Artist Marcello Barenghi creates hyper-realistic artworks and drawings that look 3D! Marcello Barenghi specialises in ‘trick’ art which looks just like the real thing, usually created through observational drawings or paintings.
Marcello Barenghi is an artist inspired by food, wrappers and shiny objects! He is sometimes known as “The hyper-realist artist of the common things in the era of YouTube”, and his 3D artworks continue to astonish people. His artworks look so real you could easily get them confused for the real thing.
Top Facts about Marcello Barenghi!
- Marcello Barenghi was born in Milan in 1969.
- Marcello’s passion for drawing was developed from an early age – his parents encouraged his efforts and his dad loved drawing too!
- In school, Marcello Barenghi started drawing his favourite cartoon characters and comics.
- He went on to study architecture.
- He says ‘I am fascinated by everything, I am used to look at an object taking into account its reflections, the lights, the shadows, its colors and shape.‘
- He has over 2.5million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
- Marcello says he finds beauty in every object.
- He says he is never happy with the result! 😲
If you look closely at Marcello Barenghi’s hyperreal artworks, you will notice an incredible amount of detail. He uses a full range of tools to make his drawings come to life – the list below shows some of the tools he uses just to create highlights!
- WHITE GEL PEN
- WHITE PENCIL
- WHITE MARKERS
- WHITE ACRYLIC PAINT
- WHITE WATERCOLOUR
- BRUSHES FOR ACRYLIC
These are the materials I recommend if you want to create artworks like Marcello Barenghi:
Watch the Marcello Barenghi YouTube video below – how does he start his drawings? What does he add after he has drawn the shape? Which part of his drawing do you think is the most important?
Often drawing food, wrappers, glass and reflective surfaces, artist Marcello Barenghi usually follows certain steps in order to make his realistic drawings. Starting with the outline of the object, he presses on lightly with his pencil, gradually adding light shades and details. Next he uses solid, ‘block’ colours to add a base layer of colour, and usually adds a shadow with his airbrush gun.
Next, Marcello starts to work on adding ‘tonal depth’ to his work by adding a huge range of shades and highlights of each colour. From almost black, to the lightest shade. He does this for all of the colours he can see AND all of the details – it is a lot of hard work! To help with this process, he uses a range of artistic tools. Trying to do something similar with just one pencil wouldn’t work!
If you look at Marcello’s art pieces, you will see that he doesn’t include any background images or colour – this helps to make the main subject stand out and his use of shadow is more effective. We aren’t distracted by anything in the background and the drawings of the objects start to look 3D.
Which is your favourite Marcello Barenghi artwork? Why? How could you try to create something similar, what materials or tools would you need? What steps does Marcello take to make his work look 3D?
DOWNLOAD this page below, for free, as an Artist Research handout to use in your lesson. It includes all of the facts and images, and has questions for students to answer.
The Art Teacher 
One thought on “Marcello Barenghi”