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Wicked Kisses
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 10, 2020
Nice collection of artwork, mostly color with a black, white, and gray section called “pencil pad” at the end of the book. All of the artwork is of women in some sort of fantasy or YA setting, looking like very nice cover art one might find on such books (I know that Arantza Sestayo has done several covers, including the book _Phoenix Unbound_ by Grace Draven, a fantasy novel). The women, mostly human, all tend to look mournful, pensive, lost in thought, or otherwise meditative, generally in romantic settings with flowing dresses, flowers (frequently in their hair), ribbons, misty graveyards, dark woods, or amongst ivy-covered marble ruins. Accompanying the color illustrations are various bits of prose, all with a meditative or mournful feel lamenting the loss of love, of pain, grief, or of isolation. My favorite bit was:
“I crossed the barbed wire of irony
And I guessed that behind the broken masks only lives the evil goblin.”
Though most of the subjects were human, we also get a few vampires (presumably by the teeth and the blood on them, though otherwise looking like human women), some sort of winged succubus perhaps (the bat wings I assume mean succubus, though otherwise a young woman in an ankle-length purple dress), and several mermaids (in the color section among my least favorite, as they looked airbrushed smoothed and kind of 1980s-ish, at least two of the illustrations don’t fit the dreamy romantic style of the other color illustrations to me at least).
In the “pencil pad” section the artwork is still quite good but now NSFW (or more so anyway, though most of the color illustrations would be just fine on a YA novel cover). We get several faeries with insectile faerie wings, angels (or beings with feathered wings on their backs), and another mermaid (this one I really liked). Also the women aren’t the only subject in the picture (though the dominant one), as we get variously a cheetah (love how the tail flows through the picture), some sort of serpent, and two dragons. Though not at all what I would call risqué, there were a few bare nipples in the “pencil pad” section (and some implied nudity) but it still fit the picture and didn’t detract from it in my opinion. I did like how while the characters depicted had breasts they weren’t illustrated as being overly voluptuous or buxom, though a few I would call less “pensive YA fantasy cover art” and more “fantasy pinup art” but I didn’t have any problem with them and I liked those as well. The latter struck me as respectful to the women depicted and showed them in positions of power and agency, as in “yes she is topless but she also looks like a powerful wizard with some sort of scheme in mind and she isn’t in a provocative pose and you really can’t see that much and oh is that a dragon behind her.”
Not sure I really had any one favorite piece. I liked how she did hair, with wisps of hair around the ears or from a messy bun or a few strands over a bare shoulder or neck. I liked how several had dark, misty, intriguing backgrounds of distant castles or graveyards in fog-shrouded woods, backgrounds that always drew the eye back to the woman depicted. The woman all pretty much looked different, perhaps reflecting different models. Many artists for this style of art seem to often be depicting the same woman as either that is their style (or what they know how to do) or they work from the same model; those artists still produce great work, but it is nice to see a variety of faces and body types. The woman are relatively slender (though a few had a bit more curves) and all looked as if they were twentysomething or early thirtysomething white women, none really screamed “teen” to me. There was some subtle body art here and there (mostly subtle); not a lot of tattoos but several women depicted did have some sort of ink.
Not really a “read” per se, though the prose poems are easily read in a few moments. Nice collection of fantasy artwork overall.
“I crossed the barbed wire of irony
And I guessed that behind the broken masks only lives the evil goblin.”
Though most of the subjects were human, we also get a few vampires (presumably by the teeth and the blood on them, though otherwise looking like human women), some sort of winged succubus perhaps (the bat wings I assume mean succubus, though otherwise a young woman in an ankle-length purple dress), and several mermaids (in the color section among my least favorite, as they looked airbrushed smoothed and kind of 1980s-ish, at least two of the illustrations don’t fit the dreamy romantic style of the other color illustrations to me at least).
In the “pencil pad” section the artwork is still quite good but now NSFW (or more so anyway, though most of the color illustrations would be just fine on a YA novel cover). We get several faeries with insectile faerie wings, angels (or beings with feathered wings on their backs), and another mermaid (this one I really liked). Also the women aren’t the only subject in the picture (though the dominant one), as we get variously a cheetah (love how the tail flows through the picture), some sort of serpent, and two dragons. Though not at all what I would call risqué, there were a few bare nipples in the “pencil pad” section (and some implied nudity) but it still fit the picture and didn’t detract from it in my opinion. I did like how while the characters depicted had breasts they weren’t illustrated as being overly voluptuous or buxom, though a few I would call less “pensive YA fantasy cover art” and more “fantasy pinup art” but I didn’t have any problem with them and I liked those as well. The latter struck me as respectful to the women depicted and showed them in positions of power and agency, as in “yes she is topless but she also looks like a powerful wizard with some sort of scheme in mind and she isn’t in a provocative pose and you really can’t see that much and oh is that a dragon behind her.”
Not sure I really had any one favorite piece. I liked how she did hair, with wisps of hair around the ears or from a messy bun or a few strands over a bare shoulder or neck. I liked how several had dark, misty, intriguing backgrounds of distant castles or graveyards in fog-shrouded woods, backgrounds that always drew the eye back to the woman depicted. The woman all pretty much looked different, perhaps reflecting different models. Many artists for this style of art seem to often be depicting the same woman as either that is their style (or what they know how to do) or they work from the same model; those artists still produce great work, but it is nice to see a variety of faces and body types. The woman are relatively slender (though a few had a bit more curves) and all looked as if they were twentysomething or early thirtysomething white women, none really screamed “teen” to me. There was some subtle body art here and there (mostly subtle); not a lot of tattoos but several women depicted did have some sort of ink.
Not really a “read” per se, though the prose poems are easily read in a few moments. Nice collection of fantasy artwork overall.
February 25, 2012
i love her artwork just amazing!
September 30, 2013
I love love love this book! The art is gorgeous, dark, and emotional. The words are pure poetry and really speak to me. I highly recommend this beautiful book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews