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.

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.

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.

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/