Art by Nevermoredesign

Inspection

There's a mysterious, dungeon-like atmosphere in this image. A muscular stud is secured in a pillory device. His rear end is being examined by a much bigger man, wearing a ritualistic mask. 

 

Crated, Trained

Another image of trapped muscularity. This man's collar is a mark of his status. The uncompromisingly strong iron gate that contains him shows respect for his strength but neutralises it.

 

Sub2

This artist looks at the more arcane activities of leathermen at play. This piggybacking harks back to archaic practices of servants transporting their masters around.  

 

Focus

 'Focus' by this artist depicts the notion of service in a more conventional manner, with a chained slave on his knees about to worship his Master's prized possession. 

Link to original image

 

Exposed

In this image, the artist depicts masculine power of a different sort, with the subject's flamboyant hair and lean physique suggesting streetwise wiliness and earthiness. He confidently removes his clothes in a public toilet. Anonymity is the custom here, and that gives power and freedom.

  

Support

This picture of a man loitering, brazenly naked, in a public alleyway is simple but powerful. Presumably it's a place that he knows will only be frequented by other men who will appreciate his seductive display. He offers himself but his boldness will intimidate some. 

 

Windows

This image seems to show a more organised and intense approach to the same transaction. Rent boys gather at an open window, not just showing their beautiful bodies, but projecting lust and sexual challenge. There's a slightly demonic cast to their expressions that suggests danger lurks within, despite the lure of sexual availability.

There are historical precedents to this imagery 

 

Three

You might sense a more clandestine demon lurking in this image. A man whose dark looks and personality seems to have brought him a pair of admirers jockeying for his attention. He encourages them both with a hint of pleasure to come, but they are not the focus of his attention. He is calculating.

 

Surrender 2

This image (possibly by a different artist) combines the two themes of dungeons and demons. It also seems to express two extremes of desire. A young man with a (possibly naive) interest in the black arts of S&M is being overwhelmed by a hardened expert. His bite condemns the young experimenter into a lifetime in his thrall. 

This scenario suggests a more believable interpretation of who seduced whom in the garden of Eden by taking a bite of the juicy offering.

 

Devil's Due

The title of this dramatic, demon piece suggests it is the inevitable price of bartering with the devil, but there is a sense of naive innocence in the young man's carefully trimmed beard. I suspect some of the toughened characters in this artist's work might see this as a romantic seduction, albeit one that lays bare the pecking order, as it were. Even this celebrant seems to be ecstatic rather than chastened.

 

Cave Troll

The same cannot be said of the hero in this image, which seems to celebrate the disillusionment of good intentions. This Knight Adventurer had no doubt set out hoping to do good by slaying some demons and monsters. Instead, he ends up getting stripped of his protective armour by one and getting the rough end of his stick. He doesn't seem too comfortable with this outcome. 

 

Damned

The title and soaring gothic background here seems to express the conventional, religious interpretation of demons being the agents of eternal, unspeakable punishment. Looking at the damned man's face, though, you can't help thinking it's all rather tongue in cheek. He seems to be not so much suffering, as savouring it to the full. His body language suggests willingness, too. 

But it's still unspeakable as it happens.

 

Dark Desires

 The title of this, similar image recognises better the dilemma of pleasure and punishment. The spikes in the background and suggestion of caging widen the options for both. The devil is bigger here, his hands gripping the human and firmly holding him down. It's a particularly explicit expression of the domination which pervades this artist's work. We can't see how the devil's 'victim' feels about this, just that he's braced himself. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, you might say 

 

Home Grown

This murky image also seems rather like a depiction of damnation, but the title suggests a Sci-Fi creation scenario. Despite the foetal position and umbilical connections the fledgling seems remarkably well-developed, tattoos and all, and yet he's still dependent and controlled, so it's not such a different subject after all. 

There's some clever assembly of imagery to create this storyline 

~ 

'Interface', another picture by this artist that I've posted at 'X'  seems to blend Sci-Fi and horror. It shows another, attractive, young man being overpowered by skeletal robots with glowing skull eyes.   

 ~

 

Tight End

What a great backside! The pun in the title of this picture is not new, butt I don't think I've seen it illustrated so precisely or alluringly before. Nor have I seen such a calculating temptation portrayed in a Locker Room context, it's usually the domain of manly posturing, casual nudity and furtive, stolen glimpses. This footballer has a scary look that links with the demons of other pictures and the challenge of the boys at the window. You can't be sure whether it's an inviting dare or a warning.   

