To my readers......

SITE UPDATE NOTICE

Thanks for visiting mitchmen, home of Mitchell's Gay Art

The Caps and Collars/ Flat Cap Gang story at Google Groups has been on a break since January,
I am working on it and hope to resume shortly. (see Group News for link)

Link to the Royale Studio Archive in the right sidebar


Message updated 6th Sept 2024

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Zanuf


I'm including this item as a stop gap while I work on a more important article on Zamok. However, it is a picture I have a soft spot for, even though it has many of the characteristics and cliches of the tentacle genre that I have poked fun at in the past.

I particularly like the colours the artist has used, which make a very pretty picture - perhaps a strange admission for what is supposed to be an article about fetish art! I'm also drawn to the cute face of the slightly confused prey of what I take to be a plant. He's entrapped by tentacles which look chunky and strong enough to hold him (the balled fist is a nice detail). Meanwhile the lustful plant drips anticipatory, white drool over his naked body. The stethoscope like secondary tentacles are rather less convincing but make an interesting visual elaboration on the focal point of the image.

The name I have ascribed to this artist is Zanuf but I am not sure that it isn't the title of a game character or some thing else. The title appears to be Raden vs Nano plant. I don't have a link for him either. I'd welcome clarification from my readers via the comments facility.  

For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (in the navigation banner and top right)

Sunday, 6 August 2017

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Zagato

Zagato - Fisherman's Tale
 Mark Zagato is not really a fetish artist and his chocolate box art and curly-headed youths are not my usual cup of tea either, but he has made some contributions to the fetish theme which are not without interest. These waders are a good place to start and he's got the young man in deep enough to feel the pressure of the water against them and almost in deep enough to risk an overflow filling his boots!

Zagato - Rebellious Slave
 The tethered slave is normally consigned to the dungeons for punishment so these elegant terrace surroundings suggest the owner is taking a personal interest in the proceedings and perhaps entertaining his guests with them. The slave seems defiant and struggles provocatively for them, perhaps hoping to escape his fate. The threatening clouds seem to suggest otherwise, although 'rain stopped play' is always a possibility for a Brit sensibility.

Zagato - Machine Sublime
 I've no idea what this title means but this more mature-looking captive appeals to me more. His gleaming (freshly forged?) chains are a more serious restraint and suggest a greater degree of permanence to the arrangement which is daunting for him. The mounting point is low and forces him to kneel which is a neat way of providing an entertaining outlet for inebriated house guests (note the marble floor, easily cleaned). At least he seems to be under cover, but a night spent out here might be uncomfortable
Zagato - Wishing Love
The two halves of this diptych do not seem to mesh together visually and that disjunction is echoed in the attitude of the master who seems to radiate vanity and complete indifference to his obviously yearning slave. I suppose there's something quite deep in the underlying sentiment here.

Zagato - St Sebastian
Mark Zagato is not the first artist to place St Sebastian's execution in the glamourous surroundings of a villa rather than the bleak desert chosen for the famous film. His youthful 'Captain' is interesting but the sites he has chosen for the arrows are disappointingly neutral and the bondage is less than convincing, seeming to lack any point of anchorage. It's enough to spark the imagination though and the flimsy veil the captive is wearing is an interesting detail that highlights the artist's technical skill.

Mark Zagato used to have a blog but I can't find it now (info welcome). 

For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (in the navigation banner and top right)

Thursday, 3 August 2017

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Zach

Zach - The Grip of The Vice
 We commence our survey of the letter 'Z' with a mild mystery. This startling image is labelled Zach but is unquestionably the work of Rex, in fact it heads up my A-Z article on that superb artist. I need not elaborate on what I said about this image there, save to add that it's actually a reworking of a photograph from the 'Drummer' era, so we can't credit Rex with the imaginative, underlying idea. I have the photo somewhere and I'll add it here if I can find it.
Zach - Save Water
This picture is also labelled Zach and although it's the same logo, it's not obviously by the same hand, although the level of technical skill is comparable and it's an equally striking composition. The treatment of the belt is very pleasing to the eye. A significant part of the allure of denim jeans is the 'worn and washed' look of the seams which highlight the shaping of the body inside them, but it's extremely hard to recreate it on paper. Nigel Kent is quite successful at it, Zach gets a 'good effort'.

