Oztangles Retrospective 1

 Oztangles is a renderer who seems to have always been around but he's scarcely represented here at mitchmen with just a solitary (but memorable) post in the 'Milking Factory' series in 2020. This retrospective looks back over his career to try and set that omission straight.

2006

Oztangles - Get Warm

This is just about the earliest Oztangles image I have discovered. Back then he didn't sign or date his pictures so I've had to go by the date on my file copy which means it could be even earlier. 

He paints this street dweller with an unexpectedly, well turned-out appearance. 
Come and get warm indeed!

Rendering has come a long way since 2006, but Oz's technical skills were already apparent here in the grounding of his character with shadow and his clothing. 

2007

Oztangles - Alleycats

This image also has an back alley setting and a very cute protagonist. 
Attractive faces are a notable feature of Oz's work and he doesn't shrink from body hair either!
Sexual encounters like this are a major strand in his work

Oztangles - Contemplating The Dildo

It's hard to believe this image is from the same era. The clever use of light throws the two participants into sharp relief and it's a nicely balanced composition. This cutie has put himself into the hands of someone much more experienced and seems anxious about what's coming his way next. The crumpled jock beneath him is a nice detail. 

The older man looks familiar from the work of Ulf and MSSF, renderers do swap characters sometimes and Oztangles usually gives credits at his 'official' gallery at Renderotica.

Oztangles - Mr P meets his match

At that time he had a character called Mr P who had various erotic adventures both as a Top and (here) as a Bottom. He had an eccentric (or I suppose you might say, enthusiastic) taste in erotic attire, it's contrasted dramatically here with the everyday sexy cut-offs of the hunky blond 'plugger'. 

Note the recurring bottle of lube in these pictures, early product placement?

2008

Oztangles - Pleasure and Pain

This is a fairly basic S&M scene and a relatively unpolished render, lighting-wise, but Oztangles has infused it with something special and very atmospheric. The inter-generational element jumps out at you, the old hand is grizzled and bald, not unattractive. He's dressed in an ordinary jockstrap plus leather wrist bands and has only the simplest of S&M implements to hand, but in that economy of style you sense he has a wealth of experience in testing the limits of other men. He's too focussed on that purpose to bother with the frippery of leather gear and showy toys.

His trainee (I believe it is Mr P again) looks as though he might have read that seriousness too and is now wondering, half-excited, what he has gotten himself into. Fashionable is the word that describes him, the very antithesis of his unprepossessing new Master. His neatly coiffured hair and artfully styled beard and stubble mark him as a man who looks after himself, aware of his attractions and used to exploiting them. He looks professional, popular, successful, the man who has everything. Yet here he is, stripped naked, his expensive clothing symbolically replaced by a tight slave's collar. 

Having surrendered himself to this Top, he stands helplessly secured, arms spread wide in a heavy-duty wooden frame that would, and probably has, restrained much stronger men than he. There is no going back now, he faces torments, whose nature he can try to imagine but their intensity remains an unknown. Uncertainty and nervousness shows in his face as he winces from the initial squeezing of his nipples, it's the trivial, introductory handshake of pain.

This is a great picture.

Oztangles - Taking Him To The Edge 3

Here is Mr P again, easily recognised by his idiosyncratic clothing. He's working on a very nice sub of his own. If his outfit is flamboyant, his restraint apparatus is out of this world, indisputably stylish, futuristic and no doubt incredibly expensive. Very much in keeping with the persona I outlined just above.  It's a matter of taste whether you prefer the traditional styles of restraint but the tentacle-like entwinement of the arms and legs in this device are highly erotic in their own right and must impress the subs no end.

2009

Oztangles - Bench Press

A new erotic adventurer appears in Oz's art in 2009, 'Angel' who haunts gyms and locker rooms, seeking out opportunities for sex with the athletes who pass through in pursuit of physical exercise and sporting excellence. 

Angel's advances are made boldly, openly seducing men in the middle of their workout and unruffled if anyone else walks in on them. In the sequel to this image the muscle head at the door follows Angel to the locker room and plunders his ass, kneeling on the floor.

Oztangles - The Garage

This image shows the artist's widening ambitions with a complex, industrial set and an aerial viewpoint setting tricky challenges of perspective. It's a more ambitious subject too invoking a fantasy of two captives being given a workout by a mysterious but very large man who is using the computerised, electrical testing system of the garage to test two guinea pigs.

Is this a place where subs are sent for their annual safety test? Or are these two mechanics whose incompetence with this equipment has prompted an angry customer to give them a practical demonstration?

Oztangles - Downstairs, It's Playtime

 In Playtime Oz revisits that dark moment when a restrained Sub meets his Master.

This Sub is a handsome and exceptionally muscular man. These are qualities that will grant him no favours in the hours to come. He's been fully prepared in advance, stripped naked and shackled, hands above his head, to an iron post using steel fetters that are clamped so tightly on his wrists and ankles that escape is completely impossible. Already this is looking like serious business. 

He's been left to anticipate and sweat in this bare underground room, feeling a tingle of excitement and fear. Now the moment has come as the Top makes his entrance, descending the stairs and gradually revealing himself. The sub gets a glimpse of calf length motorcycle boots and rubber leotard. They suggest a man with flair, a man who does things differently (shades of Mr P). The Sub shifts uneasily in his restraints.

Oztangles - What Next

A lot of Oztangles' pictures around this time feature solo studies of the male figure in classic modelling poses, experimenting with their bodies and faces. This one has an S&M flavour and brilliantly captures the tearful eyes and gritted teeth of a cocky man who is finding his weighty trial harder to handle than he expected, but dare not admit the humiliating truth to his mentor - or himself.

The ball weight looks bizarrely like a Christmas bauble, but it's clearly much heavier, causing the clips on the sub's nipples to clamp tight. A merry quip dies on his lips as the pain mounts.

~

The mitchmen retrospective of the Art of Oztangles 

continues in Part 2