As you can obviously see, I love BDSM/kink art. I had the chance to interview a deeply talented young artist who goes by the name of Hylas. He's an illustrator based in Amsterdam and his website is right here:
http://hylas.bestmalediaries.com/
I love his style and strong personal vision. The scenes featured in his work cover a wide range of bondage dreams and nightmares that I figured some of you would definitely....appreciate.
Thank you, Hylas, for taking the time to do this interview. You're the best!
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Q (Master Aiden): When did you first realise that you were interested in BDSM subject matter?
A (Hylas): I'm not sure when exactly I actually became aware of it. It must have been sometime during my early teens. But in retrospect, I realise that I've had bondage fantasies from a very, very early age; I'm talking pre-kindergarten. I remember fantasies about soldiers and other men in uniforms, tied up or wounded or otherwise 'vulnerable'. Also, a specific bondage fantasy involving Optimus Prime of the Transformers too embarrassing for words.Q: Did you ever struggle with accepting your interests or was it something that you were comfortable with right from the beginning?
A: I've always been very comfortable with whatever sexual desires I felt. Ironically, the only time I became insecure was when I started having fantasies involving women after my coming out. That was very confusing!
Q: Your artwork is obviously appreciated on the internet. Have you had a chance to display your work in any adult art galleries in Europe? Are realtime, physical displays something that you'd ever persue?
A: Exhibiting in art galleries is not even an ambition for me. I'm just having fun, trying things out, you know? I see my work more as porn than art, if you want to make that distinction. I have no 'artistic aspirations', I'm just horny! Besides, all my work only exists as relatively low-res jpeg's; I wouldn't even know how to exhibit it in a physical space.Q: What materials do you use to make your illustrations or are they mainly created using computer?
A: Mostly, I draw on paper with a pencil, 'ink' it with a ball-pen, and colour it in Photoshop. Really simple, basic stuff. I'm currently not even using a scanner, I just take a picture with my digicam.
Q: Many artists that I've known in my personal life have tended to be socially shy but feel that they express themselves most completely through their work. Is BDSM something that you enjoy in your personal life or is it strictly inspiration for your art?A: Indeed, my sex-life has been mostly vanilla so far, and I'm quite happy that way. I obviously have a kinky mind, but I haven't really had the urge to act on those impulses. What's a little strange about me is that the things I fantasise about are not necessarily the things I actually enjoy in real life and vice versa, also regarding various vanilla practices. But I'm probably gonna at least dip my toe into 'serious' BDSM sometime in the near future, if only out of curiosity.
Q: It seems to me that the style of your work springs from comic books just as much as it does from what we imagine as darker gay erotica art. There's a bright, colourful tonality to your work and yet they can be surprisingly hardcore. What are some of your inspirations for creating?A: I've always been into cartoons, from a very early age; I would watch anything and everything, as long as it was animated. I even used to watch the Adam West Batman series, just because it had an animated opening sequence, and those 'onomatopoeic word balloons'! Later I would start reading comics, mainly the X-Men; it was the 90es, and I was totally into the orient/occident hybrid of Jim Lee. Then I hit puberty; that was also the time my parents got us access to the internet, which is where I first found drawings by Etienne, aka Stephen, aka Dom Orejudos. His work simply blew my mind. Seriously, I cannot begin to express how deeply I connect with his work. I've since come across many more fantastic artists, erotic and other. I'm interested in fine arts, both contemporary and of the past; I still read comics; and of course I'm paying attention to the online gay erotic art scene. But I guess if I had to narrow it down, it's Etienne and Jim Lee. Those two had a huge impact on me.
Q: You seem to have a tendency to feature young athletic guys in precarious situations. When it comes to a lot of gay bondage art, we typically see more leather daddies and bear-types. I'm assuming that that could be your personal preference but what made you take these more unusual archetype inspirations for this particular genre of erotic art?
A: I have no idea why my mind goes there - in real life, I feel attracted to a variety of body-types and age-groups. Maybe it has to do with the super-heroic diet I grew up on? Here, the (relative) anonymity of the web comes into play. I'm working under a pseudonym; if I had my real identity attached to my work, I'd feel obliged to be more 'balanced', feature various ethnicities and body-types and age groups. But since I'm 'undercover', I'll just go where my muse takes me, and nine times out of ten, it's a place where white jocks get what they deserve!
Q: More and more these days, the new-school bondage artists are showing their heroes and heroines being abused by robots and creatures with tentacles. What is that all about!?!A: Again, I don't really know... I think it may be the contrast between the vulnerability and humanity of the sub, and the indifference of the machine. The machine isn't sadistic, it's indifferent. It has power over the sub, but it doesn't abuse that power, nor is it forgiving in any way. The machine simply does what it's programmed to do. Something about that tension between indifference and vulnerability really connects with me.
As for tentacles... well, 'monstery' tentacles gross me out a little because I always imagine them to be slimy and smell like fish... but I'm fine with 'roboty' tentacles. I think the appeal is that tentacles have complete control over their 'victims'. They can do whatever they want to. They can touch or tug or spank, they can penetrate, they can reach every spot on your body, they can tie you up and make you contort in any way imaginable. I think they are also a bit of a 'cheat' for artists; drawing a human body interact with its surroundings in a (more or less) realistic way is more difficult than simply drawing a guy, then putting some tentacles around him.
Q: One of the things that I love about your work is that you're not afraid to use humour in the scenarios that you depict. And yet the gentlemen being spanked/bound/penetrated in your work are absolutely in frightening and sexy situations. The piece where the sailor is nudging the bound slave towards a hot furnace is especially brilliant. I feel that having a sense of humour about things is terribly underutilized within the S&M community but you seem to have a complete understanding of the visceral excitement of bondage along with the absurdity linked to it. Have you always viewed BDSM with a sense of dark comedy or was that something that you acquired fairly recently?A: I think I know what you mean, but I've never actually thought about it. I just generally think humour is very important, I think it comes naturally to me. Not so much the 'laugh-out-loud', 'look-at-me' kind; I like subtle humour, the kind that doesn't undermine it's subject, but makes it more poignant by adding a chuckle or two. Ok, now I'm just rambling pretentiously. Anyway, my point is, taking things seriously is no excuse to be dour!
Q: So what are your future plans with your art: books? comic books? What can we look forward to from you, Hylas?A: I haven't really been doing this for very long yet, so I'm mostly trying to improve my skills, and get some more exposure; this interview surely will help with the latter, so thanks for that! I'm just doing this for fun, so I guess I'm not exactly brimming with ambition here, but if this dirty little hobby of mine leads to some other, more 'serious' projects somewhere down the line, that would be a lovely bonus. For the time being, I'm just gonna keep drawing and blogging!
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Contact, donate, and dive into the erotic cartoon world of Hylas by visiting his website at:
http://hylas.bestmalediaries.com/
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