Photorealism is a genre of art, the art that I have worked on for several hours to make an illustration look as real as possible based on a photograph of a watch. The objective is to make the audience feel like they are looking at a watch and not a drawing of one. Ironically, it all starts with a set of drawings called sketches, helping me create a mental image of what to start with:

From the sketches, shapes and colors become a part of the process; they create the idea of what eventually will make it to the illustration. Here is the picture of the watch I used as reference and next to it, the first and second drafts...

From the beginning there were delays and complications, one of them being the circle at the top of the face of the watch; the shadow on top of that circle required feedback from peers and friends to get to the final round. One person in particular suggested opacity and transparency, it was at the end exactly what needed to be done in order to create that one thin shadow.

Can you tell me now... what time is it?

Highlights and shadows on the metal case, reflection of the knob on the metal case, leather texture on the wristband, shadows and highlights hitting the hour and minute markers, these all represent the realism found on some watches, more specifically, the one I chose to study as reference; the idea is not to make it identical, but rather create a watch that can be next to the picture and show the viewers' eyes two watches instead of one.