[fanart] Art Dump, Largo, Junpei, Miho, Ping, Erika...

Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine~

And?

ANYWAY... Since I can't sleep right now, I might as well do something productive. But since I hate being productive, I'll make a *real*, non snarky comment instead of actually doing something important. After a page or two of this we can then go back to the actual Brimm Artz.

(Anyone else notice how resilient this thread? So many short derails, and yet it keeps returning to plum. 35 pages! This has GOT to be the biggest thread in Fanworks. And it is worthy.)

I have, I admit, a rather odd view on the subject of nudity, sexuality, art, and porn. And I'm arrogant enough to feel it's worth actually tossing out here and making you folk all wade through it. I do not expect everyone, or even most of you, to agree with me.

Before I begin, lest anyone start getting any ideas while reading this, I have not, and will not, draw any MT character in a sexual situation. Period. Any PMs asking me to draw MT characters having sex will be forwarded to Ray to be dealt with properly. They're not my characters, I'm not gonna mess with them like that. My own characters... that's a different story.

Now, on to the meat of the subject.

I, personally, believe that it is possible to depict not just the nude body, but human sexuality in a way that is artistic and of benefit to society.

To me, porn is defined as the depiction of a person or people engaged in meaningless or degrading sexual activity. Note, I did not say nude people engaged in such acts. I leave that out for a reason. Why? Because, to be blunt, I consider half the stuff you see in movies marketed to 14 year old kids to be more pornographic than a Playboy.

Think about it. Look at a lot of the movies out there. You won't see any penetration, of course. But good lord. Hot and steamy action between people who just met, and can't possibly be in love. That's okay to show 14 year old kids, according to our authorities.

On the other hand, some people view Michelangelo's David (Wikipedia link) as horribly vile and nasty because OMG he has a penis. (Just like every other male on the planet. Woah.) One fellow attempted to smash the statue a few years back (he succeeded in breaking a few toes off, damaging an irreplaceable cultural treasure.) Or what about Rodin's "the Kiss?" (Wikipedia link) A nude man and a nude woman, deeply and passionately kissing... Oh, we can't have that!

Horseshit. We not only can, but in my opinion, we SHOULD. Why?

Currently, in much of the Western world, particularly the U.S, we treat our bodies and sex lives like it's a dirty thing. Crude jokes in the laundry room, gratuitous sex in movies, T&A to sell laundry detergent... We've made it acceptable outside the bedroom only if it's a sick joke or a money making strategy. So guess what we take into our private lives when we close the bedroom door to spend the night with our S.O?

I've known couples who were married to one another. Every religious and legal stricture was being met. And they were still horribly embraced and even ashamed to be seen by their own spouse. Because that's what we've turned our bodies into. Things of shame.

To hell with that. If we can counter that, we should! people should not be ashamed of their own body, and should delight in being looked at by their S.O.

Rather than hiding these things, we should be edifying them. Respecting them. HONORING them. Know why the Greeks depicted nude men and women so often? Because the human body was the pinnacle of creation. The human body, god inspired and shaped, was the best of all natural works. Hiding god/goddess/the entire pantheon's best work and being ashamed of it really says something about your view of god. The Greeks, (and later the Romans) got it. They held it up as the standard, as perfection, as beauty, as a gift that was divinely given.

The Greeks and Romans did sports in the nude. We have a boob pop out in a football game and scream about the corruption of our youth. What is up with that?

Similarly, sex. It's important. It can be a terrible thing, yes. When treated poorly. But it can also be a very powerful positive in one's life. When two people who love one another passionately slip between the sheets it brings them together, binds them not just in body but in soul, and firms up the relationship. Why in the world should we treat that as shameful? Why sweep something so beautiful under the rug? Why use it only to sell blue jeans?

I am a father. Maybe this is weird of me, but it is my sincere hope and dream that, when they reach an age that they are ready to find people who will fulfill and complete them, I want them to know what they are looking for. The passion of "the Kiss?" That should be their goal. They should know to look for a husband (or wife, I'm open minded) that gives them that level of connection, that affection, that deep seated passion. But if all they get is sex scenes in movies that have no real relationship, how the devil will they know what to look for?

We need positive examples. We need to edify the human body as something to be proud of, and we need to celebrate the good parts of sex while warning against the bad parts. But if we're hiding it and pretending it doesn't exist, we can't do that. If we're treating it as a crass commodity, then that's what we're taking with us into the bedroom.

