Artists I Like: Daniel Strickland

Artists I Like.... Daniel Strickland! I encountered his work on Insta and fell in love. He draws fat girls a lot, and I appreciate that. It's a morally good thing.

This post might be more comfortable over on my Blood Red blog... and I might do a mirror version featuring more of his art over there. But hell's bells, y'all. If you don't know my proclivities by now you ain't never gonna learn. I'm a package deal.

Anyway... Daniel Strickland seems to work mostly in ink with digital color. His website says he's a professional comic book artist. Looks like he also makes adult coloring books*.

I love his delicate lines. Almost an animation style. Of course his forms are fabulous as well, capturing the volume of a body in an elegant way. This is my kind of thing. So check him out.

*"Adult" coloring books sounds dirty, right? But it just means coloring books created for grown ups, not kids. So it can be anything from hot rods to flowers.

 

Hymla

I posted a bunch of Hymla art here in this Blood Red post.

Considering a Hymla art book. If anyone thinks this is a good idea, comment here or there if you can.

Obviously I love drawing this character and I'll keep doing it no matter if anyone likes it or not. But it would be nice to share the art in a meaningful way, such as in a book.

 

Sadie of Hell

I did a drawing of Sadie the Princess of Hell from Raven Perez's webcomic Raven's Dojo.... one of the longest running webcomics in history. Raven was on my Artists I Like list way back in June 2024!

Ok... if you're a casual, be warned that Raven's Dojo is naughty as fuck. Like, ultra naughty as fuck. And Sadie gets down to some business. I'm just sayin'.

Here's the original art from my sketchbook, in black and gray ink.

Here it is colored up digitally.

Scantily Clad

I grew up on Savage Sword of Conan, my aesthetic for "barbarians" and sword and sorcery involves not wearing a lot of practical clothing or armor. Everything is there to look awesome.

In my head canon, this is because the world in which such characters dwell is just that way. They like to wear rings in weird places, chain belts, pieces of armor... but show a lot of skin. This is bravery, fashion, boldness.

Of course it isn't realistic. If the setting has steel blades, you bet your ass they have armor and they would, in reality, wear that shit. But this is not reality, is it? This is fantasy. The internal logic of such a fantasy world stands: Barbarians can't be bothered with heavy armor and they like to be comfortable and they don't want to look like cowards.

Now, if we're talking sci-fi type fantasy, like planetary romance, it's actually a very easy thing to explain. Why is the space chick wearing a bikini and a hair helmet? Because they use laser pistols and they have energy screen shields. Nobody wears armor, you kidding me?

Ultimately... it's a style thing. I'm not saying I must have scantily clad characters in my comics or other arts... but I am saying I enjoy the fuck out of it when it happens.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Featured art: Savage Sword of Conan issue 50. Cover art by Nestor Redondo.

Mike Hoffman space girl art.

Artists I Like: Les Toil

Brian Clarke, aka Les Toil, is a Californian artist I first encountered in the early days of my internet life, c. 2000 or something. I don't know for sure.

What drew me to his work was that he was drawing Toil Girls... big beautiful women. Like for real, really wonderful, beautiful, actual women. He used to (still does?) take commissions from real models to do their Toil Girls portraits. And man, they are grand.

He's also got a boat load of Big Daddy Roth type of vibes going on that I admire, even though, in those days, I didn't know who Roth was. I didn't grow up in that culture and any vibes I got from it were secondary.

This is the portion of the post where someone might discuss Toil's influences. But I have recently realized I suck at doing that. It happened when I heard someone say that "Magenta Mountain" by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard sounded a lot like the Flaming Lips. As soon as they said it, I heard it. But if they hadn't said it I never would have thought of that. Even though it kind of feels obvious.

I'm the same with a lot of visual art. Of course Toil has influences, one of them being the late great Duane Bryers. But who else influenced Toil? Is he into fantasy artists like Boris Vallejo? Does he love some Robert Williams? I bet he likes some Coop. I'm not sure. I could probably research it and find out. Or just go to Facebook and ask him directly. But I'm pretty shy and I likely won't do that.

Anyway... let's wrap this up. Go check out some Les Toil art, even the fun animal stuff if you're not into the lovely ladies.

Artists I Like: Duane Bryers

I already posted about Duane Bryers here, and this post is largely a re-posting of that same content. Also, it's my birthday and what better thing could I ask for on my birthday than Hilda?

You remember good old Hilda? Calendar girl Hilda? Yeah, she's the creation of Duane Bryers, may he rest in peace.

I think it was the early 2000s when I laid eyes on Hilda, a 50s pinup girl of the finest order. Unlike most other pinup girls, Hilda had some junk in the trunk. She was chubby, and lovely, and fun.

Bryers' style is akin to a lot of painters at the time and, to my eyes, reminds me very much of Norman Rockwell. Because everyone who painted in that style at that time reminded everyone of Normal Rockwell. Rockwell was the Frazetta of American culture painting.

But I think it's more fair to say Bryers was akin to Gil Elvgreen, a contemporary whose style is more similar to Bryers than someone like Alberto Vargas... all of whom are best known for painting pinup ladies. God bless 'em.

I don't know much about Bryers outside of his Hilda work, but here's a great interview with the late artist by another artist I love, Les Toil. I wish I owned some of those old Hilda calendars. I wonder how much they go for on eBay?

