Horror, Morbid and Mystic Art Pictures
It is true that art communicates what words can not and art is the language that communicates with the soul. Morbid art stands for works that illustrate a very deathly and deathlike mood. It has many variations starting from its gore scenes to its dark and depressed atmosphere – and sometimes its daydreams, night screams, corpses and horrifying imagery.
As such, it has some similarties with the mystic art that is also quite “charismatic” in terms of its themes and motifs. The beauty of mystic art is the simple fact that it captures your attention at the very first glance, provides you with the imagery of something that doesn’t exist, looks surreal or even bizarre and hence impresses you in a very mystifying way.
In this post we present some amazing examples of morbid and mystic art. Hopefully, you’ll love some of them or at least will find them creative or inspirational. Please explore the further works of the artists linked below and also feel free to suggest other artworks in the comments to this post.
You may be interested in the following related posts:
Morbid Art
The Brighter Side of Suffering
Sometimes even angels feel worthless…
I will play for you, a last lullaby
DEAD TREE in a DEAD MIND in a DEAD HEAD in a DEAD WORLD
Death is an Angel
Death is an angel with two faces: To us he turns / A face of terror, blighting all things fair; / The other burns / With glory of the stars, and love is there.
Mystic Art
Related posts
You may be interested in the following related posts:
Dan Almaral
April 5th, 2009 3:39 pmSCARY!!!! But brilliant!
Nice list, indeed!
ashley
May 4th, 2010 9:00 amhey guys, those pictures were gorgeous. i love them. i have never seen so many emotions in one image, some of those pictures just made me happy as hell because now i know im not that only one with those intrests. but i have too go to class now. so thanks
Leland Clemmons
April 5th, 2009 4:27 pmMeh. Some of them are truly outstanding, but the majority seems to follow the usual pattern of “horror” art.
John Brady
April 5th, 2009 4:33 pmI think that the art is both macabre and beautiful. People that have the ability to express their emotions with this kind of work are lucky and gifted. Some very poignant works.
lula
December 6th, 2011 11:09 pmi like all the pictures,& um……. it’s cool…..bt its not scary…
Randux
April 5th, 2009 4:47 pmAquí faltan Dave McKean y Sergey Belov.
UGH
April 5th, 2009 4:48 pmSTOP. DOING. THIS. SHIT.
I hate these pointless “gallery” posts where all you do is find a shitload of vaguely related JPG’s, slap three vague adjectives to the front, and call it content. Who do you think you’re helping with this? You don’t actually post any tutorials with it, so it’s not helping anyone become a better designer/illustrator. The worst part is, some of these are just fucking AWFUL.
What happened to this site? It’s just “inspiration” post after “inspiration” post. That’s not what SM is supposed to be; there are a lot of other websites that designers use for inspiration like FFFFOUND and DYT, and they all do a much better job than just posting shit they found on Deviant Art. This site was about supplying you with resources and information to “make your life easier”, not supplying us with lousy lookbooks.
Please, take this site back to the days when it was about helping people become better designers and developers instead of these lazy, horse shit gallery posts.
Rob Chant
April 5th, 2009 4:57 pmI pretty much agree with the guy above I’m afraid… some of the art is good, granted, but some of it’s really weak and cliched, and these posts do come across as lazy.
Merxhan
April 5th, 2009 4:58 pmBread of Shame that’s a nice one I like it. I like them all
David
April 5th, 2009 5:02 pmSomeone needs to flip-horizontal that “Last Lullaby” picture. The violin is in the wrong hand.
Steph
April 5th, 2009 5:36 pmLove it! some cool stuff on here
Danny
April 5th, 2009 5:52 pmhonestly, i’m also agree with UGH
most of the content this time is not that impressive.
Instead why don’t you post horror style website such as corpse bride, gothica, hellboy and so on.
kotakitam
April 5th, 2009 6:23 pmOne word, “LAZY”.
