To my readers......

SITE UPDATE NOTICE

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Message updated 25th June 2023

Saturday 24 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - F


I usually select a favourite from all the artists representing a letter and for F I really am spoilt for choice in a set with some truly accomplished artists.
Frey and Falkon are both important figures in gay art and (Falkon’s view of the fetish world is unique in it’s inventiveness) but I think their main contributions lie outside the field of my review.
For purely artistic accomplishment the top choices would have to be Fillion or Fury but, in erotic art, technique is not everything. For sheer sexiness my choice would be taken from Fillion, Facchini, Fuwa, Franco (and maybe Funayama if you have a strong stomach). For total visual pleasure it would boil down to Fillion or Fuwa.
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So while I have a soft spot for Fuwa’s cheerful chunky hunks and Facchini’s helpless, hairy bodied and very grown up miscreants, my vote for the best ‘F’ has to go to Fillion - who despite my dislike of his animalism - is unsurpassed in depicting men under total contol.

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He joins the previous ‘winners’ - Amir, Brick, Chris, Drubskin and Etienne

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If you want to read the earlier articles in this series, click on the A-Z label below

Thursday 22 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Fury


Our journey through the letter ‘F’ has unearthed a rich vein of artistic talent and today’s final contender is no different. Ed Fury (aka Marc Ming Chan) shows real men not boys. This is probably his best known picture, showing a biker undressing in front of a cop. It's not clear if this is in response to an order or a challenging act of seduction. The cop is actually a photograph and Fury uses this mixed media technique in other images too.

His men are of muscular build but with a realistic padding of fat and generous patches of body hair.
Their head hair is usually cropped very short or shaved completely.
It's nice to see older men being appreciated!

This simpler cross-hatched style (reminiscent of Roger Payne) is very stylish
 - although perhaps a little too severe for drooling over.

In portraits he projects a sense of male animal strength which makes them very arresting. Some of his pictures are eye-catching for a different reason. He uses a technique that presents the image as though it were a hyper-realistic black and white photograph. Obviously this is a highly accomplished artist. 



Soldiers feature prominently in his output which is a refreshing change and in the action pictures they are shown dominating other men and seeming to make them undress. Like the cop in the top picture, though there is an element of ambiguity in it. This might be a prisoner attempting to seduce his captor or reluctantly responding to an instruction. We can't rule out gaydar at work either, flushing out their mutual interest in each other.

Again in this picture it looks as if the soldier, the dominator, and the entire background, is a photo, but it's hard to be sure. There's an interesting bit of control psychology in drawing a naked man and then parachuting him into real world situation with edgy implications. 





There doesn't seem to be much ambiguity here although one might concoct an accidental encounter between a nudist and a soldier who has wandered into the bushes for a comfort break. Yes I know, pull the other leg it's got bells on!

It looks like an unfinished sketch but that doesn't seem entirely inappropriate for a fleeting, strictly unofficial incident like this which isn't going to be reported back at base.



Perhaps the bushes analogy is not so outlandish!

Fury is a British artist but seemingly resident in France and so uses French soldiers as his models. They seem to have a stereotypical element of French chic in the neat cut of their 'uniformes', dainty beret and (in the earlier picture) cool shades. But there's a leanness of look that suggests they might be hard men. That combination makes a significant contribution to the erotic atmosphere of the image. A French viewer will see nuances and historical associations in this presence that an outsider cannot. 

These soldiers have tied up their captive and are delving into his clothes. The perpetrator looks at us guiltily as if caught in the act and uncertain whether to carry on. However, it looks as if his colleague is far from finished as he continues to immobilise their subject. That may not strictly be required, since the captive himself looks as though he is lying back and enjoying the attention (or perhaps he's simply thinking of England). 

It looks as if Fury might have been intending to clad the main character in shorts at one point.
I would certainly have enjoyed that, see below!


More French chic? 
I wonder what he's got hidden away.



In this image Fury explores the art of bondage with rather more subtlety. We see the rope man surveying his helpless subject with interest - or perhaps it's more accurate to say he's studying his subject's response to being tied up. He's gripping his arm tightly so he won't get away. The face of the bound man expresses uncertainty, which is inevitable in this situation. It may be his first time submitting like this and perhaps it's with a stranger, an unknown quantity. But once again there is that element of ambiguity.




Paradoxically, there is no doubt that this is a free choice 
although the threatening leather belt seems to suggest the exact opposite.

