Plates · Femdom Art

Plates

Writing about a style teaches you less than attempting one. These plates were produced for this site in the manner of the periods the history section covers, each one set a single compositional problem that its era solved in a particular way. Every plate carries a note on what it is doing and a line saying plainly what it is.

The magazine era, 1946 to 1969

Small-press fetish publishing, mail order illustration, and the first mass-circulated iconography.

The drawing room. A seated woman in laced boots holds the centre while the second figure is cropped to a shoulder at the lower edge.

The drawing roomIn the manner of 1950s small-press pen and ink

Underground and glossy, 1970 to 1989

Adult publishing splits: harder underground work alongside the first glossy studio photography.

Studio floor. One hard key light from the left, a standing figure in a long coat and boots, and a polished floor doing most of the tonal work.

Studio floorIn the manner of 1970s black and white studio photography

About these plates

The plates on this site are original works made here, produced in the manner of a period style so that the style itself can be examined. They are not historical works, they do not reproduce any existing picture, and they are attributed to no illustrator, living or dead. Where a caption says a plate is in the manner of pen and ink, of studio photography or of a hand-tinted postcard, that names the look being imitated and nothing else.

A plate is a record of a decision

Each of these started as a question about where to put a figure and what to let the light reach. The people who first answered those questions were not thinking about art.

See where it happens now

Made here, in the manner of

The magazine era, 1946 to 1969

Underground and glossy, 1970 to 1989

A plate is a record of a decision