Wade MD
April 5th, 2009 6:34 pmYou guys above need to seriously relax. Let’s see you guys maintain a site of this magnitude. I am sure that you wouldn’t find it that easy to do everything the public expects. After all though, smashing magazine is also known for its inspiration posts. If you don’t want to become inspired by dark imagery then you have no business wasting your time in this post and complaining about it.
Who cares if its two inspirational posts in a row…honestly…
Rrrrob
April 5th, 2009 6:44 pmAgreed. This is really not up to par with even mediocre posts of the past. The majority of these samples are cliche and hardly thought provoking or inspirational.
This post might have been salvageable if some time and work had gone into picking the handful of pieces that were passable and explaining why they might be considered inspirational or at least worth noting/not flipping by.
On whether or not this is laziness… It sure seems like it. I speculate that it’s merely an idea for a semi-regular installment that just doesn’t fit with the overall concept/focus of the site. I hope it either gets tightened up or discarded. As some of the other other new additions (Ask Smashing Magazine) are great additions. Thanks for the great work otherwise everyone. I do love hitting this site up for the great tutorials, tips, and inspiration.
Hosanna
April 5th, 2009 6:48 pmIn an evil world, evil is attractive. Attractive enough to grace the pages of the mainstream SM. This is just an example of how complacent the world is with evil. It is so irresistible isn’t it? So was the fruit which Eve ate in the Garden.
SteveYEAH
April 5th, 2009 7:13 pmI like to go to websites that I usually frequent and complain when they do not tell me how to better my life, even though I will only use that knowledge to try and impress people at parties who will most certainly go unimpressed if I am not present. I am a designer and need a website to tell me how to become a better designer because I am terrible. When you guys don’t tell me these things, it makes me look awful and it is all your fault. I hate smashing magazine and any website that brings peoples awesome looking art (but not as good as mine) to a wider audience so they can be appreciated. Where’s my appreciation?! HUH?! LOOK AT ME! somebody….please…
nick
April 5th, 2009 7:21 pmAwesome post.
Hey UGH (post 5) Get out of here you wuss!
Matt J.
April 5th, 2009 8:01 pmRepeat of comment #5, more or less. Please stop these kinds of posts. Once a month maybe.
kris
April 5th, 2009 8:22 pmyeah, unfortunately very weak !!! Would be better if you put a bit effort and look for related artist portfolios – not just deviantart links
TS
April 5th, 2009 8:26 pm1. Nick (post 16) you are impolite, it is not good.
2. The content of the post has two sides (fmy personal opinion): how it was done – it is wonderful in most of works and I wish I could make such the works and the second side is the themes of presented works – for those who deal, for example with black metal and gothic music, it may look pretty boring , because I did not notice very fresh themes. I have a collection of about 4 thousand black metal and gothic bands CDs and saw these motives thousands times, and nothing changes – same gothic castles, graves, mist, violins, nice long haired girls, blood, skulls… But for the people who are not involved too much into black metal/gothic scene it may look awesome, intriguing, fresh and beautiful. May be, somebody saw just for the first time such a big collection of horror art, presented in this post and got the whole bunch of great emotions and inspiration and ideas… Do not judge so that you will not be judged… you know…
Sergio Ordoñez
April 5th, 2009 8:55 pmI partialy agree with the comments above , the issue is not the gallery post but the content. Im my opinion some of the artwork are quite weak.
The thing is, if you want to do gallery posts, please do a good research and impress us as usual.
Noam N
April 5th, 2009 8:57 pmLiked it!
Good post.
vanderleun
April 5th, 2009 9:07 pmHey, if you’re going to post something, make it useful — or at the very least uplifting. This is just negative nihilism. Just the thing for a Sunday. And a waste of bandwidth too. Smashing is better than this, much better. Did you let some tatted pierced intern have the password or what?
vanderleun
April 5th, 2009 9:09 pmYou know, you might want to remember that “If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything.”
krishna
April 5th, 2009 9:59 pmMaza nahi aya
anjum121
April 5th, 2009 10:29 pmI am going with krishna “MAZA NAHI AYA” means its not what i am looking from SM guys :(
owl
April 5th, 2009 10:35 pmNot really my kind of subject, its a little to gory. On the other side, It was nice seeing something Different though.