All these pictures are notable for their economy of composition, concentrating on uncomplicated but powerful, well-balanced images. There is sufficient detail of clothing etc to create a context but they stop short of becoming a full blown ‘story picture’ of a particular scene and place. In other words this is thoughtful art as well as stimulating eroticism.

Cladding his favourite fantasy man in a hyper-realistic soldier's uniform 
produces an image that is both memorable and extraordinarily sexy.

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I have been unable to find an operational website for marc ming chan 
but there is an interview on You Tube (2011)

Tuesday 20 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Funayama


With Funayama we enter a dark, dark world of bondage used as a vehicle for abuse, torture, mutilation and even cannibalism. His pictures often show bloody wounds and the atmosphere is filled with menace and fear which can be both exciting and repulsive at the same time. Not exactly my cup of tea but he has produced some excellent bondage images of which I include a selection here.
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You can see he has a well developed technique and the rendering of details like body hair and clothing is excellent. In the hogtie picture below the relative positioning and the sizes of the different characters are not true to life but adjusted to fit into the composition. He does it so well that this is not obvious to the viewer. Tom of Finland had a similar ability to disguise the impossible.

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The bamboo stave seen here features in many of Funayama’s compositions, being used for beating, poking and levering joints. Traditional Japanese loincloths also appear and when shown in combination with conventional soldiers uniforms, for example, these accessories create a sense that the captive is being subjected to an ancient ritual. I am not well versed enough in Japanese culture to fully understand the significance of this iconography but the erotic impact is still powerful.
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Not all of Funayama’s faces are as attractive as the ones shown here. They all tend to have dark edged, staring eyes which are quite disturbing but entirely in keeping with the dark subject matter of the pictures.
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There are samples of Funayama’s work at http://www.jeunesasianart.com/index.html which is also a good reference source for many other Japanese fetish artists




Monday 19 January 2009

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Oliver Frey


I wouldn’t normally have considered Oliver Frey (latterly known as Zack) to be a ‘fetish’ artist but it doesn’t seem right to disregard his iconic leather pictures which were published in the early days of free expression for gays.
Frey has always inspired me with the sense of action and drama in his pictures and he was one of the first gay artists to utilise close-ups and dramatic angles (devices acquired, I guess, from film and photography) to enhance the impact of his pictures. The tennis boy in bondage image shows an example.


There was always an exciting element of ‘forcefulness’ in his sexual encounters which even today might raise eyebrows if published in freely available ‘top shelf’ magazines. This approach produced a some memorable depictions of arching ecstatic bodies. Torn clothing was an inevitable by product in this scenario and a bit of a speciality for him.

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His 70’s series of Back Alley pictures in which young men are introduced to the leather scene are classic, unforgettable images and were quite unlike anything which had gone before.


Not only were they crammed with domination, leather ritual and openly sexual content (who can forget the young kneeling leather boy offering up his buttocks, bathed in light, for gloved examination?). But also in these pictures Frey conjured up the menacing atmosphere of dark mysterious alleys on a wet night a feature which makes these pictures unforgettable. Now that I am older, the youth of the novices in these pictures spoils the effect a little but these are still first rate images.





The Zackboy picture above also shows Frey’s ability to use light and colour to create drama and sexual atmosphere in a fairly simple picture.
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Frey did a number of comic stories and fetishist images pop up quite often - as in the Tennis boy bondage image above. The ‘Slaves to Lust’ story explores bondage and leather at some length but unfortunately the recipients of the training are again rather young for my personal preferences.
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It would be hard to find another artist who could match Frey’s command of movement and atmosphere in his pictures. His draughtsmanship sometimes flags, the faces become strangely distorted, particularly when he grapples with more challenging angles - which is a shame as this does limit the audience appeal of his work. But it doesn’t detract from the significance of his contribution.
For more of Oliver Frey's work go to - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freyartworkone/

Saturday 17 January 2009

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco

This article first published in 2009 was extensively revised and extended in July 2017

Franco’s spanking pictures proliferate on the web and must be known to most of my readers. He also has produced a number of imaginative pictures you might classify as ‘lab experiments and machines’. These sometimes feature spanking but are generally focused on the milking of men who are effectively made captives for the duration of the experiment.


