Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Mike Kuchar

Every so often a cartoonist manages to create a caricature which is sexy despite it's humorous essence. Mike Kuchar's men are long limbed and slender with pert bottoms and well defined muscularity but they often seem to exude an air of casual clumsiness and sexual naivety like the adolescent whose body is outgrowing his brain.

Kuchar - Sailor's Tattoo

The faces of the sailors have big 'baby' eyes which contrast with their very grown up bulky jaws, thick necks and broken noses. Their facial expressions suggest one of them is more naïve than the other.

Kuchar - Three Captives

Three captives from the Buccaneers series show the same effect in a different way, the slouched bodies and prominent stomachs, even the flaccid organs suggest resignation and a lack of energy, but there's a sort of animal grace in the lean muscularity and the straight-legged pose which accentuates their buttocks. There are plenty of older men in his pictures but they seem to be just as vulnerable and confused as the younger ones - look at the facial expressions in whipping (below) - they both seem surprised - but not very much!

Kuchar - Whipping

Kuchar has a keen eye for the more subtle essences of maleness, the facial and body features mentioned above but also the accentuated nipples and navels and the smatterings of hair on face and body. I particularly like the younger man's face in the whipping scene from Buccaneers. The economical, unfussy style gives these figures a degree of sensuality which is only held in check by the caricaturing of their bodies.
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Kuchar - Crucifixion (detail)
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The final picture (from the series 'And still they come') is more representational - and a good deal less frivolous - but, interestingly, the victims seem equally resigned to their fate. There's a neat flavour of 'buddies sharing misfortune' here, but it's daring and challenging to show it in a static picture. The dramatic upward-looking viewpoint here is quite impressive.

Sorry no link info but a search of the GMBA (link at foot of sidebar)

or Gaytoons will turn up more examples.

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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 Artists - Kok (aka Dorus)

Willem Kok (aka Dorus) started publishing pictures at the same time Tom of Finland and Etienne were around their peak and his early work (as Dorus) shows their influence in the solid jaw lines and placing of distant, background observers for example.

 

Kok - Unzipped

Later on he evolved a more distinctive style of his own in which the skin musculature is depicted by in great detail by a delicate tracery of lines. Detailing individual muscles requires great delicacy of shading or else they become too prominent but Kok pulls it off better than most and creates the impression of a fine translucent skin through which the network of veins and flesh of the muscles can been seen.

Kok -Pin

This interest in skin seems to be reflected also in a preoccupation with shaving (of both head and body) in his later pictures. I find the end result beautiful but a little spooky. However, there is no gain-saying his technique which is formidable.

Kok - Shaving

His models are well muscled but not absurdly so, some of the faces are distinctly attractive, almost in the Harry Bush college boy vein but with fleshy lips and jutting jaws. There's a nice example at the link below. Sexual organs are well detailed but generally realistic except for a couple of Tom of Finland pastiches where crowds of young men worship at the altar of mega-penis.

The subject matter becomes quite intense in later pictures with piercing and cutting scenarios made all the more chilling by the detailed depiction of dungeons and 'operating tables' dripping with body fluids. Not for faint hearts.

There is a good introduction to Kok at Delft Boys

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 - 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