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Hung, Drawn And Executed – The Horror Art Of Graham Humphreys (book review).

I suspect a lot of you have seen artist Graham Humphreys’ art without necessarily associating who actually did it. As you should be able to tell from the title, ‘Hung, Drawn And Executed – The Horror Art Of Graham Humphreys’, he specialises in horror film posters, book covers, horror convention posters and commissions. He shows how he prepares a picture relying heavily on photo reference for the compositions. What makes it is the choice of colours to use and how to create it.

The final word is finished on a computer but I do find it odd that he’s relying on an A4 scanner when there are A3 scanners out there which would save him having to match up the sections which I know is a pain.

© Korero Press and Graham Humphreys 2019

Although all the work is horror orientated, the range of markets Humphreys covers is quite vast and even includes album covers, especially of film soundtracks, more so as there is a resurgence in vinyl. The notes against each picture gives some background to each. This is more an artbook than text about his life, although he does hail from the west country so it must be in the water we drink.

© Korero Press and Graham Humphreys 2019

Even though he relies on photo reference, the final interpretation and colour schemes are his own. He also acknowledges black and white films by not going all out for colour so as not to indicate something that is not there. He certainly has an affinity to horror films, getting commissions even from film directors which must speak for itself.

© Korero Press and Graham Humphreys 2019

It would be interesting to see him do his own work but I suspect commissions keep him far too busy for that, so I’ll let his work speak for him. A surprising book of art.

GF Willmetts

December 2019

(pub: Korero Press. 176 page large hardback. Price: £26.99 (UK), $45.00 (US), $60.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-91274-006-2)

check out websites: www.koreropress.com and https://grahamhumphreys.com/

 

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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