Review: Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

Now this is what we call deviant art... discover the twisted afterlife world of a master artist.

Our Verdict

As well as containing some stunning and frankly slightly disturbing artwork, this book is also a handy buy for artists as Anthony Jones skims over the making of some of his creations.

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Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

Anthony's work is inspired by high concept fashion

Backers of this Kickstarter project may just have expected a nice collection of their favourite artist's work: but they've got much more than that.

In this deliciously deviant volume, concept artist, illustrator and educator Anthony Jones unleashes his "demented visions of the afterlife" in a stunning series of mainly monochrome paintings.

Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

This collection has delivered more than a standard Kickstarter project

Not quite telling a story, Heaven's Hell nonetheless introduces a string of horrifying and melancholy characters that get right under your skin. Inspired by "extreme high concept fashion design, black-and-white photography and monsters", they're quite unlike anything we've seen before.

And by giving them full space to breathe, it thrillingly conveys how much emotional power can be elicited by an artist willing to go with their gut instinct.

Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

This character finds pleasure in the demise of love

With the lion's share of the first 77 pages handed to the art itself (while tossing out pithy backstories for each demonic personality), the remainder of this 130-page softback devotes itself to tutorials.

These aren't full walkthroughs, but they do offer a series of valuable insights into the Photoshop techniques Anthony used to create and finesse his provocative and unsettling creatures, right down to individual brush presets.

Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

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The Verdict
8

out of 10

Heaven's Hell: the Art of Anthony Jones

As well as containing some stunning and frankly slightly disturbing artwork, this book is also a handy buy for artists as Anthony Jones skims over the making of some of his creations.

Tom May

Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.