 

Traffic Stop

This image suggests common ground between the uncertainty of the locker room and police stop scenarios (with another, mixed pun in the title). The body language is not threatening here, but the sun shades make it hard to be sure. 

Nice body curves

 

~

 

Sorry, I don't have a link for this artist.

Footballer in Trouble by Kinky Callum

 

 

Coach:- "The Club pays you to score goals, Pirelli,

not to get yourself sent off after 10 minutes! 

Now bend over!" 

 

Pirelli:- "80 swats! That paddle really hurts, Coach.

I think I've learned my lesson". 

 

Coach:- "It ain't finished yet, Pirelli!

You'll get the same before every game

that you have to miss through suspension.

One swat for every single minute!". 

 

Pirelli:- "Gulp!" 

 

~ 

 

A week later... 

 

 

 

Coach:- "Stop whining, Pirelli! I warned you!  

You got yourself a four match suspension.

So you'll take my punishment before every one.

Now, where was I?"

 

Pirelli (in an emotional voice):- "Fifty three, Coach" 

 

Coach:- "Right. When I'm finished, you can go and sit on the bench, and watch your team-mates playing without you.

Now brace yourself, Pirelli". 

 

~

 

A week later... 

 

 

Pirelli:- "That was the worst yet, Coach".

 

Coach:- "Yes, Because we lost that last match, you had to sit out.

Consider yourself lucky that I'm not punishing you in front of the whole team. Now, go sit on the bench. Leave your shorts here".

 

Striker:- "But Coach!"

 

Coach:- "You heard me, go sit on the bench!"

 

~

 

Two weeks later... 

 

Coach:- "OK, Pirelli, you've served out your punishment.

Now convince me why I should let you back in the team".

 

Pirelli:- (gulp) "I'm really, really sorry, Coach. 

....blah, blah, blah 

You're a great trainer and I love playing for this team, 

....... blah, blah, blah...... 

I've really been training hard with the reserves, 

blah, blah, blah...... "

 

~

20 minutes later....... 

 

"Please Coach! Let me play again. Please! 

(tearfully) I'm begging!".

 

Coach:- OK Pirelli, I'll think about it.

Get up, go put your shorts back on, 

and get back to training with the reserves.

 

~

 

AI Art by Kinky Callum, narrative by mitchmen.

Kinky Callum is on 'X' as HHimbos

Art by Steve Masters 2

Steve Masters - Al Fresco

 If the convict image that topped Part 1 of this article is one of Master's most memorable, this must be the most intriguing. This is the best quality copy I have of it, but it's not the most complete, a version I have assembled from two other sources (below) shows more of the composition at both the top and the bottom.

Steve Masters - Al Fresco (extended)

Looking at this expanded version, you get the feeling that there's probably even more to see in the artist's original. The fragment at the top seems chopped, but it does seem to be the uppermost floor, because it doesn't have a staircase leading further upwards.

But what does it mean? At one level, you might see it as simply a vehicle for figure studies. Most of Master's compositions have that 'posed' quality, with limited interactions between the characters. In this picture, the men interact with the architecture more than they do with each other. However, one window does show a couple who might have just had sex, is this an imagined house of boys, then? 

At the other end of the scale, you might see this as an allegory of the gay lifestyle. Bedsit boys, living mostly solitary lives and constantly looking out at more showy men who have the courage to strut the fire-escape in public view. Close by, but out of reach, and ultimately just as trapped as they are, in the gay ghetto. That subtext would have had some resonance in the early sixties, when many gay men really were trapped and the gulf between the closet and the secret, 'out' world was far more substantial than it is today.

Steve Masters - Cubicles (my title)

 If you are inclined to dismiss this interpretation, this picture might make you think again. Nine men in panels depicting toilet cubicles, and one of them is having sex if you look closely. None seem to be actually using the toilet. 

This image depicts the wide variety of men that haunted restrooms. The original was clearly coloured, as many of Master's images were. and that would have enhanced the sense of variety - in dress at least. 

It's intriguing though that the individual portraits are cropped so severely. In places, it creates the illusion that the men are having sex with each other, with an impressive daisy chain in the middle. The overlaps in the outer panels create the same effect in a different way.

