Tag: illustration

viiviid – i m p u l s a t i n g from Serene Minimalism collection (2016)

This is quite lovely but I would argue that it’s not–strictly speaking–pornography.

But, you inquire, there’s a great big old erect phallus carefully positioned and–presumably–ready to get down to business.

I mean, yes…that’s true. But notice there’s nowhere for it to go.I mean you can argue it’s going there but I don’t see it like that.

There’s something here about anticipation–a desire without a means of satiation.

The image possesses an unresolved tension. In the face of that tension, other things effervesce; for example: the style of this is exactly half woodcut, and half Matisse cut-out.

It also reminds me a bit of shunga–which tends to exaggerate the act of sexual congress but also features awkward positioning or feet and arms. I mean it’s clearly that the cock haver’s feet are splayed out to the left and right but they don’t seem to completely align quite right.

I do really love the tension between the two hands. The hand on the kneeling figure’s left flank is so worshipful and reverent. Whereas the other hand is so forceful–holding it just below the elbow joint allowing it to both pull back and twist the arm, rendering it immobile and to a degree controlling the body to which its attached much the way a leash and maneuver a pet.

redlipstickresurrected:

Usamaru Furuya aka 古屋 兎丸 (Japanese, b. 1968, Tokyo, Japan) – Illustration from Yume Kana aka Is This A Dream? from Garden. Drawings 

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Maxine Sarah – Untitled (2016)

People who get their period do not need to be embarrassed. They do not need to be ashamed. They do not need to be sorry.

Our bodies should not be a source of shame. Or a source of stigma.

It’s time to end period shaming.

Source: pictures-manga-wonderful.skyrock.com

Kenji Tsuruta –  futari no tenshi feat. hita hita (201X)

I know fuck all about manga. Either way: I like this quite a bit.

It’s mostly that the woman bears more than a passing resemblance to my dear friend Amadine.

Yes, Amadine is decidedly Team Bangs-are-the-worst. But the longer hair, the bliss-stoned expression edging slightly towards melancholic introspect and just the general body language is spot on.

There’s also the stylistic overlap between this and her illustration work. She studied Japanese in HS and college. And although she’s more in the thrall of Georgia O’Keefe and Kiki Smith these days, she was entirely enamored with Miyazaki when we were flatmates during my Junior year.

I used to draw, actually. I was never very good at it. I lack the necessary discipline and focus. But it does strike me that there are three ways to use lines: to define a boundary, to darken or lighten (aka give the illusion in two dimensions of three) and to suggest texture.

Both Amadine and Tsuruta employ lines to suggest fascinating things about texture.

In the above there’s the wood paneling on the walls, the wicker chest of drawers, the sink (or is it a washing machine?) are all intricately detailed; yet, at the same time, the edges defining distinct boundaries between objects in the mid-ground become blurry, as if suffused with a sort of dream like lighting.

It’s actually not unlike Degas except Degas renders texture in such a fashion as to accentuate depth whereas Tsuruta uses it to flatten the scene. Tsuruta does uses color to heighten that compression–not to uniformity of the walls, wicker cabinet and cupboards, vs. the falling dark outside the window and the color takes on great gradations as we move towards the frames point of focus–the woman and her cat.

I also appreciate the way that the nudity appears incidental. (With an eye on overarching context–the panels leading up to the above can be seen here; and the scenario, while not unrealistic, feels a bit of a male fantasy contrivance.)

This also reminds me of Amadine yet again. Our last conversation was about Sally Nixon–Amadine was singing the praises of this illustration where a woman sits in her robe and underwear while smearing jelly on a piece of toast.

Amadine felt that it was an incredible accurate depiction of being unguarded and comfortable while a woman–and that sometimes the assumption that you’re granted great intimacy because you see someone nude is crap because it’s usually far more intimate to see people when they are comfortable, uncomplicated and at ease.

So while I think this is overly precious and coy, I do think it’s fly-on-the-wall voyeurism is perhaps an upgrade from the default male gaze voyeurism.

Ryuko Azuma – Sakuranbo (2005)

I like the way this presents the entire body in a compelling pose that suggests both a bilateral and hemispherical symmetry (i.e. the position of her arms mirrors that of her legs).

The line work is clean and simple. Very minimal tonal shading contributes dimension.

I also really dig that those appear to be the best cherry known to humankind–Rainer cherries.

In other words: this is the perfect balance between visually arresting and WTF. (But why the fuck does her vulva look so totally resemble a Band-Aid?)

Source: puddingpop

Mutsumi Yamamoto – Untitled from L’Eros Sacre (2010)


Death, The Last Visit
By Marie Howe

Hearing a low growl in your throat, you’ll know that it’s started.
It has nothing to ask you. It has only something to say, and
it will speak in your own tongue.

Locking its arms around you, it will hold you as long
as you ever wanted.
Only this time it will be long enough. It will not let go.
Burying your face in its dark shoulder, you’ll smell mud and hair
and water.

You’ll taste your mother’s sour nipple, your favorite salty cock
and swallow a word you thought you’d spit out once and be done with.
Through half-closed eyes you’ll see that its shadow looks like yours,

a perfect fit. You could weep with gratefulness. It will take you
as you like it best, hard and fast as a slap across your face,
or so sweet and slow you’ll scream give it to me give it to me
until it does.

Nothing will ever reach this deep. Nothing will ever clench this hard.
At last (the little girls are clapping, shouting) someone has pulled
the drawstring of your gym bag closed enough and tight. At last

someone has knotted the lace of your shoe so it won’t ever
come undone.
Even as you turn into it, even as you begin to feel yourself stop,
you’ll whistle with amazement between your residual teeth oh jesus

oh sweetheart, oh holy mother, nothing nothing nothing ever felt
this good.

Paola Rojas H. & David Pérez – Visceral series (2015)

True fact: I was born cross-eyed.

Still being the 70s and with my post-natal health care provided by the US military, I underwent surgery that evens out the eyes by snipping muscles.

The result almost four decades later is that I only truly have binocular vision for a very short time period each day. As my eyes tire, I only use one eye at a time. I tend to prefer my left (non-dominant) eye.

So in addition to having an autism spectrum level aversion to eye contact, most 3D movie spectacle is lost on me.  (Wenders’ Pina Bauch documentary was wonderful because the use is so minimal and used to subtly emphasize depth of field and in Mad Max: Fury Road the 3D contributed an amplified sense of post-apocalyptic setting and therefore rendered the over-the-top color design less obtrusive.)

Visceral‘s palette is two tone: red and blue. As with 3D movies red advances and blue recedes–bestowing an unusual dimensionality to what would otherwise be relatively flat studio work. (I think if you donned 3D glasses, this image would probably even pop a bit.)

@lisakimberly will tell you that I’m a bit of a Rojas detractor. But I should confess a change of heart. Reviewing her work now reveals how she’s pared down her muddled early work, focusing on the more sinister and surreal threads in her work.

On the surface, Visceral hits as a bit of a left turn but the simplicity of it puts a very fine point on her technical chops and finds a way of bridging the gap between fragmentation as literally depicted to a more scientific/poetic/conceptual exploration.

And although I’m not as fond as the rest of Visceral as I am with this image, it’s still exciting work from a talented image maker who appears to be fully coming into her own.