Portraits

by Derren Brown

Derren Brown is known to his devoted fans as a brilliant showman and illusionist. His television shows attract audiences in the millions and his live show plays to sell-out audiences every night. But in his spare time, Derren uses a very different skill. He is a prodigiously talented artist who paints caricatures of famous faces from around the world. He has painted everyone from Richard Dawkins to Robbie Williams, from Anthony Hopkins to Amy Winehouse, and here for the first time they are all collected together, with Derren's thoughts on the person concerned and why he wanted to paint them in the first place. A must for all of Derren's fans.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2009

About the author

Derren Brown is an English mentalist, illusionist, and author. He has produced several shows the stage and television and is the winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment. He has also written books for magicians as well as the general public.

Reviews

[Lewis King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is basically a big picture book but a great one at that. His portraits are quite varied. Some quirky others caricatures but quite intriguing in some dark and twisted way.
There are also words in it too. From what I remember it was a bit about how he got into painting and some of his thoughts about painting caricatures rather than going for realism. As usual it's pretty interesting.

[Kevin de Ataíde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derren Brown paints for the joy of it and takes his inspiration from the German caricaturist Sebastian Kruger. That means large-scale oil caricatures of famous and not-so-famous celebrities. The book contains some seventy of his 'portraits' and a short essay on his approach to portrait/caricature making, his theory of seeing and his experience as a caricaturist. Coffee-table sized, large-print. Not a must-buy, but interesting. Very interesting. This is one facet of a multi-talented gentleman.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired me to paint portraits again. One of my few go to reference books when I need a bit of motivation

[Tracey Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant !!!

[Luk Worknik]

Highly recommended!