Whenever times are tough, one of your friends will inevitably say, “Well, I’ll just do porn and make a ton of money!” I’ve joked about it before as have a number of my artist friends. But how do they really feel about drawing adult oriented work? I asked four amazing artists if they took adult oriented commissions and this is what they had to say.
Yuko Ota
One only need to glance at a few pages of Yuko’s art in Johnny Wander co-written by Ananth Panagariya to recognize true comic genius. I love her expressions and the way she draws hands. Keep an eye out for her. I have a feeling her comics career is just starting.
I generally don’t take commissions at all, and when I do I make sure it’ll be something I find worth my while, or at the very least personally fulfilling. Taking the better part of a day to draw some dude’s characters gettin’ it on doesn’t really do it for me. Plus, I can barely draw my own characters nude, let alone in compromising positions. I’m a total wimp.
And then there’s also the fact if I work for 10 hours on a piece, I’d like to be able to put it into my professional portfolio … and also, my mom googles my name sometimes.
Garth Graham
You can find Garth at artist alley tables, convention guest panels, and at his webcomic, Finder’s Keepers. Garth makes a living as an independent artist doing commission work and selling his own works at conventions and online. He’s living proof that you can do it your own damn way no matter what anyone else might say!
As far as drawing adult themed artwork on commission, I see nothing against it. Nothing inherently wrong with nudity or sex, there just isn’t. There are limitations, however. I won’t draw anything illegal, e.g. no kiddie porn. ‘Cause that’s just wrong. I won’t draw people who aren’t enjoying themselves, either. Kinda defeats the purpose, in my mind. And I won’t draw anything out of character. I feel it’s disrespectful to the characters themselves to draw them doing things they wouldn’t do just because someone thinks it’s hot. Granted, no one has actually commissioned me for any adult. Sexy yes, explicit no. My view may change, ha!
Mohammad “Hawk” F. Haque
I met Hawk at his first Otakon back when Applegeeks was just starting out. Even at that time, I could tell he was destined for awesomeness. Now with Volume 1 of Applegeeks coming out this May and Volume 2 already up for pre-order, Hawk’s career is taking off.
I don’t do commissions in general, mainly because I can’t draw for other people, the motivation isn’t there. If I wanted to draw nudity, I would draw it for people I know. I might be weird, but drawing nude, sex acts for strangers seemed weird to me.
Dustin Nguyen
I’m not just saying this because he agreed to do this, but Dustin is one of my favorite artists. While some comic artists might rest on their laurels once they’ve landed a book like Detective Comics, Dustin continues to challenge himself always looking to improve his work. I love his cover work. He’s never afraid to blend traditional and digital techniques to create with truly breathtaking work.
I don’t, but mostly because I can’t use naked art as much as I can use normal art. I don’t have a big enough audience to sell or promote it to ( and this means prints, sketchbooks, reprinted materials etc.) so if it were done, it’d be appealing to just that ONE buyer and not really a mass audience. And that’s not enough to make me want to do it. And this isn’t completely a financial thing, but also a question of usable portfolio art. every thing I do, I’d like to include as part of my portfolio for the next thing, and something that’s as limiting in audience as that- it’s pretty much a waste of my time.
I’d like to thank all the artists who participated in this week’s Ask An Artist! So, what do you all think of doing adult oriented artwork?
View in a reader.
April 29th, 2009 - 6:21 pm
I think the serious artist is very aware of the criticism he or she can take by doing an adult piece. There is a line drawn between “artistic nude” and “porn,” and it seems that by doing anything adult oriented, you are choosing to approach that line (with all seriousness of course). When the artist ventures into the adult, some viewers always come out and blast the artist for “drawing porn,” even if that isn’t the case. The nude, it seems, tends to be more in line with traditional fine arts type of artwork – Traditional illustrations (renderings), paintings, etc. – which seems to have a certain set of subject matter associated with it that differs from the subject matter of a lot of current illustrators and comic artists. The nude just doesn’t fit in.
I have found a few nudes (not nude studies) in comic artists’ portfolios, but the fact of the nudity often times seems to be misplaced or misused. That is, some of the pieces I’ve seen portray the nude for the sake of nudity and for no other reason, which draws my attention to the fact of the nudity. And sometimes the fact of the nudity leads the artist to portray the character in overly sexualized poses. Such poses can be achieved by clothed characters, but the “sexualization” couldn’t be hit home without the nudity there. At that point, the piece becomes rather immature, and that may be a reason why some people stay away from the nude pieces.
That isn’t to say a comic artist can’t do a nude piece and have it be visually interesting and thought provoking without being overly sexualized.
May 3rd, 2009 - 12:42 am
I took one art class in college… we had to draw things ..no people just things. I asked the teacher what she taught about the difference between the artist who draws nudity/porn vs the nudity/art and she believed it was all about the money vs age. At first the younger you are, the more porn you may generate and then the older you get the porn your may generate may only be made if there is a substantial sum of money there to tempt the artist.
Looking back at that conversation I think she skated the question.
May 5th, 2009 - 3:34 am
I think any intelligent person can tell the difference between the various sub-genres of nudity that people have imposed. “Erotic”, “Adult”, “Pornographic”, I mean at some point the names and labels all become a moot point. I personally try to stay away from labeling art in any way and take everything I see on it’s own merits. Maybe this is because I’m a writer and not an artist.
I also think it has a lot to do with intent. You would never approach someone like Milo Manara and ask him why he “does porn”, would you? No, because the art and stands on it’s own merits. Yes, it’s intended to be stimulating, even titillating, but to call it “adult” or “porn” work cheapens it. Likewise with commissioned work, I would imagine.
Having said that, if anyone knows someone who will take a commission on a Zatanna nude, message me.
May 6th, 2009 - 6:37 am
Go read Ghost in the Shell or older teen oriented Japanese manga and there is plenty of nudity and sex to go around. I don’t really see a problem either way, personal preferences are what rule the day. Some stories do better with it, and some do worse. It’s a matter of storytelling and art skills as well as genre etc.
Damien: Check out Hentai Foundry, Darknest or wwoec, there are lots of artists who don’t mind doing nudes there. And several who do exceptional superhero stuff.
May 7th, 2009 - 1:54 am
Damien – I do believe Garth of Finder’s Keepers just said he does nude commissions?
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