Arting Not Manufacturing

I beat myself up for not being creative enough. Meaning: not productive enough. Which is bullshit. Art isn't about being productive, it's about arting.

Sure... you have to do things to be arting. But I strongly dislike the language of the workplace being interposed on my creative life. I do not produce content, nor do I manage a brand, nor do I make deadlines or meet expectations. Fuck all that noise.

I art. I try my damnedest to art as much as I can, but I'll suck a donkey cock before I let myself become a fucking robot about it. Or, worse, a god damned businessman.

So here's some stuff I drew over the weekend. I drew these on some cheap paper for acrylics. Kinda has a canvas-like texture. I like how it feels. I think it takes the alcohol markers in a nice way.

 

Nudity in Art

Perusing the various articles about nudity, sexism, and sexuality in art, one is left with the impression that any depiction of the female form in a primarily titillating fashion is, at best, questionable. We obsess over this quandary. Is it OK to draw or look at drawings of naked women because it pleases us?

Of course the answer is yes. It is OK. To claim otherwise is, in my view, akin to saying sex itself is taboo and not to be discussed in art. Rubbish. Humans are sexual animals. Art is what humans do to make sense of the world. Sex is part of that.

But also, of course, sexual depictions of women can be quite problematic and downright misogynistic. Like I said a million times, it comes down to intent and honesty. Don't make art filled with tits and ass and call it anything other than a tits and ass artwork. I like tits and ass art. I will consume that content. But when it is packaged as something for everyone, something that is serious or otherwise "mainstream", I will call bullshit. This is why it actually does bother me to see overtly sexual images in mainstream comic books. I am bothered by images of Wonder Woman with her tits hanging out or gratuitous shots of her ass... in the comics. I'm fine with pinup artists doing Wonder Woman pics for people who like the pinup art... just don't put it on the primary product and pretend you're doing comics for everyone.

Comics for everyone should be for everyone and a tits and ass book is objectively not for everyone.

Shreya Arora's critique of sexism in mainstream comics.

Speaking of sexism in mainstream comics, artist Shreya Arora famously re-drew a lot of sexist comic covers to highlight the sexism. As far as I know, she targeted only mainstream comics... comics that are sold ostensibly for anyone to read. And this is exactly what I'm talking about. Don't sell me a She Hulk comic that I might give my daughter and load it with tits and She Hulk ass. If I want that, I'll seek out an explicitly pinup-style or adult version of the character by some fan artist. Or maybe Marvel could publish a specifically sexy comic not advertised for everyone.

Honesty. It goes a god damn long way.

Nipples

A nipple is a thingamabob that is on the boob. It is the conduit for milk, which many a newborn has said is quite the bee's knees.

So why are nipples so fucking taboo? I can draw titties all day long, showing the ENTIRE BOOB and put it up on many platforms without incident... as long as I don't include a nipple. I've said it before: isn't this just fucking stupid? We love those nipples so much we can't stand to see 'em.

Here... I'll illustrate why this is kind of stupid. But also... in terms of "why"... I get it. There's a different vibe in the second image below than in the first.

Completely clothed.

 

Totally naked.

Something about the stars in place of nipples suggests clothing, which suggests modesty or at least some kind of social and physical barrier between you and her - y'know... thexthually.

But she ain't fooling anyone. We know there's a nipple under each star. Why do we feel different when the stars are removed? And again - I get it. We do feel different without the pasties. I'm not denying that. I'm mostly just curious why it's such a big damn deal for people.

Free the nipple.

For your reading pleasure, here's an article on the topic, for those of you who like to read words. I don't think it's the most well-written piece (right off the bat they use "by" twice in a single sentence and I fucking noticed that shit). But I am hardly in a position to point fingers.

Purple Girl and Pretty People

This was originally posted here. I reposted the entire thing on this blog because it is highly relevant.

Another in a series of pinup style art. Here I question the term "pinup" only to the extent that there's nothing parciuarly salacious here. I'm not making a Playboy Magazine joke. It's just a drawing of a woman in a dress (I called her "Purple Girl" for some reason... is that a purple dress? Not really.). Sure, there's cleavage. And she's hot. But y'know...

So here's the thing about this one. I want to draw more like this. And I'm not just talking about "fat chicks"*. I'm talking about drawing people that aren't constrained by social expectations of beauty. Which is, in my opinion, about 99% of everyone you have ever met in your life. Seriously, when was the last time you knew someone personally who looked like the average person on a TV show? Television and movies skew our perceptions, they lie to us about what people are really like. Sure, there are nods to diversity of appearance beyond the diversity of race and sex and gender. There are the token fat chicks, for example, who almost always play the role of best friend or helper. But where are the cool as fuck fantasy action movies wherein the actual protagonist is a fat chick, fat man, someone with a huge nose, a person with an overbite, or just someone who looks like they came from someplace other than a Hollywood casting call?