In my Deviant Art account I have an entire sub-gallery labeled "Sexuality." In it there are numerous nudes. Some of them are clearly engaged in foreplay, or in affectionate behavior that involves a lack of clothes. Many would call that porn. I don't. I have exactly ONE picture in my DA I myself call porn, and that one was made to illustrate a point about the character. The rest are, I believe, depictions of an ideal, something that should be edified and viewed as praiseworthy. Something that I think we as a society should desire, not be ashamed of.

To close, I think I'll leave you with an interesting point that brought it home to me once. I received an angry note on my DA a year or so back. The anger was not directed at me, it was directed at the policy DeviantArt had at the time, and the society that had spawned it. She made the following statement. "I'm a young woman. I have those parts. I know what they look like. I look at them regularly while bathing or dressing. They are nothing special. So why is it against the rules for me to see a drawing of the very thing I have?"

Makes sense to me...

/rant off

This post has been edited by Sareth on Mar 24 2009, 02:34 AM

Oh man does it suck to be you! J/K...sorry it is that way for ya unless by choice.

@Zippo sorry bout the nose...

Nekura, Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

I'm gonna second that and add a trite soundbite because that's the kind of guy I am.
"If God had intended us to be nude we would have been born that way!" - Oscar Wilde (I believe - not been able to find an authoritative source)

If I haven't pointed any artists here to this site before then I do so now. You can join up and tap all the resources, or just take the free stuff. It's an image site for "simple nudes" - a concept you can read about on the site. If that description doesn't clue you enough then NSFW should do it.

I could get all spiritual here as well and bang on about poor stewardship of our bodies and the fact that being regularly unclothed makes that much harder to deny or ignore, but that is actually a somewhat different point so I'll save my soapbox on that subject for another day.

Also @Tangent - at least you can be sure you aren't a buy-sexual then. . .

You really wanna know, baby?

Brimm and I have never met nor known each other at any moment of our lifetime!

I am just sayin is all...
*ahem*
Brimm, dude... you simply must finish that Asako pic. Even if she ends up solo. She is too cute in what you have done so far. If you cannot fit the girls into a pic because of the sheer awesomeness of Assako, I volunteer my face to be pillow mashed by Asako. And, cuz some of yall will think it, I mean the pillow in her hands... not her "naughty pillows," ya freaks!

edit:

Ummm... what about forumites?
(Big innocent smile.)
To be completely serious, which usually pains me, I agree with all your sentiments and most of the way you put it. That was beautiful, man...
(Gives Sareth a hearty back thumpin bearhug... but cannot resist giving his buttcheeks a tweak with the left paw!)

This post has been edited by Teddy-Werebear on Mar 24 2009, 03:53 PM

I just had to say that, hot damn, that pic is hot. Can't stop staring at the boots. XD;;;

Glad you be liking 'em, MC. :3

...You didn't happen to serve in the navy at any time, have you?

As for Asako, that I can do. I'll get it finished. If I can put Yuki and Mami in, great, otherwise you at least know what to expect.

Playboys aren't porn, really, in my opinion. I've seen the magazines and the images are surprisingly tasteful. I mean, really, they aren't doing anything naughty or vulgar or nothing. Just naked or near naked womenfolk standing/sittin/laying about. I fail to see the dirtiness in that but, meh, what do I know?

That's because it isn't love. It's lust, or at best maaaaaaybe simple infactuation.

Guys having guy parts? Imagine that~... I think you captured a big reason why this whole naked = porn seems to irk me slightly here:

Because Americans are generally big prudes compared to most of the rest of the world.

...And for the record, just because I consider something to be classified as "porn" doesn't necessarily make it bad. I just woundn't feel comfortable exposing something like that around small children, that's all. Children should be children while they can, they'll have plenty of time after puberty to learn about sex, yeah?

For the most part I pretty much agree with you though so if I didn't comment on it assume I pretty much feel similiarly.


...Needs to get my sleep-deprived ass back to work finishing those pic requests. XD;

This post has been edited by Brimm on Mar 24 2009, 11:25 AM

the recent additions to your pics are great Brimm, and I agree with Teddy, I wouldn't mind if Asako ended up alone in that pic (its still cute), it'll just make me wander what it would look like if all three were in it (not trying to pressure you into finishing it)

Sareth:

Amen brother! I don't see that side of you very often, and that was a worthwhile read.

I think, perhaps, it is the emotion portrayed that makes all the difference. At least in my opinion.

As for derails of this thread, I think this one has been one of the more interesting and enlightening.

