Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Lowenhaupt

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Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Losarro

Losarro is known through his illustrations for printed story books and many of the examples I have of his work are fairly crude scans from bound books but he deserves a better legacy.

Losarro - Ironman 7

Forced submission features strongly in Losarro's work the perpetrators are usually strongly masculine figures with jutting jaws , muscular bodies and attitudes to match. The victim is often a stereotypical innocent - slender and boyish, wide eyed with floppy blond hair. In 'Ironman 7' the contrast between these very different men is captured quite well but I am afraid the subject matter - strong man bullies small, vulnerable youth - leaves me cold.

I find his images where the participants are more equally matched much more interesting, like the Boot Camp Recruits.

Boot Camp Recruits 7

This picture wouldn't win prizes for artistic technique but he makes a decent stab at the elevated viewpoint which must have been quite novel in it's day. What it does show is Losarro's gift for capturing male submission and domination. The soldiers' fearful expressions and their sprawling helpless poses are powerfully erotic and the 'buddies suffer together' ingredient amplifies their plight. I hardly need point out the Tom of Finland influences here but the profile of the far soldier suggests an acquaintance with Etienne too. The face of the soldier on his knees is pure Losarro, it is a version of his 'innocent kid' but somehow the stronger jaw and fleshy muscularity has matured him into a puppy adulthood which is rather sexy.

Losarro - Arab Captives

'Arab Captives' flirts with age and racial taboos to add spice to the suggestion of forced sex. Much has changed in the decades since this was drawn! The sexual action is suggested rather than explicit but it's done so cleverly you have to examine the picture quite carefully to realise that these two are merely wrestling. However, it's a satisfying composition, the sense of vulnerability, compulsion and pain is successfully conveyed. The prisoner's youthful body is particularly erotic.

Losarro's imagery gets close to caricature at times and this undermines his message somewhat but his art is full of original and really effective expressions of male domination. Bondage situations can easily turn into 'stand and deliver' images where the characters are completely separated but Losarro always seems to be trying to make his men interact physically. It's not the easiest path to tread, interlocking bodies are tricky to pull off and his technique doesn't always match his ambition but the results still repay a little study.

I can't ID a working link for this artist but a search of GMBA (see sidebar) should turn up more examples. I'd welcome up to date link info from readers of this blog

For other articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Logan

Logan - Hardhats

Logan's work is quite different from most fetish artists, his men are mature, big, hairy and not especially pretty but he draws out the sexuality of this hyper-masculinity rather well. The fetish angle is primarily bondage as an adjunct to raunchy, sometimes forceful, sex but you will also find S&M imagery.

Logan - Smoker

There is often a military or police presence in his work, these characters abuse men who fall into their hands, sexually or physically. In smoker, the satisfaction and intensity of the soldier's expression is chilling. The victim is utterly submissive, you can see that this is a strong man, muscular and hairy, who has been broken. In this picture Logan uses clothing and nudity to great dramatic effect.

Logan - Werewolf

Logan has a highly professional, comic book style so there is often a tremendous sense of action and exertion in his best images. He makes great use of lighting, close-ups and unusual angles for added atmosphere as in werewolf above. His treatment of creases in garments and furrows in skin is quite emphatic, useful for emphasising detail in small scale comic images and it makes for characterful, hard faces, but creates an odd effect in bodies - see the back of the victim in 'smoker'

Logan - Tentacles

The werewolf picture is an example of Logan's fantastical work which also includes some highly erotic 'tentacle' imagery. The style here is softer but the more delicate shading brings out the latent strength in the thick arms of the octopus creature, giving this image a dangerous edge. Compare this with the snake picture in my A-Z article on Fillion. Logan is able to indulge his artistry in the sweep of the bodies and curling tentacles which make for an attractive image. This element of intelligent artistry can be seen in other pictures, in hard hats above, for example, the facial furrows echo the shape of the tribal tattoos.

Logan also uses his softer style for more humorous, romantic images,
often starring cute chubbies but these pictures are outside my remit here.

Logan's website is at Logan Porn Comics but if you google him you'll find lots of stuff

For other articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Link

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Interlude with Jock Strap

The A-Z will resume in a day or so with the artist Link, things are a bit hectic this weekend!

Meanwhile Mitchell's story 'The Path of Pain' continues at the 'mitchmen' Yahoo! group.