I did find myself wishing for maybe a tutorial or 2 out of the post, but hey its Sunday, I am off and don’t have to practice!
cheers.
Maya
April 5th, 2009 10:43 pmThese are really stunning photos i have ever seen specially “Could I Please Come With You” and “Till death” are very conceptual artworks,
thanx for sharing
Ravindranath
April 5th, 2009 10:54 pmHi, Your posts are rocking -
Also i am Addicted to your blog.
Cool , keep it up.
Jasper Kennis
April 5th, 2009 11:00 pmWorst smashing post ever!
99 % Cheap photoshop effects used to create corny images… Most suck horribly… Get back to the quality Smashing had one year ago; do one great great great post a weak instead of three of these horrible posts a day!
Stefano
April 5th, 2009 11:14 pmgood showcase … but in monday morning …
Niels Matthijs
April 5th, 2009 11:22 pmAs for things you guys missed out on, try some Natalie Shau
Drala
April 5th, 2009 11:39 pmsorry guys, I agree with #29, this was really weak… In such a fucking violent world like ours, why do we need more bad images like these? and on Monday morning…
bad…
Anes Sabitovic
April 5th, 2009 11:41 pmNice dead list!
spritzstuhl
April 5th, 2009 11:46 pmThis is a matter of taste I guess and it is not my taste.
rednas
April 6th, 2009 12:01 amlook for more dark art:
white-angel.deviantart.com
Jack
April 6th, 2009 12:15 amI think you’ve missed someone here. Linda Bergkvist is one the current greats. Spoiled is a great example of her work.
Goran
April 6th, 2009 12:38 amNice work (if you like it) but is not my style. Dark art.
Tim Holmes
April 6th, 2009 12:39 amPersonnaly, I am not over keen on this style of work, however I am sure there are some that are….
To me it is all a bit WOW fantasy rubbish or just mentalists having a bad day and not that interesting…
However each to there own.
SM you have done many better articles.
warts republic
April 6th, 2009 12:41 amNice subject !!!
For mystic art, i have a reference…
Do you Know “Boris Vallejo” ?
http://www.imaginistix.com/
CIAO,
TB
panyang
April 6th, 2009 12:49 amSM should be careful with this gallery etc. most viewers here are designers. this for example. not inspiration as for me. other “horror” “morbid” looks kinda lame…
i just got one fav though- Into the Mystic
Massimo Nastasi
April 6th, 2009 12:59 amVery nice gallery, thank you
Enk.
April 6th, 2009 1:06 amCool Art.. I liked the Horror and Mystic ones..
Nice Smashing Post :P
Janos
April 6th, 2009 1:12 amIf You are posting thematic works, You should at least pick the best ones, not just some crap. Some of this pictures are above average, the rest is shit.
mika
April 6th, 2009 1:29 am+1 for post #19 & 42
Not talking about SM, which i like and will continue reading despite this kind of posts, most of those pics are definitely poor, non horrific, non morbid… not even talking about the “mystic” ones, for it is essentially a matter of taste (I really HATE those).
Remember me of teenage photoshop fan art you can find on loads of RPG forums.
photofolio.be
April 6th, 2009 1:53 amMost of them are not particularly impressive. Looks like a 5′ Google/Deviantart search job instead of digging deeper to find some true gems. An inspirational post should be, er … inspirational. Some additional links to tuts would make these post much more valuable.
daniel
April 6th, 2009 2:04 amCrap in 90%: Naive, lame in work, cheap thrills. I’m pretty sure most of Smashing readers can do better.
Shame on You S’mag…
Wesley
April 6th, 2009 2:40 amThese are highschool, emo, retarded shit pieces of shit. Seriously, this artwork has no real emotion it’s trying to hard. I imagine a pimply faced teenager with dyed black hair over one eye and too much eye makeup creating most of these crapular fucking things. The only good ones are the “brighter side of suffering” and “one dead for one survive”.
mk
April 6th, 2009 2:51 amFull of shit.
