One scrapbook was for movies that I'd seen, the others, were for movies I only knew through the artwork and promotional posters. I especially loved posters with images of the main cast and characters weaved together into a collage. When I grew older, I purchased many of my favorites to hang on my bedroom walls. I still have a few of those old posters, framed and hung in the spare room in my home.
I'm sure many of us have 'curious' Goggle searches, but sometimes I can't even believe some of the crazy searches I've done for the blog. For this piece, it was 'gay shark attack' that I was searching for, and I'm not exactly sure what I thought I'd find, but I was certainly rewarded. I came upon a poster for parody film entailed Gay Shark Attack by Australian based digital artist Wade from GWA Art & Design.
The image was on the artist's DevianArt page, and I immediately dove into his eye-catching colorful portfolio entering Wade's world of magic ,fantasy mystery, and horror. I didn't hurt of course, that many of the art pieces, including the Gay Shark Attack poster, had a focus on the male form. I quickly found a link to his site and sent Wade a message about using the image on FH.
While engrossed in Wade's work, I was especially drawn to his movie parody art posters. I loved the creative concepts and especially the detail Wade included in each piece. From the taglines like 'All he wants is a little nibble' from the shark poster to the listed names of the directors and cast members. I asked Wade about featuring more of his film inspired artwork and thought they'd make a great way to celebrate my Horror movie themed Halloween posts this year.
Most artists had a 'theme' as a kid they drew over and over, did you have a specific subject?
Not a specific thing however I’m always returning to drawing in a cartoon style and that’s something I definitely did as a kid. I look back at some of my drawings when I was 10 or so and It amazes me how creative I was. Of course I had a lot to learn about technique but I feel I was probably a more creative thinker as a child because I wasn't inhibited by what people thought or questioning if my work was good enough
I don’t specifically remember however I do remember getting to a point where I felt free to draw men in an erotic, sexual way. Recently, I’ve gone even further, drawing a lot more full frontal nudity and even erections. Early on I was too scared of what people would think if I drew too many dicks - now I don’t really care - although I do often make a censored version of my works so that I can use them more broadly. Hypocritical, yes, just a little.
Was your drawing of men initially something private, or was it something you shared right away?
Yes, I would say it was private. Even now I feel funny about my partner seeing me draw naked, ripped guys with huge dicks. -Do you tend to be more inspired by a particular man, or do you find a model to fit the theme you're interested in? I like drawing muscular men, but not to the bodybuilder degree. I like the shapes of a muscular body, you start to understand how the body works. I’m often most inspired by poses and positions. I like unusual poses that show the lines of the body in interesting ways. I’m often looking a photos of male dancers - Its incredible what they can do with their body’s.
I’ve always loved horror movies and most horror movies have some element of sex, generally people being punished for being horny! And when I was younger there were next to no queer characters in horror films. There’s more now of course but I think there could be even more still. My queer horror posters and queer movie posters in general are really about humour, they are meant to be funny, sometimes darkly so and part of me wishes they were a real movie.
What was the strangest idea ever thrown your way or that you were commissioned to create?
Most of my works are pretty strange so its hard to get much stranger. I did do a commission very recently that I found challenging - depicting a female Disney villain as a male erotic sports star! That was tough and my first go at it was complete crap. The commission was by Dandyqueerart.com and Patrick who runs it gave me some really great, constructive feedback and put me on the right path. He’s launching the collection of these works this month.
Most directly I would say the Friday The 13th series but also any trashy 80s horror. Many of them were so camp (literally!) but also, even the lowest budget horror movies in the 80s had fantastic, hand drawn / painted poster art. It's been said before by many other people that modern movie posters suck - they’re terrible - but posters pre 1990 are wonderful, shameless sometimes but also pieces of art unto themselves.
I like drawing chests and legs. Realistic faces and hands are a struggle. Often I obscure the face so I don’t have to draw it or only draw part of it and with hands I often take a photo of my own hand in the position I need and then trace it. Hands are super frustrating and so easily look deformed and distracting. I want people to be looking at the whole image and not be thrown off by one element that looks wrong.
Is it difficult to hit the right note, 'R' rated visuals with in some cases almost a 'g' rated child like wonderment?
I have worried about people taking great offence to adult concepts being depicted in a somewhat childlike way. Mostly I just go on the journey with the work and see how it comes out, the work usually finds its own groove. I think its the humour that saves the work from being too controversial - the comedy is pretty obvious to most people.
I really love drawing animals and find them a lot easier to draw than people. I can often draw animals freehand by looking at a few reference images. And as I said earlier I like drawing male forms so its really a case of drawing what I like mixed together. I do want my works to be weird, so merging animal and human together seem to manifest a level of weirdness straight away. And there are thematic elements as well but I’d rather people write their own story to my work - its usually fascinating to hear what people think my works mean or what they think the work is trying to say.
Do you have a favorite piece you've created, one that you feel represents your work best?
A lot of artists say this but my favourite piece is usually the piece I’m working on at the moment. A work that I think says a lot about me is one called ‘You Made Baby Jesus Very Angry’. Its poster like and very cartoony but there’s the beginning of a story in there too - that everyone is completely terrified of Baby Jesus because he has these god-like powers by he’s a petulant child. And there’s little hints at subplots. I like it because it feels to me like there is a whole world behind this image. There’s nothing particularly queer in it (though in my mind the Donkey and the Sheep are in a secret relationship) but it does poke fun at religion which is another recurring theme in many of my works.
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