 In the spanking arena the sheer volume of Franco's work commands respect. Much of it is of the standard 'over the knee', older-younger scenario. I could not resist showing this young man's voluptuous bottom, beefy 'jock' thighs and puzzled expression as an otherwise prim and proper older man exacts a punishment he wouldn't have expected at his age. His decidedly skimpy and flimsy-looking underpants add a frisson of extra interest. In Franco's work the older spanker is usually presented in this ‘desexualised’ way. That is to say they are fully dressed in very conventional, formal clothing and their faces are mature and not particularly attractive, often gaunt and shrew-like. However the faces he draws are very varied and often strikingly realistic adult ‘types’.
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Franco has an admirable knack for portraying expressive faces and wriggling bodies. The spanker in this picture is more kindly characterised than my previous example but the man over his knee seems to have been given the body of a much younger person. It seems to personify the childish punishment he is being given and the humiliation he is feeling.  It's an interesting variation on the 'transformation' ideas explored by Siproites and YoMero.

Brat Spank by Franco


 Franco's also makes good use of clothing in his pictures. The recipient of the spanking is usually naked from the waist down only. This focuses attention on the lower body 'target' area, which is usually lusciously shaped and presented with sensual skin toning and highlighting similar to Tom of Finland's style.

Superficially the retained T-shirt preserves 'decency' and a tenuous link with the idea that this is just a domestic punishment scene. The collar and tie usually worn by the prim-looking punisher (e.g. in the first picture of this article) is part of that smokescreen and at the same time a wry comment on the dubious motives of 'respectable' disciplinarians in times gone by. However this image is different and, unusually for Franco, the spanker himself looks young and virile and his shirt is open revealing a muscular torso and suggesting erotic possibilities of a sort that Franco usually avoided. In this context the boyish good looks of the recipient look decidedly dicey to modern eyes.



In this early picture there is nothing boyish about the man being spanked, in fact he looks quite the tough guy. Even the open, braced position of his feet says manly - continued manly acceptance despite being reduced to tears by this serious butt-roasting. The spanker's appearance, his face, torso and clothing seem equally 'butch' but his pressed together feet - a pose more usually associated with women than men - gives him an effeminate air. It suggests to the viewer that he may have sexual inclinations and motives of which his victim is unaware and would be horrified if he found out. Despite it's artistic imperfections it's a good joke and an excellent depiction of man-on-man humiliation. The slightly baggy socks, by the way, seem to bear the influence of Etienne and there are echoes of his style in other aspects of the picture too.

Franco - Stick it Out!
It's hard to imagine the power that would cause an unwilling man to allow another to spank him in real life. Expecting him not just to submit, but to offer up his ass in a specific fashion that is deemed acceptable (as the title implies here) is an even bigger ask. The possibility does make for an dramatic situation and a sexy pose, but in fact the facial expressions here are playful, the victim purely registering the sting of the hand rather than any embarrassment or resentment. His advanced state of excitement removes any doubt. Overtly connecting spanking and sexual gratification like this was heady stuff until relatively recently.


Interestingly, Franco's spanking settings are nearly always domestic like this or (even more controversially) in class-rooms. He rarely uses uniformed authoritarian figures like cops or the military and for that matter I have only seen one leather dungeon scene by him. There's quite a substantial group of pictures of men being spanked by older women but I hope my readers will forgive me if I pass them by without comment. Nor do I propose to discuss his images of Priests spanking young boys - oh dear!

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Poor Jock by Franco

The Franco genre that really works for me is the ‘lab rat’ stuff (like Poor Jock above) in which young men are attached to machines for milking, probing or mechanised spanking. These are overtly sexual and Franco beautifully portrays the victim’s dismay and the professor’s evil interest. This example is particularly erotic and delightfully simple. I can just visualise the 'poor jock' lying down on the couch for a routine examination, naively allowing straps across his chest on some pretext, then finding he's helpless to prevent his wrists being secured too. Before he knows it, his legs are hoisted in the air and an invasive examination begins in earnest. The cock drawn through the legs where he cannot see or protect it seems to emphasise his vulnerability and the purely functional,  impersonal role which he is going to be expected to fulfil.

Franco - Milked
 This scene has a more improvised quality with the subject crudely bound to a post and his trousers and underwear roughly jerked down so that the milking 'glove' can be attached to him. The portrayal of the two characters in this drawing are amongst Franco's best work. You get a good sense of the captive's physical attractions and the dramatic assault upon his body. His drawn-in waist is a typical male, defensive response, but quite useless with a post behind him. The dispassionate professor will compel him to produce sample after sample until his youthful virility is exhausted. The extraction mechanism seems to be a crude replication of human technique but scientists amongst you may be intrigued by the mysterious nipple stimulator.