Mainly crappy and naïve “arworks”. I’m disappointed :(
IreneK
April 6th, 2009 2:52 amThey are really mindblowing artworks, and some of them are best pieces of art, its very smashing post!
Ron
April 6th, 2009 4:03 amAnyone with any sense of creativity or imagination will find this gallery of images inspirational or at least thought provoking in some manner. If you don’t feel that this kind of post is to your liking, fine, but at least say so in a manner that is constructive and foregoes all of the negativity and disparaging language. If you can’t manage that, why bother visiting the site at all or spending the time to make such a post? This is obviously aimed at the “Ugh” post – I can relate to disliking something or being frustrated with a lack of content, but take what you can and move on, allowing others to enjoy such things.
James G
April 6th, 2009 4:07 amUGH,
Either unsubscribe or contribute. Simple innit!
Keep it up SM
John
April 6th, 2009 4:10 amI am against on many of the comments above… I am a regular visitor of SmashingMagazine because I love the diversified content that they bring for us everyday…What I understand that they have to cater a very large audience and to make them feel happy and satisfied SM has to really work hard and to find an amazing and mindblowing topic every time. I still appreciate the SM for this post because these are the truly inspirational art work.
If you guys don’t like anything, this does not mean it is not good. This is art and SM is all about ARTS and Designs and all of these pictures has been created and painted by any digital artist. I appreciate them all to create something different and specially give credit to SM that they give a chance to these artist to featured here. SM, please keep posting all types of arts that can give us an idea and inspire us.
************ YOU GUYS ARE DOING WONDERFUL ************
Pervez
April 6th, 2009 4:18 amI love the “the collector” and “shaman” very inspirational and artistic post
neil
April 6th, 2009 4:37 amNo more of this rubbish please, there’s enough of this teenage, goth claptrap all over the web without you indulging in it. What next glittery angels or poems stating “no-one understands me..”?
Spare me!
Smashing is usually a great design magazine, a pearl amongst swine, please strive to keep it that way!
Justin Floyd
April 6th, 2009 4:45 amThis style of artwork doesn’t really interest me. We live in a society that is desensitized to violence and disturbing imagery. To be effective this art needs to shock us into the the emotions of fear, anxiety, repulsion and sadness. This stuff just fails to really to cross the threshold in to imagery that is truly disturbing and demented.
That being said the comments have been very entertaining.
Keep up the good work SM. But, I hope to see posts on relevant and useful design in the future.
brian
April 6th, 2009 5:02 amI don’t really know what to think of this post. It is more deviant art than design if that makes sense. I guess it could be inspiring to some people.
Thanks SM…cheers!
Ignus
April 6th, 2009 5:48 amI agree that SM is big on inspiration, but when I looked at this list, I was thinking how many better images i have seen on DA that fits this exact topic, some of these are terrible. It would be one thing to have a awesome collection of this “Horror, Morbid and Mystic” art, but what i shown here, is average at best.
leon
April 6th, 2009 5:52 amamazing
thank u very much
Tulinen
April 6th, 2009 6:07 amI like these galleries you usually post here for inspiration, but I thought this one is weak. Most of the pictures are not well-done, far from beeing professional.
I hope next galleries are better than this. :-)
yes
April 6th, 2009 6:40 ama couple of good ones, but mostly cheesy.
Greg
April 6th, 2009 6:48 amWell…. as someone who LOVES anything dark, be it books, movies, paintings etc… these pretty much suck. I have a hard drive full of images that I have taken from the internets since the day I could, and boy… these are horrible (mostly). The problem is that most of this art is really tough to take seriously, as it’s some 14 year old girl who is using Photoshop to make herself look like a vampire, or the whole broken heart thing.
Hence a lot of these look very amateurish, and are FAR from inspiring.
