Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Ebisen or Ebisubashi

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

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Etheridge

Etheridge is responsible for many of the humorous cartoons which accompany magazine stores. Cartoons have their limitations as a fetish vehicle but sometimes hit the spot. There is often fantasy involved - superheroes, aliens etc, but spiced up by stripping, male bondage and threatened amputations of endowments.

Not a serious contender but I sometimes pick up useful ideas from these pictures. There are some nice male images at his blogspot
http://anti-heroes.net/home.php
http://jcetheredge.blogspot.com/

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Esposito

Esposito is one of the ‘old school’ of artists and is quite well known for his pulp fiction covers,

like the detail below.

He employs a variety of styles ranging from softly naturalistic representations to highly stylistic images almost like woodcuts combining hard lines and strong patterns.

He sometimes draws freely on Tom of Finland for inspiration in both his figure drawing (as above) and his compositions which may include complete Tom images as details - sometimes even reworking complete Tom pictures.

However, he does have his own distinctive style as in ‘The Coach’ (below).

The tent is a bit racy for this blog but it is one of those memorable images and shows the power of drawings compared with photos. The fetishism here is mild but Esposito has produced harder stuff - even snuff stuff

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - Eric

Eric is one of those artists with a tiny published output but the images have such wide appeal that they are posted regularly in internet groups. His trademark image is of a young man tied to a frame with legs spread wide. He has a muscular body and a thick neck but his face creates the impression of a country yokel with unruly blond hair, protruding ears and an expression of wide eyed confusion on his face. This combination of innocent youth and testosterone is potent. Numerous alternative versions of this picture show him clad in jeans, military vest or loin cloth but I suspect they are probably not authentic. I have also seen many examples where Eric's boy has been placed alongside characters from Franco's pictures who act as his tormentor. This makes it very difficult to separate genuine Eric images from adulterated ones but demonstrates the appeal of the imagery.

I believe the illustration above to be genuine and it shows the testosterone laden innocent nicely. Just a hint of bondage. You can also see that the cartoon-like exaggerations disguise a technical style which is quite accomplished. As we discussed with Cavelo, it's not that easy to depict heavy, well defined musculature convincingly. In my view, Eric's inventive work is a small but valued contribution to Fetish Art

Mitchell’s A-Z of Fetish Artists - David Eastman

David Eastman also depicts captivity but his art is at the other end of the fetish scale from El Churcho. He depicts rough looking characters - long haired bikers and pugnacious, short haired muscle men. They ain’t pretty but they conjure up a strong masculine sexuality. They are usually engaged in rough activities too - wielding painful whips or dishing out spankings or wet humiliations.

There are hints of smiles - sometimes on the victim’s face (see first illustration) - but these are not playful - these are knowing smiles of triumph. The viewer is in no doubt that serious S&M struggles are going on. The second picture shown is just a detail from one of his best pictures in my collection. The characters look as though they are discussing their next move for the captive. It shows his sophisticated shading technique and use of a low viewpoint to create dramatic effect. The placing of the figures and use of architectural detail is clever. No mere scribbler this!

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - El Chuncho

This picture by 'El Chuncho' is one of a series depicting a kidnapping. The young subject, restrained and partly stripped ponders his fate. The style in this example is clean and polished and technically convincing. An interesting selection of details add atmosphere to the situation and just a touch of sleaze. The thoughts in the bubble are not quite so exciting but have probably been sanitised for mainstream publication - and the rest of the story is a bit fluffy too. For me the though the restrained eroticism in this example really works, allowing imagination to explore the darker possibilities.

Mitchells A-Z of Fetish Artists - Letter 'E'

My A-Z series was interrupted by pressure of work earlier this year but I'm now able to continue. We had just reached the letter E and returning to my files I find I have quite a nice selection of artists to resume my track with. E of course stands for Etienne - one of the the greats from the early years of S&M Art. I shall probably give him more attention than I usually do to individual artists. But the list also includes Eastman, Emma, Eric, Esposito, Etheridge and a japanese artist I know as Ebisen. However, to start the series rolling I have selected an artist who I have only one piece of work for - a cartoon series showing a kidnapping. The Artist name is El Churcho. The letter E starts tomorrow.