Franco - Milkomatic
This picture (often called 'Milking the Bulls' from variants with that logo on the captive jock's T-shirt) is probably one of Franco's best known lab/machine images. The spreadeagled plight of the subject being milked with his feet just of the ground is a strong image and there's a wealth of supporting detail enabling you to imagine how he got that way, once he had foolishly inserted his arms through those innocent-seeming holes in the back plate. The automated leg spreaders and sliding crotch support-cum-wedge provide devilish, visual clues to the machine's remorseless stimulation and draining capability, evidenced by a growing row of filled sample tubes.

Franco - The Orgasmatron
The total nudity of 'Billy' in this picture (like Poor Jock above) contrasts dramatically with the complexity of the cock stimulation and collection mechanisms which are attached to him. These are more physically demanding than the preceding examples with anal probes and electrified balls. It creates the impression that this is a serious 'lab-rat' experience and one that has become quite unpleasant. I find this arched body pose very erotic, seeming to invite tactile exploration. The scientist in the background seems to be offering a toast to his discomforted guest, courtesy of a flask of his own body fluid.

Franco - Vibrator Torment
 Franco takes that sexy arching effect further here, trapping his lab-rat (Frankie) in a supremely uncomfortable back-breaking position. Meanwhile his cock has been bound with tape at the root, forcing it away from his body and making the attachments on it seem particularly sinister and impersonal. The scientist here doesn't seem to require collection of what he produces, we cannot tell whether it's the performance of the complex vibrator he's interested in or Frankie's.

Franco - Dr Bottomthrobs Spanking Machine
I can't leave Franco's machines without an example of one that does spanking. It's a bit of a Heath-Robinson contraption but fiendishly inescapable because the jock's cock is stuck in a hole in the platform on which he rests. It will stay there for a long as he has an erection and dangles just above the gaping mouth of a sperm-collecting sleeve. You can see that the designer of this device expected large quantities of fluid to be produced as a by-product of the spanking (with only the help of an anal vibrator). It's not clear why the scientist needs to take cover behind a glass screen but this is actually a rather nice bit of male erotica.

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A final section of Franco’s work worth mentioning is a group showing men spanked and tormented by Monks. I am wary of 'historical costumes' in erotica and always dubious about religious overtones, but I like the sinister mood conjured up by the monk’s cowled gowns which put me in mind of Indiana Jones-like, tomb raider punishments. Monks have something of a reputation for inflexibility and harshness in dealings with the outside world. It's as a result of their austere lifestyle, focused on self abasement and prayer but these are attitudes which makes them ideal villain material for more fantastical types of bdsm imagery.
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Franco - Monk Muscle Spank
We can only speculate about how this muscular lad came to be tied to an altar rail and spanked by a Monk. I'm ruling out anything to do with choir boys or the confessional, preferring to think that he's a rogue who coveted the treasures of the Monastery or attempted to steal the lead off the roof. That doesn't quite explain why he's naked now. This spanking won't be the end of it, he'll be expected to repent as well, a major humiliation in itself for any red-blooded young man. Franco has conjured up a neat picture here, but you can that colourising it, while benefiting the atmospherics and providing red cheeks, has also spoilt the lines and the shapes, for example of his calves.


Franco - Spankus Ye Bare bottom
This rear end view is one of Franco's trademark poses and you'll find many other variants of it. It's another compact composition but noticeably weighted to the left. The blonds limbs are also stretched out protectively towards the 'empty' side. These elements suggest to the viewer that there may be something significant just out of sight to the right. An audience perhaps. The colourisation here is more sensitive than the previous example and gives the picture an intriguing sense of light which chimes with, but doesn't quite match the bizarre, stained glass window. It suggests enlightenment may be at hand for one of those involved here, but I wouldn't assume it's the blond!

Franco - Monks Tickle Ordeal

Tickling is a fetish of sorts, but it's one which has rarely troubled these pages, until now. Franco's Monks practise it a great deal, more for their own amusement than any one else's. I imagine most captives would be embarrassed by it's absurdity, rather than feeling threatened by it. However this fecund, naked, young man has responded to the feather's allure and now finds himself trapped by his own eager libido and a tormentor well versed in his esoteric craft. They don't have TV in Monasteries you see. I admit it's a sexy picture though.