Squeezing the images together does create a sense of fleeting visits and of the individuals merely registering as an impression. But there's a negative flip to that, which echoes the suggestion of isolation and loneliness in 'Al Fresco'. 

The artist Rex also played with the cubicle device later on. His images contain gay men actually interacting and having sex in their own partitions (which are closer to hotel rooms or bath house cubicles than public toilets). As individuals, they have much stronger identities. Both men are reflecting their times, of course.

 

Steve Masters - Rock Climbers (1962)

A young man is helped across a crevasse to join his companion, who strikes a godlike pose. It's a scene reminiscent of renaissance art. There's a calmness about this picture and a complete absence of innuendo, although their nudity (contrasted with residual clothing and kit) does suggest a sexual context. The shedding of all clothes means there's none of the showy display that characterises so much of Masters' work.   

 

The elements of creativity and design which dominate the previous images can be seen differently here, with a relatively simple composition embellished with what appear to be fragments of commercial marble images, such as might be seen on kitchen worktops or tiles. It creates an effect of a jagged, alien reality as the background and obstacle to the climbing. 

 

 

Steve Masters - Bacchanal

 

This image has a similar, striking design featuring realistic marbling, but it couldn't be more different to Rock Climbers. The design effects almost overwhelm the whole composition. 

 

When your eyes focus, it's dominated by an image of Bacchus with a dragon headed snake between his legs, discharging his lust from its mouth into a pool. The snake seems to be actually entering his body at the rear. An incongruous cupid rides behind him, seemingly trying to restrain the creature (or simply distract unwelcome prudes). 

 

Oblivious of them, a group of naked sailors loll drunkenly on the edge of the pool, full of a milky white substance, which probably isn't asses milk. (Shades of Stephen's 'Troopship'!). The sailors are subtly connected by hands and overlaps into a chain of shared, sexual sensuality. 

 

At the very back, another humanoid creature sits cross-legged, presiding over the activities. He's shaded in a different tone to the sailors, I suspect it's a different colour in the original image, to distinguish him from them. A disembodied head like a gargoyle hovers in front of his groin, obscuring it from view. It looks like a device added later to sanitise the image. 

 

I suppose this image simply expresses the view that gay debauchery is (reassuringly) sanctioned by the Gods, nay it's directed by them. Despite the difficult presentation of the subject, its sheer complexity is impressive. The figure of Bacchus and his snake is a homoerotic gem.

 

Steve Masters - Watching Men (my title)

This earlier piece shows the same interest in placing men into places with striking design features. The less exotic chequerboard patterns show a link to contemporary commercial art, although I can't quote chapter and verse on that. There's no attempt to construct a story line, but there's a very clever message... 

 

In the background, we see a couple of attractive, scantily-clad men engaged in healthy exercise. Another two are getting undressed for a bath (together? really?).  In the foreground, a fifth man in a jockstrap sits on a platform watching them, almost furtively. He seems a lonely, excluded figure, rather like the souls looking out of windows in 'Al Fresco' - and perhaps like the figure crossing the divide in 'Rock Climbers'.

 

 

Steve Masters - Boot Clean

Words are the striking feature of this image, with enough gay innuendos and puns to satisfy the most playful mind (soles rimmed?) These signs refer us back to the key character, who we see presenting himself - alone - and in a cubicle(!)  Not exactly trapped, though - or is he? 

 

The multiple offers of service around him are supplemented and clarified by the fact he's holding his cock in his hand. Masters has cloaked him in conventionality by draping a fashionable cardigan over his shoulders, an appealing connection for some.

 

The hint of a fairground connection can be seen in other work by this artist, in Part 3. 

 

Steve Masters -Handy Man

Words serve a very different purpose here. At first, we only see a fit, muscular man with a revealing shirt and a suitcase. We can visualise him arriving in a new place, looking for work and somewhere to live. So far, so very homoerotic. 

 

Then through the blizzard of words we see he has no right arm and no, it's not just one of Masters' design flourishes. He's a veteran, returning as a casualty of war. Immediately, those sexy innuendos and offers around him take on a bitter irony. His face acknowledges the reality of being able-bodied and yet not. He, too, is alone and isolated.

 

This is 1961, the year that American involvement and casualties in Vietnam began to escalate. With the Korean War a recent memory, Masters seems to anticipate and protest the inevitable consequences and the toll it would take on so many young men.

 

~ 

 

Part 3 of this series looks at Masters' less intense work.