~Zippo

Holy cow there's still actual fanart occurring in this thread.

(Oy, go away for an extended weekend, and everyone goes nuts... )

In no particular order:

Yes, Brimm, I did mean you in regards to my "post 1200 is yours" edit, as you were the one I was replying to for it.

Regarding the sexuality discussion, I'm going to bypass most of it not only because I'm lazy (though it is a factor ), but because I don't, generally, take lead-weighted shoes into fields marked with signage reading "DANGER, MINE FIELD!". I will say that the Meimi maid costume (which I most certainly did like, in any color scheme) may not technically qualify for porn, but by the standards of this forum it was close enough to "inappropriate" (standards as defined by the admins and moderators of the forum, based on my observations of their commentary on the subject; IMO and YMMV, IOW ) to qualify for a link instead of using the IMG tags.

Intentional or not, there were some parts of the thread that seemed to be kinda creepy, in a stalkish way, towards Amastre, and somewhat towards RL females in general. I can't say I'd complain about steering away from that in the future, though of course as I'm not a moderator y'all can ignore me without serious any consequences. I just wince when it looks like people are giving ammo for those who point to the WWW as why intelligent females tend to shy away from stepping up to the plate, so to speak, for the sake of self defense through obscurity.

Regarding Miho's clothing options, perhaps something more casual, like suggested by the background shots when Yuki and... um, her not-a-boyfriend friend when looking at the stuff Ping posted for her Miho-hunt? I mean, it can't rai... whoops, wrong movie. You can't goth all the time.

Inking of ExK bubble bath pic: very yummeh. Though, the way some of the water was sloshed over the side of the tub, the dirty part in my mind (which, yes, gets waaaaaaay into "pornographic" territory, and is not only NSFW but not safe just about anywhere outside my skull) was wondering what they were doing outside of that one still shot to make that happen... (Yeah, could've just been when getting comfortable, or even drawing the bath to start, but what kind of pervy fun is that? )

If anyone else was looking for a reply from me (God knows why... ), apologizes if I missed it, but y'all are a bunch of Chatty Cathy's (no, I'm not that old, thank you very much ) that make it easy to overlook things.



*moons the thread, and half the forumites go blind from the reflection of a decidedly northern European posterior, courtesy of the Scandinavian half of his heritage*

Thanks Sareth! I don't mind their attention too much, as it's easier to tune out and not allow to annoy/bother me as that of the pervs I deal with off-line at my school... I had to actually slap a guy across the face the other day after he directed a disgustingly lewd comment towards me and my friends. I don't mind pervs online, it's just in person that I have issues with...

All good points Brimm, I just don't feel comfortable toeing that line of "pornographic" and "artistic" nudity. In my case, it's a can of worms better left unopened.

Definitely good points. To me, I can't help but have a sexual view of nudity, so I'd be more likely than not to edge towards towards the porno side of it. Drawing nudes is the best for learning anatomy, if I can focus on drawing.

Sareth, you have a great and healthy view on sexuality and nudity. It's a crime that we have allowed society to turn sex and nudity into something that is dirty and wrong. I know that I've been shaped by my culture into thinking that sexuality is something to be kept behind closed (bedroom) doors, because it is shameful.

I personallly don't have a helathy view of nudity and sexuality, which is why I shy away from it. My parents, God bless them, brought me up very conservatively, and never ever broached the subject of sexuality, good or bad. In fact, all of my knowledge of sexuality comes from conversations with my peers, the media, and my own exploration of my sexualtiy.


On the topic of all the derails and rerails this topic has suffered, it just shows that good fan art can always get us back on topic!

Brimm, I'm loving the latest batch of fanarts! Only crit is that Miho seems like she's really not present in the Junko/Miho piccie... Other than that, awesomeness!

~Amastre (realizing just why she might be kinda jacked up...)

I may be a perv. (on the account of the dozen or so of anime that is somewhat ecchi in alot of ways), but I'll only do things like that with a girlfriend (whenever I get one again) and I'm the type that won't hunt ya down to do something naughty, and before anyone thinks it, I would rather respect someone like Amastre

I remember seeing that in high-school alot Amastre (oh the memories, LOL), someone getting slapped cause of something said, happened to me once, but that was because someone heard wrong, and after she calmed down I explained that I never said anything of the sort (of course the person who started that little spark, avoided me for a while after things were cleared up)


(I like to ramble on about stuff that happened when I was younger, gomen!)