It's quite possible that Zach is a pseudonym for Rex's work, both images were published in Drummer and he may have adopted the name for that portfolio. But I've not seen any other images by him in the style of the second picture. Is this the work of a naive pirate? I say naive because no-one could pass off the clamp image as anything other than Rex!

Answers on a postcard please - or via my comments feature below.

For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (in the navigation banner and top right)

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

A-Z of Fetish Artists - Franco Part 2

When I produced my original A-Z entry on Franco featuring his spanking and 'lab-rat' art, he had been producing pictures using conventional drawing techniques for many years, I have a couple of line drawings from as far back as 1991 but most of his later pictures are undated or have had their dates obliterated by photo manipulations to add colour or (like the example below) to remove the original detailed backgrounds. 


Since my original article in 2009, however, Franco has struck out in an entirely new direction using CGI techniques in a revealing and exciting way to create a brand of spanking photo-realism that is entirely his own. These images did not qualify for inclusion in my A-Z under the original criteria which were focussed on conventional art, but now that I have got to 'Z' in the series I may relax my rules!

Franco's original folio of art was based around a selection of basic figure poses like the rear end, flailing legs classic above. He produced from these building blocks an endless stream of variations featuring different characters and different levels of explicitness in the erotic content. His new style of work revisits and recreates those familiar favourites but the result is something quite, quite different. 

Franco - Dr Redbottom's Physical Examination
Here we have many familiar ingredients - bare, plump, red bottoms (of course!), a spanker whose posture is slightly awkward and effeminate and whose clothing is extremely conventional. Not least we have the quirky facial expressions denoting secret pleasures on the part of the spanker and embarrassment and horror from his jock victims. The photo-manipulation technique transforms the images but you can still recognise Franco's hand behind them. 

There is also, however, a striking change in the content in that, although there is still a cross-generational flavour to this picture these 'boys' are unmistakeably men (hairy bottom and all) and the age ambiguities of some of his earlier work have been put aside in keeping with the mores of our times. So whilst the image below is clearly a headmaster's study, this is a fantasy school for grown up men. Their adulthood serves to make their humiliation all the more telling.

Franco - 3 Bad Bois
What is most remarkable of all, however, is how Franco has managed to remodel the faces and physiques of his new characters to infuse them with an extraordinary degree of sensuality and sexual attractiveness. Even the 'headmaster' here has an interesting and not entirely unattractive face, quite different to the gaunt, rather repellent features of many of the 'father figures' in his older work, like the picture at the top of this article. With the changing times Franco no longer has to hold back on explicit eroticism either, so the two 'voyeurs' here show an extraordinary level of excitement as they watch their buddy reduced to tears and think about their own special punishments - already received or still to come. 

Franco's interest in facial expressions has always been evident in his work. He uses them to embellish the story he is telling and accentuate the humiliation and pain of the men being dealt with. They acquire even more power with his newer technique and although his manipulations verge on caricature at times it doesn't seem to detract from the essential attractiveness of his subjects whose inept naughtiness seems quite lovable, well desirable anyway!

Franco - Monk's Spank Lust
Monks dishing out spankings to young men who fall into their clutches have always been a notable element in Franco's work, but in these newer images the victims have been upgraded to muscular adulthood, while their tormentors have also transformed from frustrated, religious perverts into men of a mysterious brotherhood, nurturing a dark purpose.
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Franco - Monk's Feather Torment
The captive's arched body pose here, straining against his restraints is superb and although I can't get excited about feather tickling as a sport, it certainly seems to be doing the trick for this hunky specimen. It does create the sense of precious, high quality juices being gradually teased out of this rare catch. 

Franco - Monk's Tender Torment
This image is even better, creating a sense of weird, deep intimacy between the two characters in which the coaxing of semen is like the casting of a spell, lulling the victim into a sort of defenceless (and tearful) ecstasy and giving the Monk the opportunity to enjoy his naked body much as a lover would - up close and personal. It almost looks as if they are shaping up for a kiss here. Delicious buttocks too.

