murgatroid. Some start with tonalities, figure-ground relationships and negative/positive spaces, isolations of elemental relationships within the Golden Rectangle, even reductions of components to spheres, cones, cylinders and cubes. Some just draw the leprechaun or the kitty. Others see the finished whole standing before them and simply have to scribble in the bits.
“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” — Michelangelo
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Eastinfection
Oct. 24, 2012 at 2:20pmDRIFTERBILL is spot-on here… For some dumb reason i went to school as an art major for two years before i switched to something even more useless- ……philosophy.
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OlderCowGirl
Oct. 25, 2012 at 11:10pmThose of you who’ve never seen paintings or drawings that look totally realistic are missing a full life. I’ve seen people paint/draw like this and I’m so so jealous. I’d give anything to create like they do. I do oil paintings…and I’m fairly good. But there are some folks who’s brains can do miracles.
This is real. I’ve seen it. Just hard to wrap your brains around that it’s true.
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OniKaze
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:14amNice gift he has there….
The Photo of the pretty woman with water running down her face looks kinda like Rosario Dawson…
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G-WHIZ
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:40amThis is an immage of HIS PENCIL-DRAWINGS!! You must have been not-taught to not-read by Vanjones Publcschooling.
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OniKaze
Oct. 24, 2012 at 4:51pmYour an idiot…
THAT IS A PHOTO OF A PENCIL DRAWING…..
I wasn’t looking at a physical drawing… I was looking at a photo of a physical drawing… moron…
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SITDOWNANDSHUTUP
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:08amNo freaking way!!!!!!!!!!!! That is absolutely amazing (and I am hard to impress)
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nzkiwi
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:25amMe too. But I am very, very impressed.
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tillurdizzy
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:04amLooks pretty easy. I just don’t feel like doing it right now.
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chips1
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:17amI know what you mean. I flunked clay class.
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kadster01
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:46am“Ohhhh, I was gonna do it this afternoon!” – Bart Simpson
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Pokerjoe
Oct. 24, 2012 at 1:33pmI fluked rug.
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Carlinpa
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:04amI’ll take this over Picasso any day
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john vincent
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:02amHence the word ‘artist,’
as opposed to the faux artists who pass off garbage as art.
This work is awesome-a real talent
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GENE BLISTER
Oct. 24, 2012 at 12:39pmYou called it John. Items 22 and 23 of the declared goals of the Communist Takeover of America:
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
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RaydocX
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:59amtoo bad the economy isn’t as robust and recovering as they say…
if i wasn’t spending more than twice what i spent on gas, and even more on produce, i might have some change to get some of that art.
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Ducky657
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:53amAs an artist I am blown away! This young man has an amazing eye and is able to translate it to paper. He probably makes it look easy–
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Rocky_biskit
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:05amDitto!!! I am a novice/amateur artist and I couldnt come close to this … this guy is amazing!!!!
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COFemale
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:06amIf you like him, you might like Dru Blair. He is an exceptional airbrush artist. You can visit him at http://www.drublair.com. He also has some photo realistic art, which is a little easier than using a pencil.
This guy is amazing.
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SITDOWNANDSHUTUP
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:15amI have seen many Rembrandts and they are extremely detailed and precise. The “old guy” picture is amazing with tremendous detail and almost perfect symetry. As an artist, wouldn’t you agree? Looks like a high res black and white photo with professional lighting.
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G-WHIZ
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:45amThe pencile did it! (sarc.) :>)
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rockymtngal
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:52amWhat a wonderful gift it is that his man has! Goodness sakes…it’s simply amazing!
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voodoolife
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:49amAmazing talent!
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bgotts27
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:48amWow!
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contkmi
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:47amTalented man.
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its_the_end_of_the_world_as_we_know_it
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:47amVery talented.
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DimmuBorgir
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:46amThat guy is pretty damn good
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TelepromoterNChief
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:44amDiego didn’t draw that.
Diego’s pencil did.
Diego’s pencil and paper were composed of resources that wrongfully robbed the environment.
Diego is a criminal.
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SREGN
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:15amAll that carbon…..
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Experiment626
Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:25amthat’s good stuff!
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RobertSailing
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:42amWow
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kickagrandma
Oct. 24, 2012 at 10:53amDitto!
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