Franco - Monk Sucking
Given the conventional religious sentiment that seems to rumble in the background of the previous pieces, this final picture is quite astonishing in it's way, showing the Monks contrived, erotic tormenting of unfortunates who come their way turning into full-blooded lust. Whatever misdeed this strapping, hairy man has committed, he can scarcely have anticipated it being dealt with like this. There are echoes of the crucifixion in the gloriously, Gothic suspension arrangement but fortunately Jesus doesn't figure in Monastic Orders. Otherwise the Abbot might have had a serious disciplinary incident on his hands. (Harm to third parties of course doesn't count).

As in other Franco images the captive's restraint is contrived to expose and display his undercarriage to the full and the Monk is taking full advantage. The gentle explorations of his right hand are no less erotic, possibly more so than the mouthful he is helping himself to. A glimpse of twiddling toes and gleaming skin provides graphic evidence that his manipulations are not falling entirely on stony ground.

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Much of Franco’s circulating work is comprised of black and white drawings, some are in colour and appear to have been created that way, but a lot of it has been computer ‘enhanced’ and colourised. I don’t know if this has been done with Franco’s collaboration but the results are often disappointing.  I don’t disapprove of colourising as such - it can make pictures more interesting and accessible, but it can also obliterate detail and nearly always destroys the subtlety of the original lines. I have deliberately favoured black and white images here for that reason, there is a wealth of fine detail and subtlety in Franco's pictures which is masked out in the coloured equivalents. Backgrounds are sometimes completely wiped out but I will admit that colour can help in bringing out the complexity and menace of his various milking devices - the Vibrator Torment picture exemplifies this dilemma. Arguably much of Franco's fame and popularity is owed to the colourised versions, particularly of his lab rat work. However he is a perceptive artist of skill and delicacy and I much prefer his original versions.
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Telemachus is a primary source for Franco's work,
 there's also some at cp4men and jockspank,
General internet searches will bring up loads.

There is a second part of this article featuring Franco's more recent work,
in which he has radically changed his style.

rev(2017-07)10416

Friday 16 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Fuwa

(Also publishes work under the name Yamato)
Fuwa’s pictures have a distinctive, dark, textured look. His men are large and well built with rather attractive chunky faces featuring fleshy lips and slightly spiky dark hair. Some Japanese artists seem to ‘westernise’ their character’s faces but Fuwa’s retain distinctive national characteristics with a strange air of innocence quite at variance with the activities they participate in. His men are not always hairy but he does a nice line in arm and leg hair.
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Fuwa’s pictures cover every fetish you can think of and are decidedly sleazy in character (that’s a compliment!) with close ups of the relevant areas and lots of juices splashing around. Fuwa’s interest in showing this detail results in plenty of close-ups and some rather unlikely poses in the more dynamic pictures. Whilst there is bondage in abundance the atmosphere is consensual and cheerful.
In some of his pictures the fetishism is applied to static poses derived from bodybuilding. These show off the muscularity of his character but they do seem a bit ‘posed’. I think it’s fair to say that Fuwa is more interested in excitement of the sex than the artistic, erotic possibilities of the human body (as exemplified for example by Fillion’s arching bodies in suspension -see previous post).


Fuwa usually provides sketchy background details in the style of Tom of Finland to help conjure a story for the viewer. He also makes extensive use of clothing which is a clincher for me. As well as the mandatory leather and cops uniforms, there is a nice sprinkling of sports wear - rugby, judo and rather delicious wrestlers in leotards of which the example here is the most decent!
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There's a small gallery of his work here but I’m afraid I don’t have a proper link for Fuwa, if anyone can supply one please get in touch. His work is featured in G-men magazine.
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If you want to read the earlier articles in this series, click on the A-Z label below


Thursday 15 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Fillion


Patrick Fillion is a professional comic illustrator of considerable standing and has produced a large amount of uncompromisingly gay and intensely sexy artwork.
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Fillion - Unzipping


His work often features restraint, bondage or domination. But you will also find spanking, (as in the early example here) golden showers, cbt and a number of less common interests - electro, piercing and catheters for example. All are excellently depicted.

Fillion - Chased and Spanked

A good deal of his work is fantastical in nature and his trademark could said to be the morphing of humans with animal characteristics notably Camili Cat who is constantly being captured and assaulted by tactile aliens.

