Unfinished business

How do you rate a success? How do you decide whether something has gone right? Mmm... not always by the end result, but sometimes by the journey itself, I think. And that is how I view the most recent painting I've done of Hornymaleuk and my female model. The event was a success, the creative process was a success, but at the moment the finished product isn't wholly a success. It certainly needs more work doing on it, and I can possibly do it without the pair of them posing together for me (because due to logistics it may take a while to organise it). So, I may be able to do it by my imagination alone, but I certainly need to think about how to do that as well.............



So, on to the occasion......... it was good to see Hornymaleuk again, since I've not seen him for a few months, and as he and the model have met before there was no need for breaking the ice between them, they know each others personalities and characters well enough. We had a drink to start, which gave us all time to relax, the mutual telling of dirty jokes also helping somewhat!!


Then, the decision regarding the pose. I had come up with a few ideas before seeing them both so we all discussed the possibilities of using them, the pros and cons, the likelihood of aches, pains, muscle cramps and pins and needles ensuing. Then, since my poses were deemed unworkable in the long term, we worked around finding different poses for them to work with. All this was done with their clothes on, with me walking around them looking for the best angles, composition, lighting and "eroticness" of the poses. There's a very fine line between pornographic and erotic. And in turn, erotic and lifedrawing. For instance, if the man in the composition hasn't got an erection, then it can't be erotic, but if he has then it can sometimes be deemed to be pornographic! And since Hornymaleuk and the female model weren't actually going to HAVE sex, I had to give the impression that they WERE whilst they actually WEREN'T. MMMmm....... so, more thoughts regarding the poses working properly as an erotic image.....

FINALLY, we found a pose we were all happy with. Eureka! But even though it takes time, and I know that it usually does, I have to persevere with it because there is absolutely NO point in going for the first pose I think of, if the models are going to be in untold agonies within three minutes of starting it. It's ok for a photographic pose, because the model only needs to hold the pose for a few seconds, but not for an artists model (and I'm a quick painter!).


So, the pose worked fine, mostly, except the female model had to break quite a bit as there was too much pressure on her hands, but on the whole she did really well, and certainly the pose was easier for Hornymaleuk since he most mostly just lying on his back with a luscious woman sitting on top of him. Sigh. And we call this work!


So, do I like the finished picture? Mmmm..... yeeeessssssss, BUT, (and its a big but), the picture isn't finished. So don't view it like it is. Just count this as a work in progress picture, half done, with the gist of the emotions and eroticness of the image, but it is the under painting, leading on to the finished image. It's *part* of the creative process, and I have hesitated and wondered about showing it to you at this stage, because you're BOUND to look at it and think "that's crap". So, don't look at it as DONE, look at it as part of the journey of getting *there*....... where-ever "there" is! And I don't know where it is, until I get there! So, if you're gonna be critical, I'll listen, but with only half an ear................ cos it's only half done.


There's some aspects of it I really love, and some I really hate, some parts need a lot more work doing on them, on some of the lines, and shapes, on the negative shapes, the divisions of colours, the blending of colours, the lighting, the shadows, well, everything, really!!! I love the use of red, cream, black and gold, so I'm happy with the choice of colours at least! and I think it's a powerful pose, and I think it is erotic as a pose!!


And, as a further comment, it was nice after I'd finished painting, to finally relax (because painting is hard work, and I need to fully concentrate when I'm painting) and sit down and share a bottle of wine with Hornymaleuk and discuss our various worlds and the people who inhabit them. And it was really good to chat with a fellow blogger, in real life.

Seeing eye to eye

I've been working on my latest dog portrait commission this week and am slightly annoyed that I've had to re-start the painting again as the original paper I started with buckled when I was less than a third of the way through the painting. If I'd carried on it might have got worse, it may not though, but I wasn't prepared to take that chance because I know I've got many hours of work to put into it and decided cutting my losses at this point was probably better than carrying on and making a hash of it. So I've re-drawn it and started painting again on line and wash board, but I don't normally use it and I'm finding it far more absorbant than the Bockingford watercolour paper I usually use, so its soaking up every tiny bit of paint very quickly. Still, I'm steps forward now and have done the base painting more or less, so the colour is on and now I need to build up the depth of colours through the fur on the dogs head. I've left doing the eyes until now as well as I prefer to do it when I've got to the mid point. So, I've had a "blind" dog as the empty eye sockets are still blank paper. So, deep breath, and hope to get the next bit right, cos if I get it wrong the whole thing will look bad. And ...............paint the eyes. Stand back and look to see how it's gone and...........................WOW! The whole painting comes alive! The dog can see! The eyes are liquid, with the light shining in them. The eyeballs sit in their sockets and the whole painting comes alive!!! I'm a happy bunny!!!! Yay!!!! But I don't know why I'm surprised, the eyes are the windows to the soul. If they show life, then I've captured the essence of the subject.

And just to add that Hornymaleuk has contacted me with a view to him wanting to pose for me again. Ok, so he obviously wasn't too put off with the last pose (and this is my posting about it here) then! (or the ones before that! - and this is my version of that). It's a while since I've drawn him, and he'll be posing with my usual model again..... so what poses shall I put them in? MMmm...... I need to think. Oh, this is going to be fun!!!!

What DO we find to talk about?

I saw my mate Lucy Felthouse, the erotic writer last night. Isn't it funny how a job description can be seductive? Mmm..... I like having a friend who's an erotic writer, probably as much as some of my friends enjoy introducing me as their friend "the erotic artist" and waiting for the various reactions!!!!

It's a while since Lucy and I have seen each other so it was good to have a girly chat and talk about what we're both up to in the world of erotica. She's as busy as I am with various projects, and we both are very similar in how we tackle work and try to promote ourselves in the hope of finding more work. I know for instance, that neither of us have time to watch television, because she's busy writing, and I'm busy with my art. She asked me how I was getting on with the "Fantasy Fanny" paintings that I started work on six months ago, and I told her I'd had to, very reluctantly, put them on hold whilst I did dog portraits (yes, I know, hardly the same thing, BUT if someone wants a commission, I'll do it, whatever the subject matter!). I can't wait to get back on to working them, they're a really exciting project!

And there were plenty of other things to chat about, whether certain images I'd seen in a book were erotic or not (we seemed to have more or less the same opinions on those!), whether certain practices were deemed erotic or just plain disgusting (and you have to bare in mind that we are BOTH VERY broad-minded on this subject, so I won't go into details of what exactly we both found disgusting!), whether uniforms are erotic (Yep!!!!!!!!) and how we both show attention to detail on our work, so that we can we confident that we're showing the best possible version to the rest of the world. She also made me smile when she said that some people think that everything she writes about has actually happened to her. Wow, lucky girl, if it's true! But, some people just don't seem to grasp the fact that she can create a fantasy and portray it as a story. I wonder why. I presume that people don't make the same assumptions with my paintings. Or do you?

So, all in all, it was a great night and we found loads to talk about, as we always do. And I don't think we mentioned the price of butter once.......