How about Friedrich’s “Cloister Graveyard in the Snow”, anything by Royo (or other Heavy Metal style artists who use PS to enhance some of their newer artwork), or focusing on websites?
I love you guys, and I think a lot of the above posters were out of line, but seriously…. it looks like someone was told “find dark art, you might check on Deviant Art” and came up with this.
Weak.
Disposable_Hero
April 6th, 2009 6:57 amTo the complainers above who say that SM is all inspirational posts lately and we need more tutorials or articles that show us tips, etc. Do you mean posts like “8 Simple Ways to Improve Typography In Your Designs”, “Handy Tweaks To Make GIMP Replace Photoshop”, or “10 Simple and Impressive Design Techniques” ? Just wondering, I could find more examples but I was lazy and just went to the homepage…
Seriously, if you don’t like it, don’t read it. Nobody is forcing you to visit this site, and the occasional inspirational post shouldn’t drive you to post a foul-mouthed comment telling other people how to run their website, *especially* when it’s just because the content of the post isn’t based on your personal preference. Really you should be out finding a way to relieve some of that built up stress.
Hezi
April 6th, 2009 7:09 am“Queen of wind” reminds me Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation.
@heziabrass
sama creation
April 6th, 2009 7:28 amNice subject !!!
great collection tank you
design
Derek
April 6th, 2009 7:47 amFirst of all there’s no reason to get all up in arms and use profanity to express your opinion.
Secondly, much of this post does indeed seem lazily created and compiled, and very much cliched.
Thirdly, I come to SM to learn. I think posts like this should be reduced to once every week or two at the most – more often if you can fin truly advanced artwork, but for mediocre stuff like this, much less often.
But that’s just imo.
Æ
Siah
April 6th, 2009 7:52 amits about time you got a little goth!
Nice post, the effects on the photos themselves arent that great, but a photo is meant to convey a message and evoke an emotion and these photos certainly do that.
Jarvis
April 6th, 2009 8:01 amI really like some of those.
You should have included some of this guys stuff too:
http://gsc3d.deviantart.com/art/Fuxored-Eyes-1463848
and http://gsc3d.deviantart.com/art/New-Eye-2-41247784
should both be looked at using DAs full view.
Inquiring Mind
April 6th, 2009 8:08 amI know this sounds terribly uninformed, but, as I’m no artists (not even by a long shot!), how are these done? Is this something that is usually hand-drawn then altered in photoshop or is it 100% digitally created artwork?
Chris T
April 6th, 2009 8:43 amSo pretty much all of these feel like they were made by some angsty college freshmen who took his first design course and just learned photoshop. I concur with many of the previous negative reviews posted here. Almost none of this could be considered groundbreaking in any way and I’m more upset than inspired.
It seems you are trying to update very frequently to keep people interested. However in trying to do so alot of bad tuts and images have made there way onto this site.
Quality over quantity.
Aurore Bourgeois
April 6th, 2009 9:41 amI love Smashing Magazine but in first time this post is not good for me. This pictures are not always good quality…
(sorry if i don’t write english very well)
gamma-normids
April 6th, 2009 10:41 amWell, not my kind of art nor Post, but I know that I am very capable of find some inspiration in this pix. And that’s kinda the point…
Jakuje
April 6th, 2009 10:43 amBeautyful!
I love all the pictures here. Great selection!
bob
April 6th, 2009 10:59 amI’mlosing faith in smashingmagazine. Looks like they are not even trying anymore and are just browsing the whats new section over at deviantart. Half of those pictures are not impressive at all. I could name several artists from the top of my head that deserve more recognition than these guys.
Ms. Tura
April 6th, 2009 11:01 amHate to say it but most of these are pretty cheesy. Love Smashing though.
steve
April 6th, 2009 11:17 amLove it. As a web designer and horror fan, I fully appreciate the posting.
Alezunde
April 6th, 2009 11:22 amEhhhhh. Contrived and cliched at best. Beksinski puts every one of these to shame with just one of his illustrations.