Fillion - Camili-Cat
These mixed breeds of human and animal flirt with animal fetishes which are a whole different realm to mere torture and bondage. I’m sure many guys will find it exciting but I find the animalised faces something of a turn-off. Fortunately their bodies have all the important male characteristics in ample proportions. I will admit that the sexual contact between man-like creatures and aliens (or plants) can be erotic providing it is convincingly drawn. I have a weakness for ‘tentacle pictures’ myself. But for me, the erotic charge in ‘Poor Kitty Cat’ comes from the muscular hero being contorted into a painful position by the stronger creature, helpless to resist the probing examination of the contents of his pants.
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The apparently fanciful fairy and snake picture is another rather clever take on this theme and gets more erotic the more you study it.


The snake is the epitome of strength and evil lust from his dripping mouth to his phallic shaped tail. The boy fairy is cute - but perhaps not entirely innocent, judging by his tattoos and his erection as he contemplates the snakes next move. This picture stands in a long tradition of ’good guys’ in danger and at the mercy of animals representing the sexual beast.
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It is unnecessary to comment on Patrick’s technical skills - just look at the hands and feet in these pictures. The background work, in the last picture for example, oozes style.


Fillion - Fox


Sometimes you do have to look quite hard as the cartoons are often packed with detail and the scenes may feature multiple, intertwining participants. The hard edged cartoon style with intensely dark shadowing can sometimes be unhelpful in complex situations like this as the black tends to ‘grab the eye’ and come forward when you want it to recede. I think the eye becomes accustomed to this in the context of a comic and since there is a whole generation of cartoonists successfully using identical techniques, who am I to quibble? Patrick’s ability to pour sensuous sex into the frame makes every one worth a look and his suspension and stretching bondage images are first class.


For more visit his website - http://www.patrickfillion.com/

If you want to read the earlier articles in this series, click on the A-Z label below

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Facchini


Facchini is a relatively new arrival and his style is still developing but his pictures have made a great impact on me. He shows men in bondage being chastised by authority. They are not pretty boys but adult men with attractive physiques. They are often hairy but their hair (including head hair) is depicted as though it is growing back after having been shaved off.

 Facchini - Prison 2 Transfer to Medics

Facchini depicts tortures and medical treatments but he also does scenes like the prisoner being prepared for his punishment (above). The guards are unattractive and casual creating a sense of an uncaring, unstoppable bureaucratic process. The prisoner has no hope.
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Facchini - On Your Knees
 
The prisoner kneeling before the judge is a particular favourite of mine. It is not unusual for prisoners to wear restraints for court appearances but this degree of immobilisation and bondage suggests that the prisoner is violent and unpredictable. This enables us to enjoy his humiliation with a clear conscience. The authorities are demonstrating firmness and resolve forcing him to bow before a judge whose theatrical garb he would no doubt ridicule if he were free.That wedge under his shins is a nice, nasty touch!
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Facchini’s technique could fairly be described as unpolished, but the mixture of sketchy backgrounds and more detailed primary figures is actually quite effective.
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Facchini doesn’t have a website but publishes pictures from time to time at the GMBA Google group which I can recommend as a constant source of fetish art of all sorts. Current link in sidebar.

There is also an exhibition of his work attached to this blog
Visit Facchini Exhibition.
(Original Facchini Exhibition Announcement)

If you want to read the earlier articles in this series, click on the A-Z label below

Monday 12 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Falkon


Falkon (aka Graewolf) was a contemporary of Tom and Etienne and some of his work drew heavily on Etienne images (a source of controversy in some quarters). The picture shown illustrates his style which is slightly naïve - but the graceful anatomy is very pleasant.
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Falkon - Stewpot


 Notice the 'locals' here are white, I'm not sure whether this makes it non-racist
 or whether it's adding insult to injury.

Despite the Etienne influences, much of his work is totally original featuring highly adventurous subjects like cannibalism (as in ‘stew pot’ here), burning and electrocution of genitals and suspension by same. This dramatic subject matter almost goes off the far end of the scale of fetishism but it is usually presented in a disarming, comic fashion that it is unlikely to cause offence. 

