Book Review - Dark Stories by Dark Artists

"Dark Stories by Dark Artists" is a book that I was given as a present at Christmas and I have to say its quickly become one of my favourite art books.
The book itself tells the story of various different artists and how they came into the artistic world as well as how they perfected their styles and how they were drawn to the horror and macabre genre of art.

Anyone who knows me and my art knows that the grotesque, horror and macabre go hand in hand with my work, I will rarely do a piece without including something bordering on the uncanny valley, even if its only the slightest bit. Well this book is absolutely JAM PACKED with the weird and wonderful, from simple and elegant designs to enormous canvas pieces that have taken months to complete. The book really does have everything and has influenced me as an artist more than any other art book ever has.

I've included some samples of the artwork below, as I said previously, these artists work in a variety of different mediums from pencil and paint to sculpture and plastics. It amazes me just what they can do with the materials that they have.

Art (C) Caitlin Hackett

The picture above shows four separate designs. The first is a stag with entangled antlers, the second is a two headed bird with the lower body made up of a womans arms and ribs, the two below the bird shows the artists process for the stag and another separate work in progress.

My favourite piece in the entire book is the two headed bird with the woman arms as not only is it extremely surreal and macabre but the colours used throughout the painting are beautiful with a contrast of bright reds and more muted tones of brown and peach. This picture actually speaks to me on a more personal level as I feel that, to me at least, its a painting that represents personal torment, arguing with yourself and being of two minds about life or a decision that needs to be made.

Art (C) Jon Beinart

The picture shown above is one of the many works by another of my favourite artists, Jon Beinart, who focuses more on the human form and warping it into disturbing shapes and patterns. In the image above, Jon has used the model of a baby and turned it into somewhat of a centipede creature  by adding a mass of writhing arms and legs. I really like this sculpture as the variety of limbs that the model has means that it makes for a good source of observing how light is cast on complex forms and how something as sweet and innocent as a baby can be morphed into something truly quite horrific.

The book itself is cram packed full of wonderful artists and their stories of how their artwork came to be and where they are today. The book has beautiful big glossy pages to look through and is well presented, it doesn't have a whole lot of text either so its great for people wanting more art and less writing. I've found Dark Stories by Dark Artists to be an invaluable source of inspiration and anatomical reference to me and I would recommend anyone who's interested in the macabre to buy this book as it really is worth every penny.