Well, would you take a look at this? Les Toil has a bunch of Hilda stuff!

It it interesting to me that though Hilda was often painted in comical situations, such as farting next to the stove, wearing a flour sack for a bikini, and falling off of logs, she is quite often painted in quiet, peaceful moments of bliss or even in overtly sexy poses. There's a shitty trend in media to present the fat girl as comic relief or a figure to be aided by the protagonist to make them look better. How often is the fat chick on TV allowed to just be hot? Or to just be, for that matter?

Hilda is great. I'm happy Duane Bryers created her and dedicated so many paintings to her adventures.

So... In the back of my lizard brain I'm thinking about my character Hymla, who is basically a chubby, rude, violent, but kind of sweet barbarian, and how much she is probably inspired by these classic Hilda images.

Hymla the Horn!

CW: This post contains a bit of nudity, so you might want to hide it from your granny. A lot of this art is more appropriate for my Blood Red Pinups blog, but I'm in a mood to blur the lines and feeling less interested in compartmentalization.

Theme music for this post: Wo Fat's entire discography, but The Conjuring and The Black Code in particular. I think Hymla's theme song is probably "Beggar's Bargain".

Those of you reading this thing who care, let me know in the comments if you want to see a god damn Hymla the Horn comic book. I'll do what I want, you know that. But it is a strong motivator to know anyone out there gives even one shit.

HYMLA THE HORN: The story of a low class, low brow dishwasher turned slayer.

Hymla the Horn was born from a sketch. I can't seem to locate the original sketch sheet, done in Clip Studio Paint. But I did find a snippet of it that was saved on October 8, 2022, with the name "Hymla" drawn on it. So I must have created her at least by Oct 2022, duh.

Since then, she has popped up in my sketchbooks over and over again. I played an AD&D character based on her. I wrote a comic script. Clearly this brash, brazen ne'er-do-well looms large in my head. Both figuratively and literally. She ain't no wispy little daisy, after all.

The first Hymla drawing I can find, 2022.

Eventually I will make a Hymla comic book. I don't know when. I don't know how. I just know she is inevitable. So far there is one script written: Hymla is introduced as a lowly cantankerous kitchen helper in a tavern dive bar. A cult invades the bar and turns everyone into a mindless cult member, so Hymla brutally and bloodily slays every motherfucker in the place with various kitchen implements. Then she takes the tavern owner's old sword off the wall and walks off into a life of adventure, having discovered she has a knack for slaying.

Hymla is like... what if Conan/Red Sonja but fat and sassy and mean and missing a front tooth? Pure fight comic, violent as fuck, just for funsies. A character that says "I don't give a shit what you think" and means it.

"But why is she called Hymla the HORN?"... Because it sounds cool. I added the tagline "the Horn" right after doodling that first image and creating an AD&D first edition character. One of her carried items was a horn (the kind you blow). She also had a magic sword that she could blow through the pommel to inspire her comrades. None of that Dungeons & Dragons info is canon to the character, though. Just a riff on an idea. But that is the origin of "the Horn". It also ties into the first comic book script because her boss, the tavern owner, has a fancy old horn on his wall that she takes with her when she leaves the bloody mess behind. Unless I change up the script.

Bit of a tangent here, but fuck it, this is my blog... I don't savor the idea of having to draw the same thing over and over. Which is why my relationship to comics has always been slightly at arm's length. Though I was much more of a comics guy before getting into tabletop RPG creation so heavily in the 2000s and later in the 2010s. I used to draw a lot more comics, folks. Anyway... I resist the idea of giving this character a signature sword and horn because I don't want to have to draw the same thing all the time. One of the things I always loved about Conan comics was that in each story he could have a different weapon, different clothes and armor, different everything. All that was consistent was his personality, his long black hair, and muscles.

Hymla's world is Yria, the same setting I've explored in the pages of Black Pudding RPG zine. Well, to be fair, when I use this setting for stories and comic ideas I tend to cleanse it of elves, dwarfs, and halflings. But that's neither here nor there, as the rubes are wont to say. I think it matters not. Maybe those folks all died off in a plague or maybe they are still around, just not showing up much. Can't say yet. But this is the world of the Worm Witch, Blazing Heart, and Hunter Raven and all that jazz. Hymla just walks through it for a good time.

And that's Hymla. What matters is she's a fat, tough, mean, mirthful, belligerent motherfucker who wanders the land slaying monsters, wizards, and other villainous bastards while drinking, gambling, singing, and probably fucking. Not a sex comic idea, mind you, but definitely a hard rated-R. And NOW I'm officially rambling. You are witnessing me working out the idea on the page, naked for the world to see.

Anyhow. Here's the ultimate collection of Hymla the Horn artwork, as it stands in the year of our lord 2024, September 2.

This ended up being the cover for Black Pudding issue 8.

Doodled during a D&D game where we fought a kraken in the middle of the night.

Artists I Like: Molly Moonstone

Here's a rare one for the list. Molly Moonstone is both a visual artist who draws beautiful pinup girls and is also a beautiful pinup girl herself. Go figure. I certainly am not in that category myself.

Anyway... I found her work on Instagram, like so many others, and she kind of enchanted me with her curvy, voluptuous figures drawn in a playful style with  nice textured coloring. I really dig it more than many of the other popular pinup artists working today. Good shit, check it out.