Franco -Dr Sivana Milks

The third string to Franco's bow, and possibly his most popular outside the spanking community is the lab-rat, milking machine genre. This example is based on another familiar, Franco spanking pose of old, but the feel of the piece, embodying real lab imagery is quite different. Like the Monk's torment above, the Doctor's hands are actually placed on his victim's body in places which are unambiguously erotic. You'll struggle to find this frank intimacy his older pictures, where the machine is usually left to do it's work or perhaps just a steadying hand is placed on the victim's shoulder or leg.

In this picture, Franco is fully embracing (as it were) the Doctor's sexual pleasure in directing and watching this involuntary milking, he's monitoring his subject's body responses in the most personal way possible. Such caresses and touches could be valid elements of the extraction procedure, of course, intended to encourage him and enrich his product. That upturned bottom will probably get a spanking too at some point, for similar reasons. You'll notice that Franco has reverted to uglification here to underline and colour the inappropriate lust and the subject's inability to resist it.

Bound To The Harvester
This variant of the milking idea has a delightfully improvised quality with the handsome, bewildered hero tied astride an ordinary kitchen chair for his milking and seemingly trying to protest and negotiate about what's going on. This direct interaction enormously enhances the interest of the picture, transforming the captive from a passive recipient into a real person with a will and personality of his own. It introduces an element of doubt and suspense as his captor pauses in the act of turning up the stroke speed up and getting on with it. What can the captive possibly say to stop the remorseless draining?

Franco - Milk Extraction
This image provides a suitable climax to this article as a young jock registers disbelief at his own body's performance. It looks as if it has been enhanced by the contents of the syringe in the Doctor's hand ....or is this to be the trigger for the next phase of exploration?

The subject's face is reproduced on the monitor at the back. This is a device that Franco uses regularly in the lab images, underlining his interest in facial expressions. Notice how it appears that the horror on his face in the background seems to stem from seeing the poised syringe.

So many great images have flowed from Franco's rebirth that I have had great difficulty in making and limiting my selection for this article. Find more at Telemachus and Jockspank (where he is a regular contributor and has given interviews)

You can also visit my (now upgraded) original A-Z article on Franco (Part 1)

 For more articles in this series click on the A-Z label below or search for specific artists using the index page or search boxes (top and top right)

Sunday, 23 July 2017

A-Z entry for Franco updated

Franco - Uncle's Training

As part of my rolling programme of updating older 'A-Z of Fetish Artists' articles, I have largely rewritten and significantly expanded the original 2009 post about Franco's art. An addendum will follow in the next few days which will bring it up to date with a survey of his work since 2010
(now published - see Franco's Art Part 2).
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Heading this post is a rarely-seen picture by him, entitled 'Uncle's Training'. It appears to be a strangely domesticated version of a typical leather fetish scene. I can't decide whether the 'Uncle' tag makes it more or less chilling. It features a relatively primitive milking machine, well more of a milking stand actually, with the milking (and spanking) done by hand. The leg spreading, parallel bars which seem to be it's main feature also appear in another of his well known images - 'milking the Rams' which also appears in the revised, original article on Franco's Art (Part 1)

Monday, 17 July 2017

The Look Of Bafflement


The look that says "wtf are you on about?"


"What? Just get on with it!"

An imaginary encounter between two men
 with different methods of communication 
and different appreciations of sensuality
but irresistably connected by mutual desire.

Tony Orion and Jeremy Stevens looking great and going for it

For other 'Looks' that speak volumes, click on the label below

Friday, 14 July 2017

Control

click on image to enlarge

Chirenon continues his exploration of man control,
here bringing out the tingling element of surrender in male chastity devices.

His choice of model for this photo manip is inspired, 
a man still young enough to suggest a degree of innocence/naivety,
but with a body and face that suggests a magnificent manhood in the offing.
It's symbolically held in check for now by shaved pubes and locked up equipment.

click labels below for other shaved men and chastity cages

I enjoy Chirenon's work but find I have to sort the men from the boys and women.
There a some other posts about him in this blog if you search using his name.
His old Male Protection Blog has disappeared but he has a new one on tumbler.
Search for 'Chirenon' on the web.