Wow. I'm getting much more supportive comments than I expected. Cool.

Anyway... MOAR ARTS! We must prove to Ray that it can happen! XD

I know! Amazing isn't it?

@Brimm I have never been in the Navy apart from a week of wrestling summer camp in high school. Army and USAR for me, 17 years in September.

edit: @Ravensbrook And maybe a few more, it is part of my retirement strategy. It would have been shooting myself in the foot not to get some retirement out of my service when I went over 10 years.

This post has been edited by Teddy-Werebear on Mar 24 2009, 08:00 PM

These are looking pretty awesome I have to say.

so that's a from me so far! I'm getting quite excited about these, y'know. No, NOT like that . .

going for your 20 Teddy??

I just had to say that, hot damn, that pic is hot. Can't stop staring at the boots. XD;;;

Heh...glad you liked it...Ms. Helfer has also done a Playboy spread, and most of the BSG adverts using her are unambiguously NSFW, so I went with one from her modeling work. I find myself actually looking at the blonde chick...and thinking she's a dork. ProTip: if wearing a corset, you really don't need a bra too, though a tube top is a good idea...good corsets are a trick to wash.

@Sareth excellent post! I would also add that there is definitely a double standard. When I was 17 and change, I did some modeling. For a catalogue shoot once, I was wearing pumps, stockings, some VERY nice jewelry...and a smile. In a catalogue that is apparently okay, but if that same picture had appeared in Playboy, it would have been someone's ass, because of my age. So if I'm selling bracelets and earrings, I can be half naked, but if it's in a mens magazine it is exploitation? Are you SHITTIN' me? Either way it's still sellin sex

Nekura, sex doesn't sell, it rents

WHA Bluh? Whaty...catalouge was this?

WHA Bluh? Whaty...catalouge was this?

Good luck finding a 22 year old catalogue LOL I was in HIGH SCHOOL.

Nekura

Ha! The glory of teh nets makes ANYTHING possible!

lol, actually for some reason I'm suddenly reminded of Miley Cyrus.
ZOMG! Bare Back!? OBSCENE!
...Even though, you know...you get to see that much and more on almost every girl EVERY FRIKIN SUMMER!?

*rant goes on for a while*

yeah seriously...I wonder most of the time why girls even bother with a suit...for the same amount of coverage they could just use 3 bandaids

Nekura, the art of the tease is so VERY dead

Three more years til sweet retirement~. Enjoy what you can of it while it lasts.

MOAR ATRZ posted. XD (see below~)

And now inked. Enjoy, or not~.

And, yes, Largo only wishes he had that sort of build, then again, he does haul around quite a bit of not-light equipment around town…

Heh. You know, when I asked for "plenty of refs" I meant plenty of refs for one particular mech.

Anyhoo, I went through them and just picked one, Fafnir, and went to work trying to draw it. Lemme tell ya, drawing this thing was pretty intimidating at first but as I kept on with it it started getting a little easier. Considering how little I draw mechs of any sort, I'm surprised it turned out this well. (My friend, however, can draw/design mechs way better than I ever could. Feel free to check out some of the stuff he reluctantly decided to scan and put up on his DA account if you get the time).

Also, to keep this applicable as fanart, I threw Largo and Masamichi in there. Hope you don't mind.

First of all, I'm really glad you're liking them. It's a neat series and I'm trying do it some justice with the cosplay pics here. <3

Secondly, thanks so much for introducing me to this series. I’m enjoying it immensely thus far~.

Here’s my current progress on the Kannagi fanarts. The sketches look more finished than before. Just so you know, I’m planning on inking both and will post the finished versions when finished. ‘Til then if you notice stuff I should tweak a bit with them, let me know.

Ping/Nagi with Kimiko/Zange back to back.

Decided to go with an Erika/Tsugumi with Ping/Nagi dressed in the cosplay they wore when working as waitresses together for that Maid Café in Vol 2, chapter 11.

Second attempt~!

Personally I like this lots for the pure and simple "cute" factor. I had lots of fun dressing both up in winter cuteness. Hope this one is likeable because I'm hoping to ink it sometime in the semi-near future. <3

This post has been edited by Brimm on Mar 25 2009, 11:28 AM

Well, bandaids would fall off in the water so th----

*goes off on a compaign to convince females of the valibity of the "band-aid bathing suit*

You would mislead vulnerable young women and divert their attention away from the waterproof bandaids? Eeeeevil!

Nekura, flypaper for freaks since 1970