Alezunde
April 6th, 2009 11:25 amWoops, double post.
protist
April 6th, 2009 11:45 amWow, look, a bunch of awful Photoshop “art”! God I hate this stuff. It reminds me of middle school.
Magus
April 6th, 2009 12:39 pmIf you really want to see some dark art, just search for some Seth Siro Anton gallery. He’s probably the best artist in this area.
greg
April 6th, 2009 12:51 pmDeviantART Anime drawings? Really? 3-4 pics are great but the weakly drawn anime and cheap photoshop layer meshups embarass this Article.
And I’m dissapointed that there is no beksinski on the list.
HowItGoes
April 6th, 2009 1:17 pmI agree with UGH. Lame post. Not relevant to what this site is supposed to be about. I don’t come here for this kind of art, and a lot of it i can’t even call art, its just so bad.
lucky larouge
April 6th, 2009 1:46 pmanybody remember brittle-bones.com? It’s coming back.
liz
April 6th, 2009 1:49 pmThe few really nice pieces shown here are completely lost in all the pure mediocrity. I’m fine with collection/gallery posts, I really like them usually, but too much of this one is just BAD. Poor execution + high school cliches. No thanks!
M
April 6th, 2009 4:27 pmUuuhm. Yes.
This was cool.
Cynicism is an ugly disease, people. This isn’t your site. This isn’t digg. So fuck off or enjoy it!
Kats
April 6th, 2009 5:23 pmAwesome gallery! i love it when you post some great illustration, i find it inspiring. Please keep on doing it!!! :)
Thang Nguyen
April 6th, 2009 6:58 pm“One dead for one survive” reminds me of “secret window”, a small window open to a small garden below where he buried her body…
Dimis
April 6th, 2009 11:35 pmCrap
rcs
April 7th, 2009 1:51 amWhy do you keep filtering negative comments about this gallery … ??
arif
April 7th, 2009 6:50 amThis is not my Way” the best one, I have been much inspired by it, realy very conceptual & awesome artwork
One of the great post of SM!
AK
April 7th, 2009 6:54 amor This is pehle bhi ” he use bhi lagado
“This is not my Way” the best one, I have been much inspired by it, realy very conceptual & awesome artwork
One of the great post of SM!
AK
April 7th, 2009 6:54 am“This is not my Way” the best one, I have been much inspired by it, realy very conceptual & awesome artwork One of the great post of SM!
Daz
April 7th, 2009 7:01 amProbably the worst, most pointless post Smashing have ever published.
Keep this up and you’ll lose a reader.
I thought this was a web design blog?
Danish Refai
April 7th, 2009 7:59 amThe First Half of the Article is amazing !!!!
Kuddos to Smashing !
graphiconcepts
April 7th, 2009 8:48 amFuckin awesome, love em. But as usual, more negative criticizm from people who apperently created the universe.
Kreative Geeks
April 7th, 2009 9:00 amSimply beautiful artworks, Tiago Duarte’s artworks and best of one, i am big fan of him…
maryam
April 7th, 2009 5:10 pmI like “Free with the Wind”, “The Mysterious Disappearance” and “Love” the love one looks very much like HR GIGER, But the rest are really bad
bycolor
April 7th, 2009 6:01 pmQuite a collection… Some of them are bad, some are excellent. It seems to me this is more “Weird, Confusing and Irritating Photography” than the original. :)
Jonnathan Moore
April 8th, 2009 3:33 amIt looks very creative and exquisite to me. Although, it could be horrifying for someone but still contains a very vivid message wrapped delicately in art and creativity. I appreciate the working and selection of such unseen images and ideas.
rcs
April 8th, 2009 6:09 amI will take look in this list if a new amok happens ;-) … people who like this kind of pseudo-art have mostly not even seen once a dead body.
I would send them all to Irak or to rescue dead bodies after an earthquake, or a tsunami, and see how “amazing”, “inspiring”, or whatever the whole thing is.
I picture this guys as a whole bunch of nerds with a lot pickles and black garments.
Robert
April 9th, 2009 4:17 amlame pics.