Greg 'Craola' Simkins

http://www.imscared.com/

‘’People often ask me, ’’Greg how did you get the nickname Craola?’’ Well, it was in fourth grade and I was a tremendous pain in the neck to my teacher, so once again she locked me in the closet. It wasn’t until the third hour that I heard a voice whisper to me, ’’I can get you out of here.’’ To my surprise I whirled around and could just barely make out a shape I the dim light. As my eyes focused, I realized it was some kind of mouse spider. It was as if the top half of a mouse had been sewn onto a spider’s body. Can you believe that? And how could it talk? As it was explaining to me a way of escape, I could barely focus and grabbed the 64 pack of crayons of the shelf behind the abomination and squashed it with the box. Just then my teacher opened the closet to see what the commotion was about and revealed the scene to the entire class. From then on I was known as Craola the mouse/spider killer (but later dropped the end part). Oh yeah I like to paint to. The end.’’

- Greg 'Craola' Simkins, from the book Juxtapoz Dark Arts, published in 2009 by Gingko Press, Inc.

(http://www.gingko%20press.com//juxtapoz.comjuxtapoz.com)

Greg 'Craola' is amazing, the way he changes animals to become characters and even creatures. His style is amazing and it’s even shown in his sketches, no matter what media he uses you can tell who it’s done by. His characters are so creative and I love how he combines a few of them together in his images so its almost a collage.



Doggy Bag

This one should appear pretty obvious, as it’s just role reversal on a very common ‘fad’ at the moment.

It has become so common that they especially make bags for dog, cat and other pets.

It means the have to sit I there own urine and filth, not be able to get any exercise, get mildly suffocated and also ‘pampered’.

Some people even go to the extent to put make up on their pets, surely that’s animal cruelty?

I don’t like how I’ve done the portrait of the baby in this one, it look 2D and has a weird expression on it’s face. Something to work on in the future.

Peacocking

There was recently a trend for peacock feathers, and many peacocks (being Male as the females are called peahens) were plucked for their feathers to be made into jewellery, accessories and so on, as the males use these feathers to gloat and attract mates, these now humiliated peacocks couldn't attract the females, which meant no fertilisation, no peachicks. (baby peacocks/peahens). 

The population dropped very quickly and very dramatically, so in this image I’ve decided that the Peacock is going to get revenge and has ripped off the arms of humans, and gouged out there eyeballs to turn into his tail feathers.

I made the arms holding the eyes because at the end of a peacock feather, there is a large oval shape, this is called the eye. I thought it was ironic somehow.

I am really proud of this piece, and am thinking about re creating it adding a bit more gore and detail and possibly colouring on computer rather than by hand.

A chance of Insanity

This page shows you my own experiments into creating something demented

and remunerable, playing with different styles and media to see which are really effective, which catch the audiences eye and which you just cant seem to shake off.

Let’s start of with a few drawings involving animals being used and slaughtered purely for fashion, so here are a few pieces I produced where I flipped the script and have the animals wearing the humans!

Some of these are quite weird and contain graphic content so be warned!!

The first one is of a bear wearing a coat made out of an obese humans flesh.

Everyone knows the issues with the ‘’fur coat’’ which is made out of various animals, bear, rabbit, mink, there are an unbelievable demand for this, and a brand called ‘’faux’’ was created which is French for FAKE. So that you could have the effect without the slaughter, but some people seem to want the blood on their hands. I drawn an obese woman mainly because she has more fat or blubber so the coat would be warmer than normal flat skin.



I decided to add the words ‘’BEAR NESSESITIES’’ as an ironic joke, as it’s a famous quote from a Disney Film called ‘The Jungle Book’

Your young and love the film, then you grown up and Baloo goes from your friend to your winter coat.

I really like this drawing as the bear looks really innocent, I might redo this image on the computer and colour it properly and experiment with it a bit more.

Elizabeth McGrath

http://www.elizabethmcgrath.com



‘’At midnight on my 13^th birthday, I did acid for the first (and last) time. We didn’t really know what it was. My friend stole it from his older brother and it just looked like a tiny piece of paper. The next day, my parents said they were going to take me to the Wild Animal Park, but instead they took me to a Baptists girls’ home where a fat lady sat on me for almost an hour and an old biker man, Brother Palmer, told me I was possessed by the Devil. They carried me into a closet-sized ‘Get Right with God’ room and played religious tapes outside my door. When I was first in the room, I tried to talk to Satan. I figured since they were so into God, maybe Satan might be real too. If I was possessed by him, maybe I could channel his energy to start fires, have super human strength, or a legion of demons could burst me out of there. Plus, I think I was still feeling the effects of the acid. After being in there for almost three months, I gave up on Satan, became a Christian and they let me out of the room. I pretty much lived in my imagination the whole time I was in there. When I was released two years later, I started making things. It was the only way I could stay ‘’present’’ and not slip back into my day dreams. Today, the creatures in my thought still haunt me; I have to bring them to life or spend many sleepless nights obsessing over them. When I finish them all, I’ll be free.’’

- Elizabeth McGrath, from the book Juxtapoz Dark Arts, published in 2009 by Gingko Press, Inc.

(http://www.gingko%20press.com//juxtapoz.com)

　

I have a huge amount of love for this artist, I could look at her work for hours and hours, I think she’s fascinating and disturbing, and what make it disturbing is not only her sculptures and work, because lets face it, their creep but its also the story behind it, I love the story that these are demons she must free to the world other wise they haunt her dreams.

They are all oddly enough animal orientated! Which fascinates me even more, she has these amazing ideas and it takes a lot of skill to do what she does.

Dmitry Ligay

Dmitry is an graphic artist born is 1986 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

He studied architecture and works as an illustrator for Russian agencies and particulars clients. He works with illustration, drawing and painting.

Dmitry’s work is basically all my favourite things, people and animals with twists. His work is mainly pencil but he does dabble into collage and paints, I love how he adapts his drawings so there’s always something you notice at a second glance, type writers for heads, fish the size of humans! There’s always something interesting about each piece.



Dennis McNett

http://www.wolfbat.com/

‘’Before the end of the battle of Ragnorok, Hel saw how things were starting to unfold and retreated to the depths of the underworld. She managed to survive the fires that covered the earth the same way Odin’s sons and the other Gods had dodged death. Here in the underworld, she has been planning the resurrection of her brothers and to reclaim their right to exist in the world.

Hel had already managed to find the remains of her brother Jormungandr, the giant serpent, and had resurrected him along with several fallen warriors from her realm. After what had seemed like an eternity of searching, Hel recently found the remains of her other brother Fenris, the wolf giant. She has longed for this day because the resurrection of Fenris will assure the safety and strength needed to reenter the world without fear of being destroyed by the other Gods.’’

- Dennis McNett, from the book Juxtapoz Dark Arts, published in 2009 by Gingko Press, Inc.

(http://www.gingko%20press.com//juxtapoz.com)

I love Dennis’ style, how he uses a lot of shapes to create amazing detail in patters, it is his animals that I find creepy, they always seem to be at war and from reading the statement above you can probably see why, and where he gets his inspiration, he’s not over the top in his weirdness but there is an essence there.