Mitchell's - A-Z of Fetish Artists - Klaus von Brandenburg

Klaus von Brandenburg specialises in pictures of square jawed, heroically muscular men who are tied down and being tortured. They are endowed with enormous, overflowing organs which would shame Tom of Finland and seem irresistible to the tormentors who reach out to grasp the column.

Klaus von Brandenburg - Tarzan on his way to his new home

The tortures are carried out in Police Dungeons or fictional or historical settings and he sometimes draws on stock comic book heroes for inspiration - Tarzan, Conan, Superman etc. The protagonists are sometimes surrounded by onlookers enjoying the prisoners agony or perhaps simply amused by the ingenuity of the torturers who employ a vast repertoire of devices on different parts of the body - often simultaneously.

Klaus von Brandenburg - Dungeon 6

Since the victim is naked and frequently secured in an immovable position, there is often more interest in the torture implements which are depicted in great detail and in the bystanders who are clothed and tend to have more characterful faces. Likewise the settings are carefully detailed. It's as though Klaus is more interested in the prisoner's predicament than his person.

Klaus von Brandenburg - Let us begin

The technique is unsophisticated but enthusiastic, the pictures are coloured with pencils or crayons which create a distinctive fuzzy texture and a child-like appearance quite at variance with the subject matter. The depiction of facial outlines and anatomy is cartoon-ish at times but features and musculature are shaded with great care and the artist can deal with perspective when he wants to as in Dungeon 6. The high level of detailing adds a great deal of interest to the drawings and though there is inevitably some repetition in the subject matter Klaus is always sexy and creates some memorable compositions.

See also KvB's 'Cowboy Antics' at mitchmen blog

Klaus posts regularly to GMBA (there's a link at the foot of the sidebar) 
He's also been in touch to say there is a blog with his name on but it does not belong to him.

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Kirwan

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Kirwan - Something Different

I confess that when I started this section of my review, I didn't expect to be including Kirwan as a fetish artist since his efforts in this area are usually presented in a whimsical manner which doesn't exactly galvanise my eroto-meter.

Kirwan - Stable Boy

However, on reviewing my collection, I have noticed that he seems to have covered every fetish imaginable at one time or another; from ladies underwear to long johns, from spanking to golden showers, from cops to priests. So much so, that it seems perverse to overlook him.

Kirwan's strength lies in humour and caricature. I admire his ability to capture real personalities in his subjects but a lot of them seem singularly unattractive - in body and face!

Kirwan - Slow Dance

Then again some of his subjects are extremely attractive and romantic. The brightly coloured cartoon imagery belies a versatile technique that encompasses serious and sensitive subject matter. Slow Dance above is a triumph.

Kirwan - Thrashing

By contrast, the thrashing picture is exceptionally graphic and full of action and drama. His command of lighting for dramatic effect in night scenes and dimly lit places is bold and impressive and when he chooses to employ perspective effects the sense of depth is very convincing.

Michael has a website at Mike Kirwan Arts, he also posts regularly at Yahoo Groups like Gaytoons and Homoart

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Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Art - Kenya Shimizu

Kenya Shimizu is a serious artist who works in pen and ink and water colour
producing pictures which are often sexually explicit and feature fetish themes.

Kenya Shimizu - Eye of the Samurai

Like Hasegawa, he references Japanese culture and settings - for example, Samurai warriors and weapons, theatrical masks, tattoos - and of course, bondage.

Kenya Shimizu - Drops of Love

Drops of Love is one of his most memorable images, the treatment is distinctly romantic. 

Compared with Hasegawa, however, the body shown seems to be a vehicle for the art 

rather than an object of desire in it's own right.

Kenya Shimizu - Kiss of Death

The pen and ink works have more edge about them. They are authentically Japanese and highly stylised - sometimes with bold perspectives and slanted sight lines. The crowded, patterned backgrounds are interesting artistically, but compete for attention with the subject matter.

I like Shimizu's work and would happily hang some of the water colours on my wall, but find it hard to get excited about it from a fetish or erotic standpoint. It somehow lacks the darkness and challenge one normally expects from Japanese art.

There's a good selection of his work at Adonis Art of London - Kenya at Adonis Art

Note: I have listed this artist under 'K' simply because that is the first letter of his artistic name (as shown on the paintings). I use this arbitrary method to get round unravelling 'composite' names like MCarcel (Mike Carcel) and initials like 'JAD'. I confess I don't know enough about names in Japan (and Southern Hemisphere cultures generally) to identify forenames and family names either!

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Kevin

Kevin is a little known artist who has produced some nice pictures featuring bondage and spanking.
.Kevin - Bound Prisoners

They are precisely drawn with body outlines firmly delineated, but but there is also nice subtlety in, for example the glass window behind the 'stud man' below.

Kevin - Stud Man

The formal poses suggest photographic sources and look a bit 'posed' but the compositions are interesting enough to repay a little study even if they don't quite match the vitality of Kent and Kalabro.

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Sorry no link info but a search of the GMBA archives (link in sidebar) will probably turn up more examples.
I'd welcome link information from readers

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Art - Nigel Kent

Nigel Kent represents fetish with a capital 'F'. He is not a story-teller, his pictures are focussed firmly on bondage and leather presented in a very intense form.