In the story, the leathermen have taken hostage a team of rugby players
and are taking 'samples' from them hoping to re-invigorate their Chivalrous Order.
When I came across this picture, I thought it might easily be one of the rugby team
awaiting his turn to be drained - or just been done!.

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Les

Les Farnak's pictures are quite well known and show captive men being humiliated and sadistically tortured. The pictures are highly atmospheric and even when the scene depicted is an encounter between leather men there is a sense that something mysterious and unpleasant is going on.

Les - Lick My Boots

In his most striking scenes the captors are the military or police and they are depicted in a way that might be comic in other circumstances but here it dehumanises them and you feel they might be capable of anything. You can tell boot licking is just a starter, as the prisoner is still wearing his jeans. The frightened captive's plaintive expression tells us he feels the same threat.

Les - Police Brutality

The brutality towards the struggling victim who is being overpowered ready for torture or service to his captors is depicted in an uncompromising way,. There is a tremendous dramatic tension in this picture, the impressive solidity of the guards contrasts with the lightly sketched naked figure of the terrified prisoner and creates a real sense of domination and forced submission.

Les - Inquisition Dungeon

Les produced a series of pictures showing men clad in armour with Norse-like or Teutonic winged helmets presiding over a dungeon of horrors. Their strange garb is extremely unsettling and creates a sense of evil and dread. The picture shown here has a similar 'Inquisition' theme. This is one of my favourites, the naked prisoner is forced down winding steps and is about to see what his captors plan to do to him. The prisoner is no wimp but he is dwarfed by his escort whose strange hood radiates menace.

I find the nudity of the prisoner in this picture quite riveting, the hints of muscle tone and fuzzy hair in the shading are almost indistinguishable from each other and create an almost impressionistic idea of masculine beauty. (Contrast this with Cavello's use of light and dark which is quite brutal in comparison). In Les' picture, the central area of light draws the eye in towards the prisoner and his stance deflects you onwards into the dungeon scene below. It is a very clever composition and Les did a few other variations on it but I think this is the best.

Les makes great use of clothing and nudity to convey power and vulnerability but, in a way, the nudity is not erotic in itself. In the Inquisition picture you hardly notice the guard's organ at first and it doesn't add greatly to the power of the picture. Likewise in the police brutality picture the prisoner's face is the only part of him shown in detail, almost as if Les is not particularly interested in the sensuality of the naked body.

Les - Punished with the crop

He is interested in faces, however. The victims show pain, confusion, pleading. The captor's expressions are often hidden by helmets, dark glasses etc but when their faces are revealed they have mean, narrowed, frowning eyes and the pointed moustaches all conveying an air of cold menace and cruelty. In some pictures, exaggerated jutting chins and thick bull necks add raw power to the mix. Beyond these characteristics the faces are relatively featureless and hence expressionless, only the lightest of shading defines the basic shape and major features and this in itself makes them seem quite alien. No wonder the naked victims tremble in fear and confusion!

Les has his own distinctive style where shading is accomplished by cross-hatching of varying densities. His depiction of muscle shapes is very understated and outlines are often not hard either so there is a softness and granularity about the best pictures. The poor reproduction quality of much of his generally available work exaggerates this and makes the picture murky and indistinct but perversely it adds atmosphere too.

Les's work explores the darker realms of S&M in a most imaginative way and deserves a prominent place in my hall of fame.

I can't ID a working link for this artist but a search of GMBA (see sidebar) should turn up more examples. I'd welcome up to date link info from readers of this blog

Update June 2010 - there's a new article at Frglee with more pics and bio.

For other articles in this series click on the A-Z label below.

Mitchell's A-Z of Fetish Artists - Leon

Leon - Bootlicker

This mitchmen article is now superceded by a revised and enlarged review (2022)

Not a prolific fetishist as far as I know but this image is iconic. The subject is not actually tied up and the boots are not being worn by anyone - suggesting a private fantasy is going on. This adds all sorts of psychological overtones and invites the viewer to interpret what he sees and fantasise himself. The absence of legs disappearing out of the top of the picture (as for example in the famous Tom image) strengthens the composition, keeping the viewer's focus and interest firmly inside the frame.

I like the scrunched up socks and underwear which look sexy and tell you something about the man himself. The flesh toning and depiction of hair is sensual too creating an sense of solidity and sexual desirability. Looking at this picture gives a real insight into the boot licking fetish.

I can't ID a working link for this artist but a search of gay art groups should turn up more examples. I'd welcome up to date link info from readers of this blog

For other articles in this mitchmen series click on the A-Z label below.