The art of Ben Newman

While there may be something in equal measure to shock (or offend) and arouse (or admire) in the artwork of Ben Newman, his sci-fi, fairy tale and horror-movie flavored erotic art is certainly fascinating. For a while he was the comic-a-day illustrator for porn star Belladonna, and we can see that she’s been the focus of several illustrations in his portfolio. It looks like a while back Belladonna’s hubby hired Newman to do one a day for her site, but it became too much work for Newman and he stopped at day 100 (zomg Belladonna’s unicorn week). And that’s fine, because seeing him focus on complex illustrations for shibari events and other tripped-out scenarios is well worth it. His obsession with fairytales is just downright dirty (and hot), and you can see fresh work as it goes up on Ben Newman’s blog — I especially hope he makes more work in progress animated gifs. His subjects typically include bondage and BDSM power-over scenarios pushed to the outer limits of female submission (with a Alice-meets-Victorian sci-fi Gothic Lolita style for the femmes), though the women maintain an almost ambivalent coquettishness in the predicaments they appear to have created for themselves. Sometimes he just prefers Velma over Daphne. But I think there is a lot here that answers why this is appealing to a porn star like Belladonna, who has no problem at all with the sexual power she wields within the illusions cast by her line of work.

At any rate, you can support the UK artist and buy his work at Ben Newman Art Prints. I’ve handpicked some faves after the jump (thanks for the tip Evil Signtist!)