Sardax, Interview from Wellred Weekly

Explore more work by Sardax on his websites, The Art of Sardax and Sardax.com. You can also follow Sardax on Twitter as well as support him as an artist on Ko-fi.

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Spanking Artist: Sardax

Wellred Weekly explores the spanking art of celebrated femdom artist, Sardax.

Volume 1, Number 7 : April 27, 2012

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How long have you been drawing femdom art?

Well over 20 years and I think that’s quite long enough!

Where can your spanking art be seen?

At my membership site you can see the majority of all the art I have ever done, excluding works copyrighted to other sites. There are 34 different categories of art featured including a specific section devoted to whipping, caning and spanking.

What inspires you to draw?

I’ve always drawn so I really don’t need to be inspired to do it. Being inspired suggests that you need an impetus, which I just do not. It just happens all the time. I suppose also trying to earn a living from being an artist, the inspiration is the fear of “chill penury”!

Where do you get your ideas from?

Ideas come from different places; looking at other artists, reading books or poetry or even simply watching them drift in from nowhere. I often will get a visual idea just before waking and will rush to sketch it out quickly before it disappears.

Are there other artists that interest or inspire you?

I like Nanshakh and other artists who can draw the human figure well. I am intensely interested in the human form, both male and female and have studied human anatomy. I tend to look at the art of the past when figure drawing was understood and valued. Of course the subject matter was different, but the working method remains the same.

Do you have a particular technique or way that you go about drawing?

I have a number of techniques but generally it divides in two forms. Conventional illustration – either drawing on paper and watercolour painting, or digital illustration drawn straight onto screen, using a tablet. There are pros and cons to each. The former is more permanent, saleable and instantly visible, but also unmodifiable, and less flexible. The latter is the complete opposite. I do scan conventional illustration too, and then work over it to try to combine the best parts of each.

Do you prefer to draw in colour or black & white/greyscale?

Personally I prefer the greyscale look, especially in watercolour – it’s a style I’ve become known for and it gives a strange other-worldly look. Colour of course is popular too, but now I will never paint conventionally in colour – that is reserved for digital art.

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Is there a target audience that you specifically aim at?

The audience is anyone who likes it! Specifically it is those who enjoy “femdom art” and I realize that this is a very narrow audience. In this field I have never set out to appeal to a certain market, even though it might be more popular or even profitable. I could draw girls being spanked and I have done so for private commissions, but my main focus is femdom/malesub and always will be, I imagine.

Does your artwork represent your own personal preferences?

Actually no – as I really only get my pleasure from observation, fantasy and depiction. I have established that I prefer submission more as an idea than a reality.

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Do you produce artwork which is not femdom related as well?

Oh certainly. As a professional artist I have a number of styles and aliases and you could put them together and not think they were the same artist. But femdom is my first love and what I really prefer to draw above all else.

Do you draw just for personal pleasure or for profit?

There is profit of course – I am an illustrator by trade – but you’d be surprised at how little that really is. Not enough to survive on. You’d have to call it pleasure if you keep on doing it when it seems such a noncommercial avenue to work in. I have to supplement being Sardax with other more humdrum work.

Have you considered using your artwork in publications/books?

In the past I have provided book illustrations for the Alice Kerr-Sutherland Society as well as a number of femdom and kinky magazines but rarely spanking magazines; even today my work goes occasionally on the covers of femdom stories – often as a special commission. I have also produced a full range of book covers for the outstandingly elegant Stiletto Books series which can be seen at the Heel Magazine website. I fear though that books and magazines are in great decline these days and what printed work there is will become more online as time goes on.

Do you have any plans for future artwork?

I keep adding to and amending my own private gallery and before I’m through with this career there will be my own version of Venus in Furs – it’s practically complete and only needs to work out the details of publication. Finding a friendly gallery for a personal exhibition remains to be fulfilled.

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Explore more in Sardax, The Secret Garden Illustrations.