Celebrating Bishop 25
09-11-2018.
A few weeks ago, I was visited by one of my oldest friends. We went through high school together, and he has been a critic of my drawings from the very beginning, as I started making BDSM drawings. (Although at first he really wasn't into the subject, over the years it kind of grew on him, I think)
Over the decades, we grew apart a little bit, moving to different cities, getting on with our lives. And although the contact remained intact (in the end we still would see each other once a year or so), my work faded into the background a bit, as there always was so much personal stuff to get to: marriages, children, jobs etc.
But during his latest visit, he asked how things were going with the art, and I gave him a password for the site.
A few days later he mailed me. He had some very kind words on the site which filled me with joy, obviously. And then he told me: "Your colored work is impressive, but boy, that black and white work has a force of its own!" Again: very nice to hear, of course.
But then I started thinking. I haven't been doing black and white, pen and ink drawings for quite a while. Now, as you move on in your work you tend to think you're progressing continuously, getting better every year. But now, I think there is also something to be said for watching your work in certain rounded off periods, which can compete which each other.
Take this drawing from Bishop here.
It is one of the first that I encountered. It was placed on the editorial page of his second album, the first one that I obtained. (In the early seventies, in a public regular magazine store: I can not emphasize it enough! Those were the days...)
Now, obviously, this is still a far cry from his sophisticated airbrush work. But I still consider it to be among his best work! It is in the expression. That beautiful arc, that position her genitalia front and center (even if you don't see anything, by mear suggestion!), the way there is room for the crossed feet under the arched back, the tying overall, and the crotch rope which seems to have no other function than to annoy: it's just perfect. Add to that the lighting and the difference in rendering the skin and the various other materials, all in this simple restricted technique, and you can not help but marvel at his greatness once again.
Coco
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