 

Read Part 1 of this article  

More AI Art by BedVC太郎

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Recent art by Hongd542

Captive

This muscular man is being held prisoner. He's been stripped to his underpants and ritualistically tied up in shibari-style rope work. A bare topped captor silences his protests. The sun streaming in through the window cruelly mocks his captivity. An array of instruments in the background suggest other torments lie ahead.

 

Cop

A cop in his office pauses from his paperwork for a coffee (product placement!) and a snack. He, too, is mightily muscular, filling out his uniform with every part of his body. Tight enough to show us that he isn't wearing any underwear. Some Offices have that as a rule. The doughnut he's nibbling provokes ribald comments about licking tasty rings from his colleagues. 

 

He might easily be the captive of image 1.

 

Convict

It's easy to visualise him as a prisoner. Restrained with handcuffs, forced to wear the humiliating stripes of a convicted felon and made to submit to intrusive searches at the whim of his jailers. His resentment is apparent, but futile. They will have their way. 

 

Victim

It's even harder, out there on the streets. Danger lurks in every alleyway, and even a street-wise man can fall foul of what lurks there, waiting for an opportunity to sate its lust. 

 

Sportsman

 The sports field should be a place of refuge from the world's evils, a place of relaxing, healthy exercise. But even there, a muscular man is at risk. Teams bend the rules, ostensibly to be the winners, but no sporting triumph can beat the thrill of scoring in the goal that lies hidden in every opponent's shorts.

 

Locker Room Lollipop

As the Cop with his doughnut discovered, things that melt in the mouth can stoke an appetite for savoury treats. There's no shortage of men eager to give them instruction in the locker rooms. It's not only narcotics that get you hooked.

 

Fetish Date

The discipline of team sport is good preparation for the rigours and training for formal servitude. Every journey begins with the first step, but this hunk can scarcely have imagined where that lollipop and curiosity would lead him. 

Juicy Fruits

Temptation abounds in every profession. Stoked by unscrupulous employers who impose quick-release uniforms on their workers. They are designed to assert their power over them - and, by a happy coincidence, satisfy their tastes for eye candy of the masculine kind.  

 

Underwear Inspection in the Army

It's no different in the army. The uniform is prescribed and regularly inspected. Even a soldier's underwear is inspected periodically to make sure it is clean and without creases. The Sergeant thinks it helps with unit bonding.

 

See also 'Peacekeeper' at 'X' 

 

 

Office Boss

Some Offices make their employees wear shorts. In this one, the roles are reversed on 'Dressing Down Friday', with the workers finding skimpy shorts for the Boss to wear and showing him what it's like to be the underling. It's all taken in good spirit usually but, as with any Office 'do', it's wiser to not drain his patience completely. 

 

 

Office Suspension

For those that go too far, there's Suspension Saturday. This happens quite often to employees who happen to be good-looking. They can't show their contrition by writing out lines, of course. Instead, the Boss comes in to see them when he thinks they've had enough and extracts whatever he wants from them on the spot.

 

Office Dicktation

Men with exceptional credentials and malleability may even get promoted to be the head honcho's PA. Their duties mainly involve looking hot when doing the filing and sitting on the bosses knee to take his dicktation. Little extras in their pay packets are their reward for allowing access to their play packets. There's also a bondage bonus if they have to stay late for 'over the knee' overtime. He doesn't take no for an answer. 

 

 

Office Primer

 Some new employees find this culture difficult to adjust to, but primer courses are helpfully provided for promising entrants. In the privacy of the medical centre, they are shown what will be expected of them and how to make the most profitable use of their natural abilities. They are also taught some unnatural ones that might come in useful, too. It's a hard and sweaty induction.

 

 

Milking Medic

The highly experienced medical staff are well-equipped to allay their patients' anxieties about the sometimes-invasive procedures. Their expertise always gets the best out of their charges, who leave exhausted and drained, but with happy memories. 

 

 

Office Restroom

 The pressures and tensions of such jobs are enough to drive any red-blooded male to seek respite in the restrooms. There they can find relief - if one of their equally-aroused colleagues doesn't find it for them first.

 

~

This is Part 5 of my series about Hongd542's AI art,
Earlier articles: Part 1 contains onward links through to Part 4

Hongd542 posts enormous quantities of art and surprisingly rude versions of his images at his Hongd542 Deviant Art site