I first met the stunning Mistress Chloe a few years back on a trip she was making to London and we discussed a portrait then. Though I took some reference photos somehow the project did not progress. So I was very pleased to receive the commission last year to resume it from one of her devoted admirers, here depicted as her obedient ‘stool’. The brief was reasonably free -to show her dominance and her beauty in the simplest way.
See also Mistress Chloe’s web-page
Situation Normal All Fouled Up*
This post is about things going wrong. You may imagine -at least I hope you imagine -that paintings roll off the Sardax production-line effortlessly, fully formed and perfect. Nothing of the sort of course.
These days things do generally proceed well but that is because I have learn a few things throughout my career that have helped me to foresee problems and minimise unexpected trouble.
The best way to a successful outcome, as any ship’s captain will tell you, is thorough planning. If you do not plan sooner or later unforeseen events will come and blow your brave little ship off course. It is very tempting to just set sail hoping for the best. Many times I have foolishly done so -I’m a bit of an impetuous sort driven by the fire of inspiration – and bitterly regretted later not spending a little time planning in advance, thinking about the steps I would proceed through. Previously I would have to imagine in my head how things would work out but these days it’s so easy to make a digital rough that there’s no excuse before the brush even hits the paper.
But even with good planning if things start to go wrong you can still find ways of getting out of trouble and at least disguising the mistakes that have been made.
There are many ways of ‘wriggling out” but take this portrait of retired Japanese dominatrix Mistress Waka as one example.
As is often my way I will start with the face and get this correct before continuing with the rest of the painting; after all why expend effort on the rest if the main focus is wrong?
So I pressed on but found out that the watercolour paper I had chosen was bringing out blotches in odd places-thankfully not the face-but I perhaps had spilt water on it previously and I was left with needing to cover the rough patches but looking like I meant to in the first place! So the chequered pattern on the panel in the background actually disguises some bad blotches and to a lesser extent the marble effect on the right hand wall. Thankfully after that was done I could bring the painting back on course but it was a situation that depressed me enough to consider ripping it up and starting again -a lot of cursing that day!
If you cannot retrieve the situation you may have to burn your bridges and go back to the start, something I have not had to do very often but which is quite humiliating. However it is not so bad as you have learnt from your mistakes what NOT to do and the result is far better than if you had pressed on with the previous effort. Though a lot of time has been wasted.
But doesn’t that all sound too rigid and what about freedom of thought and inspiration? Yes, of course you need that too and the unbridled imagination should come in the development stage but in the final painting it needs to be reined in and at that stage the head has to rule the heart.
Mistakes will occur..that’s understood but planning first will minimise trouble. If all else fails just start over!
* a more polite version of this popular acronym.
(Mistress Elizabeth Swan also makes her own blog-post about what goes wrong in her line of work)
Some observations on femdom in print by colleague and erotica writer Irv O’Neil…
One of the things that particularly interests me is the evolution of art forms, such as how stories are told, throughout the years.
I particularly recall the fantastic paintings for the macho “sweat mags” of the 50s and 60s–periodicals like FOR MEN ONLY or MEN’S WORLD or ALL MAN, that often sadistically portrayed GIs and Nazis and gorgeous women in a pulp phantasmagoria derived from World War 2. The great site Men’s Pulp Mags is the resource for these images and info, and here is an example of a femdom cover image from 1959 that they also sell as a note card:
Doesn’t look like “pity” is her middle name…
In an interview I read at Men’s Pulp Mags, artist Mort Küntsler explained why those publications declined in popularity as “More and more advertising money was going to television rather than print, and a lot of people were getting their fiction over television rather than reading…
View original post 675 more words
Having been an artist/illustrator all my life it is not easy to put myself in the mind of someone who cannot draw. You think to yourself, “Why can’t everyone do this?” It has always been a talent I’ve had which was thankfully though inexplicably encouraged by parents. You become ‘top of the art-class in school’ until you go off to art college and then discover you were not that good – all the students are there who were best at art in their school. I can however empathise with unskilled art-lovers as I love music in its various forms and have always wanted to play on a musical instrument, but failed miserably in my attempts, so that I feel astonishment and envy at anyone who is proficient that way. I recognise too that it is not just about talent but about hard work, endless practice, an individual style, knowing when to stick to rules and when to break them, etc. All the skills that any creative artist needs to function at best.
So here are some common things folks say about my work:-
“How long have you been drawing?”
General
If we are talking about actual drawing – since I could hold a pencil and from watching other ‘tops of the art-class in school’ wishing I could do better. Femdom artwork from my late teens . See “The Lightbulb Moment”
“How long does it take to do a drawing?”
General
The classic “how long is a piece of string?” It varies enormously depending on subject, composition and technique. Some take a few minutes, some weeks. I don’t like to come back with “how long is a piece of string?” as it just sounds too abrupt to an innocent question, but really it is exactly that. Every one is different.
“What do you think of this modern art?”
Old guys watching me drawing outdoors
This used to be very common, asked by older members of the society but has tailed off in recent years. Perhaps we no longer care about art we don’t understand. It really is such a broad subject as, like most people I expect, there is some modern art I like and some I distinctly don’t like. But usually the tone of the question suggested I give an unfavourable response and so I obliged quite often with a negative view which led to much satisfied agreement.
“My –insert obscure relation here- is an artist”
Young kids watching me draw outdoors
Well it happens. Those ‘tops of the art-class in school’ have to fulfil their dream somehow – and you go out far enough in any family you’ll find one mad enough to imagine they can earn a living as an artist. How to respond…positively, encouragingly (of course!)
“Money”
Other artists
When two artists meet do they talk about the latest exhibitions and wax eloquent on the refined palettes of the great painters? Do they hell! More often than not they moan about money, payment and the lack of it!
“I like your art – you can draw me if you like”
Vain but beautiful princesses
So drawing is a pleasant way to earn a living, but it is also my work and as such needs to be properly remunerated – a fact which is difficult to comprehend to some people who imagine that just drawing is so pleasurable it should not need any payment. So, vain but beautiful princesses, why not consider a commission of yourself and please the artist too?
Art is a cruel mistress….
The Art of Sardax 