Ramel El Aka Raa

Apollo consultations with Raa are booked through the studio's consultation form — you describe the piece, upload 2–3 reference images (original resolution, not filtered social crops), note your placement and honest scale, and the studio routes the booking to his calendar. Raa's calendar runs 8–16 weeks out for new clients because most of his work spans multi-session commitments. If your timeline is shorter, a smaller piece or a different Apollo bench may fit the window. Bring the reference file to consultation — that's the first 20 minutes of the conversation.

Photorealism — portraits, nature scenes, hyper-real objects, and black-and-gray realism panels. Clients travel from across the country for his signature photorealistic style. The bench runs in portrait realism, memorial pieces, pet portraits, wildlife photorealism, architectural and landscape realism, and mixed-style pieces where realism transitions into other styles. If your piece is fine line, traditional, tribal, or cover-up, another Apollo bench is the better match. Booking the match matters more than booking the name.

Yes. Photorealism is rendered from specific photographic reference — bring the original high-resolution file, not a filtered social-media crop, not a screenshot, not an AI generation. Filter-heavy crops and low-resolution sources don't carry the information a portrait needs. If you're booking a family portrait, pull the original file from the photographer or from your camera roll. If you're booking a memorial piece, we understand the reference situation is sometimes complicated — Raa will help you triangulate from multiple angles if the primary photo is imperfect. A photorealism piece without a specific reference is an inventory piece, and it shows.

Most Raa bookings span 3–5 sessions of 4–6 hours each, over 6–12 months total. A 6-inch black-and-gray portrait is typically 2–3 sessions. A full half-sleeve is 5–8 sessions. A full back is 6–12 sessions over 12–18 months. Photorealism is not a single-session style for anything above small-scale object work. Plan the timeline around the piece — rushing the calendar shows in the final work. If your hard deadline is inside a month, a different category or a different Apollo bench is the better match.

Photorealism does not scale down. A portrait needs 5 inches minimum to hold features; an object holds at 4 inches; a landscape scene needs 8 inches minimum to carry the tonal range. Below those scales, photorealism compresses — features blur during healing, the tonal range flattens, the piece reads as a smudge at the 5-year mark. Raa will not book a piece at a scale that will fail. If you want a small piece, route to a different category (traditional, fine line, illustrative) that holds at the size you want. Your honest scale sets your honest style.

Both, but black-and-gray is the dominant style at his bench. Grayscale realism ages longer because there's no pigment drift to watch over decades — the tonal range stays stable. Color realism is harder because the palette has to stay honest across healing and aging, and clients should budget for a touch-up at year 7 to 10 to refresh saturation. Raa books color realism selectively — for pieces where the reference demands the palette (a specific wildlife coloration, a heirloom object, a palette-specific memorial). Black-and-gray is the default for first-piece photorealism.

His bench is built around photorealism as a discipline — that's the training, the portfolio, and the calendar. Raa occasionally takes mixed-style pieces (realism transitioning into geometric or illustrative elements), but pure fine line, traditional, tribal, or cover-up work routes to other Apollo benches by default. If your piece isn't photorealism, the studio routes you to Blue Mason for fine line, realism, traditional, tribal, or cover-up work; David DaVinci for classical portraiture and color realism; Hannah Newman for small fine-line pieces. Booking the match matters more than booking the name.

Pricing at Apollo is quoted at consultation based on the sketch, the sitting plan, and the scope — not from the idea. Most Raa bookings are multi-session, so the total is discussed across the full timeline at the first consultation. A short single-session piece sits at one math tier; a full half-sleeve anchor across 5 sessions sits at another; a full back across 8–12 sessions sits at a third. All specifics are discussed in the room after the sketch. The studio does not quote from a phone photo or a text description because the sketch is where the honest math lands.