Sylvester Stallone has become a "man who concentrates on his art".

The 80-year-old actor has enjoyed a hugely successful career in Hollywood, starring in the Rocky and Rambo film franchises - but after stepping back from his movie career, Stallone is now embracing his love of art.

A source told People: "At 80, Stallone is a man who concentrates on his art.

"He has an incredible studio built at his house, and drawing and painting is his life. If he has a character to play, he sketches it out first."

Despite his tough-guy image, Stallone has always been a huge art enthusiast, and painting has been described as the actor's "first love".

The insider shared: "He had an amazing retrospective of his work in January and painting is truly his first love -- something he's been doing since he was 11."

Stallone lives on a "gorgeous compound in Palm Beach, Florida", and the actor has managed to find a really healthy balance in his life in recent years.

Another source explained to People: "He's still golfing and he's still acting."

Stallone staged his first art show, called Evolution, at Art Palm Beach last January, and the organisers explained that the actor had made a conscious effort to keep his artwork private until then.

A press release at the time explained: "That's the interesting part: someone who built one of the most recognised personal brands in entertainment deliberately kept a six-decade creative practice separate from it. No merch tie-ins, no licensing play, no Instagram content strategy. Just the work, in private, for sixty years."

Before that, Stallone opened up about his love of art.

He told Interview magazine in 2015: "I'm thinking of starting a gallery. I'd live in a museum if I could. I used to spend hours and hours in the Museum of Modern Art."

Asked about his art-buying habits, Stallone replied: "I'm very hung up on the late 19th-century artists. Mostly Romantic.

"I think that the great artists -- the majority of them -- are dead. We don't have many today who have the draughtsmanship.

"Most of my bronzes are Baryes, I have Menes, I have Rodins. I bought a Bourdelle sculpture of Heracles as The Archer -- a beautiful piece -- and I just bought a Delvaux. But again, I also love established artists like Botero, and Robert Graham."