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Falkon should also be commended for his ground breaking book - “Gay Art - a historic collection” first published in 1972 and recently reissued by Arsenal Pulp Press. It contains fascinating information on the ‘pioneers’ of gay art.
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If you want to read the earlier articles click on the A-Z label below

Sunday 11 January 2009

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Fluide Glacial - Solé

Today’s picture is by an artist I originally labelled as 'Fluide Glacial' (hence it's inclusion under the letter 'F') but really that's just the name of a french magazine that published these pictures under the headline 'Son of Tom of Finland'.

My thanks to 'JF', the french artist who did some detective work and discovered the artist's real name is Jean Solé (Updated June 2011)
.Solé - Gilbert and Jerome go shopping at Auchan

They are not really fetish pictures at all although they are sprinkled with fetishistic imagery. I thought the quality of the work deserved a ‘mention in despatches‘ and I would be very surprised if more fetishist examples do not exist.

The style is highly reminiscent of Tom of Finland not only in technique but in the humour and in the characterisation of the black security guard.

If you want to read the earlier articles click on the A-Z label below

Saturday 10 January 2009

A New Look - and a new series for mitchmen

We have a slightly new look at 'mitchmen' from today. I've introduced a bit of colour into the banner to make it more interesting. I'm keeping the 'tied up gardener' image as it always seems to excite newcomers and represents my interests quite well.
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The next set of articles posted here will feature a new letter in the A-Z of fetish artists - the letter 'F'. Here to whet the appetite is a picture by Futoshi which expresses quite a lot of what fetish art is all about without even resorting to nudity - nice!
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I have lots of artists to choose from for 'F' - Faccini, Frey, Fillion, Franco, Fury, Fujimoto, Fuwa, Funayama and more besides. This could be interesting! As usual I will sift through the contenders and discard those that do not really qualify as 'fetish artists'. In other words those artists who only 'dabble' occasionally in uniforms, bondage, S and M, torture and all the myriad other little obsessions that colour our world. This is a purely subjective judgement on my part but I won't exclude any artist whose contribution has been memorable even if it has been small in quantity. CGI artists are also excluded to keep the list manageable. I hope to review them at a later date but at our present speed it won't be this year! If you want to read the earlier A-E articles click on the A-Z label below

Friday 9 January 2009

Mitchell's 'In Praise of Sailors' - 20 - Seamen Spanked and Cuffed


Today’s sailors come from my latest, 'Drunken Sailor' series
where they are put through various humiliations and punishments after reporting drunk (74).
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In most of the pictures they have lost their trousers at the least - so no Tom-like bulges I’m afraid. No awed respect for the uniform either. The sailors get a good going over as these two examples show. Well, mitchmen is about putting men in their place after all.
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(75)


No 75 has quite an interesting background. The cross legged cuffing is based on a newspaper photograph printed some years ago showing the actor Sean Penn after he had been arrested for brawling. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it and just had to incorporate the image in my portfolio.

You can view the complete set of drawings for ‘ThePress Gang’ and ’The Drunken Sailor’ at my Google Group (link in side bar)

I hope you have enjoyed my cruise round the world of sailor-dom. I know many mitchmen members also love the genre and there will be more pictures to come from my own hand and no doubt other artists too.

To round off here’s another sailor in bondage from Etienne (76). The series is called ‘Sailor Beware’ but this is from the first picture in it, so it’s a bit late for the warning!
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(76)

The End

Read this series from episode 1

Thursday 8 January 2009

Mitchell's 'In Praise of Sailors' -19 Building Site Workmen Press-Ganged


If you have been following my ‘sailor blogs’ you won’t need me to explain my fascination with these men, triggered by war movies in my formative years and the drawings of Tom of Finland. Sailors featured in my very earliest pictures and since I started showing my work on the web they have elbowed their way to the front in a couple of series:- ‘The Press Gang’ and ‘The Drunken Sailor’.

The Press Gang setting is in the British Royal Navy and the sailors here are agents of authority, acting under orders to abduct and subjugate a group of muscular builders so they can be forced to serve as seamen (72).
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(72)

In these pictures it was the builders rather than the sailors who were the erotic objects
 - although I tried to make the Navy boys as cute as possible (73).
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(73)

This picture gives a rare outing for forced haircut fetish. We all know how much gay men like short haircuts and shaving, but how rare it is to see these interests in picture form. There is also a shaving picture in the Drunken Sailor series (see next post).

The Sailor's role in the story was to represent the power of authority in uniform to dominate raw masculinity. The fact that the builders were mature men while the sailors were distinctly youthful gave a nice extra twist of humiliation to their plight.
Continued

Read this series from episode 1