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Wednesday 26 July 2017

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco Part 2

When I produced my original A-Z entry on Franco featuring his spanking and 'lab-rat' art, he had been producing pictures using conventional drawing techniques for many years, I have a couple of line drawings from as far back as 1991 but most of his later pictures are undated or have had their dates obliterated by photo manipulations to add colour or (like the example below) to remove the original detailed backgrounds. 


Since my original article in 2009, however, Franco has struck out in an entirely new direction using CGI techniques in a revealing and exciting way to create a brand of spanking photo-realism that is entirely his own. These images did not qualify for inclusion in my A-Z under the original criteria which were focussed on conventional art, but now that I have got to 'Z' in the series I may relax my rules!

Franco's original folio of art was based around a selection of basic figure poses like the rear end, flailing legs classic above. He produced from these building blocks an endless stream of variations featuring different characters and different levels of explicitness in the erotic content. His new style of work revisits and recreates those familiar favourites but the result is something quite, quite different. 

Franco - Dr Redbottom's Physical Examination
Here we have many familiar ingredients - bare, plump, red bottoms (of course!), a spanker whose posture is slightly awkward and effeminate and whose clothing is extremely conventional. Not least we have the quirky facial expressions denoting secret pleasures on the part of the spanker and embarrassment and horror from his jock victims. The photo-manipulation technique transforms the images but you can still recognise Franco's hand behind them. 

There is also, however, a striking change in the content in that, although there is still a cross-generational flavour to this picture these 'boys' are unmistakeably men (hairy bottom and all) and the age ambiguities of some of his earlier work have been put aside in keeping with the mores of our times. So whilst the image below is clearly a headmaster's study, this is a fantasy school for grown up men. Their adulthood serves to make their humiliation all the more telling.

Franco - 3 Bad Bois
What is most remarkable of all, however, is how Franco has managed to remodel the faces and physiques of his new characters to infuse them with an extraordinary degree of sensuality and sexual attractiveness. Even the 'headmaster' here has an interesting and not entirely unattractive face, quite different to the gaunt, rather repellent features of many of the 'father figures' in his older work, like the picture at the top of this article. With the changing times Franco no longer has to hold back on explicit eroticism either, so the two 'voyeurs' here show an extraordinary level of excitement as they watch their buddy reduced to tears and think about their own special punishments - already received or still to come. 

Franco's interest in facial expressions has always been evident in his work. He uses them to embellish the story he is telling and accentuate the humiliation and pain of the men being dealt with. They acquire even more power with his newer technique and although his manipulations verge on caricature at times it doesn't seem to detract from the essential attractiveness of his subjects whose inept naughtiness seems quite lovable, well desirable anyway!

Franco - Monk's Spank Lust
Monks dishing out spankings to young men who fall into their clutches have always been a notable element in Franco's work, but in these newer images the victims have been upgraded to muscular adulthood, while their tormentors have also transformed from frustrated, religious perverts into men of a mysterious brotherhood, nurturing a dark purpose.
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Franco - Monk's Feather Torment
The captive's arched body pose here, straining against his restraints is superb and although I can't get excited about feather tickling as a sport, it certainly seems to be doing the trick for this hunky specimen. It does create the sense of precious, high quality juices being gradually teased out of this rare catch. 

Franco - Monk's Tender Torment
This image is even better, creating a sense of weird, deep intimacy between the two characters in which the coaxing of semen is like the casting of a spell, lulling the victim into a sort of defenceless (and tearful) ecstasy and giving the Monk the opportunity to enjoy his naked body much as a lover would - up close and personal. It almost looks as if they are shaping up for a kiss here. Delicious buttocks too.

Franco -Dr Sivana Milks

The third string to Franco's bow, and possibly his most popular outside the spanking community is the lab-rat, milking machine genre. This example is based on another familiar, Franco spanking pose of old, but the feel of the piece, embodying real lab imagery is quite different. Like the Monk's torment above, the Doctor's hands are actually placed on his victim's body in places which are unambiguously erotic. You'll struggle to find this frank intimacy his older pictures, where the machine is usually left to do it's work or perhaps just a steadying hand is placed on the victim's shoulder or leg.

In this picture, Franco is fully embracing (as it were) the Doctor's sexual pleasure in directing and watching this involuntary milking, he's monitoring his subject's body responses in the most personal way possible. Such caresses and touches could be valid elements of the extraction procedure, of course, intended to encourage him and enrich his product. That upturned bottom will probably get a spanking too at some point, for similar reasons. You'll notice that Franco has reverted to uglification here to underline and colour the inappropriate lust and the subject's inability to resist it.

Bound To The Harvester
This variant of the milking idea has a delightfully improvised quality with the handsome, bewildered hero tied astride an ordinary kitchen chair for his milking and seemingly trying to protest and negotiate about what's going on. This direct interaction enormously enhances the interest of the picture, transforming the captive from a passive recipient into a real person with a will and personality of his own. It introduces an element of doubt and suspense as his captor pauses in the act of turning up the stroke speed up and getting on with it. What can the captive possibly say to stop the remorseless draining?

Franco - Milk Extraction
This image provides a suitable climax to this article as a young jock registers disbelief at his own body's performance. It looks as if it has been enhanced by the contents of the syringe in the Doctor's hand ....or is this to be the trigger for the next phase of exploration?

The subject's face is reproduced on the monitor at the back. This is a device that Franco uses regularly in the lab images, underlining his interest in facial expressions. Notice how it appears that the horror on his face in the background seems to stem from seeing the poised syringe.

So many great images have flowed from Franco's rebirth that I have had great difficulty in making and limiting my selection for this article. Find more at Telemachus and Jockspank (where he is a regular contributor and has given interviews)

You can also visit my (now upgraded) original A-Z article on Franco (Part 1)

 For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (top and top right)

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