Kent - Tattoos and thongs

The image is usually a close up view - often exquisitely detailed and the participants are smothered in ropes or thongs and the whole range of leather fetish wear, accessories and attachments. He delights in the effect of body parts bulging under the constraint of bondage ropes and strapping.

Kent - Master A

The observer is not conscious of the bodies themselves - are they muscular? hairy? - you don't really notice. Likewise the faces are usually obscured by masks or cropped by the edge of the picture so their personalities don't intrude either - it's all about the fetish and the sex. Master A shown above illustrates this in a way, but actually shows far more personality than most of Kent's subjects, both in the face and clothing.

Kent - Bodybag

Kent's technique is highly accomplished, a sort of blurry pointillism which creates marvellous texturing effects in denim and cotton garments. It contributes to the stunningly crisp detail in Master A's belt. When used for leather and skin tones the effect is less effective in representational terms but instead, imparts a slightly unreal, unfocussed appearance to the image as a whole which is quite atmospheric.

There's a bio of the artist, a short article about his technique and a selection of pictures at Nigel Kent at TOF Foundation. The Leather Archives blog also has a Nigel Kent bio. A search of the GMBA archives (link in sidebar) or other art groups will probably turn up more examples.

I welcome link information from readers

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Art - Kalabro

Kalabro is a most interesting artist. In the past he has labelled his pencil drawings using many names - D-extreme, Morpheus, Kal and simply 'K'. He also has collaborators who produce coloured versions of his work with their own names appended - but Kalabro's own style is unmistakeable.

Kalabro - Punish a Pledge

 

The characters in the pictures are marked out by hard muscles. Their thighs and calves are disproportionately large but grafted onto long slender legs. In action poses these bodies are quite stylish in appearance.

Kalabro - Forced March

 

He typically depicts cute and muscular young men in peril but the dangers they face are far more explicit and extreme than your average comic hero has to face! They may face assaults on their manhood (of course!), brutal punching, throttling, even drowning at the hands of massive opponents. These are subjects which are unusual in fetish art. Conveying the action of a fist fight or showing underwater scenes is difficult in drawings and I admire Kalabro's ambition tremendously - it lifts his work into a different league.

Kalabro - Tarzan Beaten

 

There is a fantastical element to all these situations and Kalabro sometimes employs stock literary characters like Tarzan, Mummies and Beast-men to add colour and embellish the drama with our shared knowledge of these beings. The Tarzan example shown here is one of his more recent works and the technique is impressive. I like these sketches which have a freshness about them which can disappear in the hard edges of neat final versions. On his blog he regularly shows the development of a picture from sketch to finished article and you can judge for yourself.

Kalabro - Ben in Peril

 

Although he clearly draws inspiration from Comic Book imagery, there is a great deal of originality and inventiveness in Kalabro's reworking of these themes into adult entertainment. 'Ben in Peril' is a good example, I have never seen this idea before. The beautiful Ben is menaced not only by the whirling propeller sucking him in but also by the possible loss of his mouthpiece and the inevitable exhaustion of the oxygen cylinders. You can conjecture for yourself how he got into this pickle and what is going on above him on the boat. If you search for Kalabro's pictures you will find his heroes in plenty of even more challenging situations!

Interestingly many of Kalabro's pictures do not depict explicit sex. The erotic intention is always apparent but it's main thrust lies in the brutal subjugation and destruction of beautiful young manhood. Not everyone's cup of tea I suppose, but in a way that's the hook, Kalabro dangles beauty in front of us and then destroys it. Or at least he pushes it to the very edge of destruction and leaves the rest to you. It's all (relatively) bloodless, certainly no worse than the average Hollywood film.

Kalabro has a good blog at The Erotic Art of Kalabro where he shares and talks about his recent work.

It's not been updated for a while and he seems to have moved to Patreon.

 

UPDATE, Feb 2022 - I have added an extension to this article with lots more pictures and an update on where you can find his art in Best of Kalabro

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!
For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Kai

Makoto Kai is an accomplished draughtsman with a dark mind. This iconic rubber mask picture doesn't simply show a fetish, it explores the psychology as well without detracting from the eroticism of the picture.

Kai - Gas Masks

The hose connecting the two captives is not a new idea but the simple representation here expresses a clear relationship between them which is quite thought provoking. The technology attached to the squatting man at both ends is equally interesting, the use of the hose as a frame for the picture is intellectually pleasing - and the radioactivity warning sign shows a nice sense of humour (or if you prefer a very dark mind indeed!). Even if you are uninterested in all this stuff, the picture is sexy and memorable.

Kai - Acupunked

Kai's simple and elegant technique is a delight and in other pictures he draws more directly on the traditions of Japanese calligraphy to represent bodily fluids as curling waves, the example here gives an idea of this. And yet alongside all the refined artistry is a very intense and explicit S&M message which would please the most ardent enthusiast! It seems very Japanese.

Kai also has produced coloured pictures which are more representational but my final sample of his work remains in the graphic mode and nicely complements my own fascination with rugby players with a twist of humour.

Sorry no link info but a search of the GMBA archives (link in sidebar) will probably turn up more examples. I'd welcome link information from readers

Readers are welcome to contribute their own comments - even if they differ from mine!

For earlier examples in this series click on the A-Z label below