Women who look like themselves

[avram]

OK, still planning on going to the gym, but I wanted to get this out of my head first.

I stumbled across minette’s journal today, seeing her user icon in a comment in someone else’s journal, and since it’s a photo of two women kissing and, hey, I’m a hetero guy, I’ve got that same widely-shared tropism, I went and looked. And I’m glad I did, because she linked to a Antonia Zerbisias column about weight loss which was just the right inspiration at the right time — I think I now know what I’m going to be doing with food (lots more fruit, veggies, and grains) and exercise (actually still need a bit more research) for the next few weeks. Part of this also comes out of a conversation with Beth yesterday.

Anyway, the user pics got me thinking about erotica. (Like I needed an excuse.) One thing that bothers me about a lot of erotic/pornographic art is how similar the women look. It’s like how many comics artists don’t actually draw women, they’re just drawing woman, an idealized image of what they think a pretty woman is supposed to look like, and so you get an endless stream of rubber-stamped women with different hair and costumes. Especially annoying to me, since visual diversity is one of the things I’m attracted to. I like women who, as I think of it, look like themselves.

I’ve been giving some thought to turning out small paintings and selling them on eBay. Maybe I should turn my hand to erotic art. There’s gotta be other people out there who are tired of the rubber stamps. Downside: Hardcore porn turns me off. I suspect the big market is in stuff I’d actually find distasteful to produce.

Comments

[redbird]

If you'd enjoy painting them, why not try doing and selling some nudes? Absolute worst case, you've had some more practice painting.

[avram]

That could work.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Phil Foglio's erotic comic book, XXXenophile? Great fun, very explict, yet also fresh, fun, and funny, and a celebration of the erotic rather than something smutty.

-R

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Second to what redbird said.

I think you'd find a bigger market for "tasteful erotic nudes" than pornography.

Amateur erotica

[(Anonymous)]

One trend to consider is the plethora of amateur erotic Web sites. There are lots of women who like to take their clothes off (or put bikinis or sportswear or S&M outfits on), take pictures of themselves and post these on the Web. Most of them look like perfectly ordinary women (unlike the 100-pound double-D cup monstrosities you'll find in a conventional skin mag).
Matt

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much you'd be able to charge, but I suspect there is a market for tasteful erotic portraits.

There may even be a market for tasteful erotic portraits of specific people from photos -- the way people do pet portraits, advertise that if people send a photo you'll make it a painting. Or even to do that from life, but then they'd have to be local.

[avram]

Oh, I'm sure there is, but that's a different thing, would take more work, more time, greater risk of the client wanting something I don't like. Pay more too, I'm sure. But right now I'd like to be able to knock out a few paintings quickly and put them up and see what they go for.