People are beautiful. I mean, people are bastards, but they are also beautiful. Flaws are not ugly, fat is not ugly, moles are not ugly. I actually have a hard time just sitting and watching any TV shows because if feels like the equivalent of listening to an over-produced metal album with all the rough edges smoothed out. I hate that shit. Give me something real, even in my fantasy.

The root of all this is pretty simple, though. Men (I can't speak to the experience of women) love to look. And when we look, we judge. We are either attracted to a woman or we are not or it is somewhere in between. Then two important things happen that causes the whole god damn problem. First, we assume that the job of the object we look upon is to please our senses. When a woman is in a role that isn't inherently meant to be sexy, such as the frumpy fry cook or busybody, then we don't have much to say about her appearance. But in other roles, especially love interests, we have a LOT to say. And that brings us to the second problem: social expectations. Advertising, TV (which is advertising), Movies (which is advertising), etc, all inform what we collectively learn about beauty. We are told that Gwyneth Paltrow is one of the most beautiful women in the world. OK. She's a pretty lady, but not my cup of tea. So I don't crush on her. Go back a few years and maybe I'm younger and the woman is Cindy Crawford. I have no problem with Cindy, but I don't find her attractive at all. But if I said that in front of a bunch of guy buds I'd get flack for it. I'd be the odd man out. I'd be the butt of the joke. EVERYONE loves Cindy because she's the ideal form.

Fuck the ideal form. Fuck the commercials. Give me real or fuck off.

So... ranting aside... I want to try to keep this in mind much more explicitly when I'm drawing. I want to draw what I want and I want to be fearless about it. It's hard, though. That judgmental eye feels like it's always upon me. If it's not the eye of the twat who thinks fat = ugly, then it's the eye of the prude who thinks the boobs are too big. Fuck 'em.

I wanna be more like Dave Cooper. I don't know the guy at all, I have no idea if he's a total dickhead or a saint. But he god damn well draws what he wants.

*I use the term "fat" often when describing the characters I draw who are not skinny. I don't see a problem with that because I don't stigmatize the word. "Fat" isn't code for "ugly" in my world and it makes me sick to my stomach when I hear people use it that way. For example, I get physically uncomfortable when watching movies in which fat = ugly. It pisses me off. It's the dumbest shit in the world and it reduces human beings to nothing... including the men who weaponize the word. So stop fucking doing it, asshole.

The Art of Salacious Bawdry

Hello. This blog is all about pinup art, which means you're going to see a bunch of nude, semi-nude, and badass chicks, usually brandishing swords, skulls, and kisses. What follows is a post I wrote on my other blog, Doomslakers, that sums up what Blood Red Pinups is all about.

Read on, dear reader...

Ice ninjas? Fuck yeah.

Ah, the scantily clad femme fatale of fantasy. Long have I viewed and dreamed of her. I fondly remember being an adolescent boy and picking up the Savage Sword of Conan each month from a local mini mart shelf. I grabbed issue #104 and spent far too long looking at the delicious Joe Jusko cover, complete with redhead chick dangling from Conan's sword belt showing all kinds of underboob.

Sexist? Oh yeah, no doubt about it. Conan stories in general are sexist as fuck. If you don't believe me, try reading Howard. Check out The Jewels of Gwahlur and note how many times the damsel breaks down in tears or faints. It's classic 1930s hard man storytelling.

Anyhow... I appreciate a good chainmail bikini. There's a rich aesthetic to it... a kind of metal-and-flesh eroticism that stirs the imagination (and loins, natch). You can do it right. You can do it without being toxic. I have preached about this before. A chainmail bikini image does not a misogynist make. Having your female characters constantly faint and cry... well, that's a different story.

So for me it's really a matter of honesty. Own what you are doing. Don't give me 60 pages of tits and ass and market it as a serious adventure story. It isn't. It's a tits and ass story. Own it.

Erotic, chainmail chick, pinup, R-rated... whatever you want to call it. Just eat the god damned cheesecake and stop calling it caviar. And if you want to do a story that is taken seriously, you need to cut way the fuck back on the cheesecake.

MY NEFARIOUS PLANS FOR THIS BLOG SPACE

First, owing to the fact that I'm at least a little bit obsessed with pinup art, I needed a place to put it all. Images like the one to the right simply don't fit very well into my other venues. I have friends who don't enjoy this kind of work and since it is qualitatively of a different stripe than maybe Cozmic Metal Heads or even Black Pudding, I wanted to give this part of my creative life its own space to breathe. If you aren't into this, click away with my best wishes. This isn't for everyone, I understand.

Which leads me to another thing I'd like to do: explore the entire enterprise of pinup art. It has a long and storied history and I'd love to explore it, understand it, critique it honestly, and celebrate it passionately.

Which leads me to the other thing I want to do: present and explore various artists who have been or are currently doing pinup art. Also, to celebrate other media, such as music and movies, in which the female form is presented in a bawdy mode.

If this sounds good to you, then put this blog on your radar and I'll try to post something as often as I can. You can also follow me on Instagram where I post my pinups @bloodreddm.

Let's rock and roll.