Maxart1

Checkout the Female Bodybuilder artwork of MaxArt1. You can contact him for commissions at maxillustrator1@gmail.com

 

 

The Dark Fantasy Female Muscle Art of MJ Hiblen

MJ Hiblen isn’t a traditional “Female Muscle” artist, but you’d never know it from his oversized muscle beauties. His style of grotesquely oversized arms on pop culture comic, movie and horror icons has a beautiful yet nightmarish quality. MJ has created artwork for The Walking Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and talented Soska Sisters.

“I’ve been creating paintings, drawings and concepts for a very long time. It's my passion and what makes me tick. Along with helping others it is something I very passionate about. Supporting myself through a day job, I've always created new work, be it dark fantasy art, satirical cartooning, or recently, children's illustration and pop-art.”

Check out more of his work at www.mjhiblenart.com and www.patreon.com/MJHiblenArt
All artwork © MJ Hiblen

Muscle Motion

Check out the video morphs of Sporting Girls over at DailyMotion.

Artist Spotlight on Hardbodies

French artist Stef also goes by the name Hardbodies, and for good reason. His comic illustrations of muscle women for sites like Amy's Conquest have a detailed style, focusing on the bodybuilders as women first. A multi-talented artist, his gallery showcases work in various mediums and a wide variety of interests and inspirations.

I wanted to get to know Stef a little better and sat down with him to ask a few questions.

• What do preferred to be called?
Well, Stéphane is my real name, you can call me Stef.

• When and where were you born?
I’m born in Salon-de-Provence in the South of France in 1972

• Where do you currently live?
In a small village few kilometres from the city where I was born.

• What are your interests, hobbies or passions?
I always been interested by drawings and comics, of course not the comics you think about but “French comics”, even if I have read some American comics when I was young, in the late 70s. My other hobby is modeller. My apartment is full of military and sci-fi miniatures! And I play history miniatures wargames too… I’m really crazy about miniatures!

I’m interested also in history, architecture, American cars, sci-fi… I have so many things to do, 24 hours days are not enough to do all!

• Do you have a job other than producing your artwork?
I only make artworks in my spare time, it’s not my job even if some years ago I have done comics professionally. I had problems with my editor and I chose to stop and change job.

Now I’m a magazine graphic designer and also journalist in military history. I’m “specialized” in American Civil War and Russo-Japanese War.

• How long have you been an artist?
Well, I began to drawn some pro stuff in the late 90 but if you ask when I’ve started to draw, I can say that was at 4 or 5, and I didn’t stop since this time.

• What inspired you to become an artist?
I don’t really know. My dad was a bit an artist too, maybe I’ve seen him drawing. And perhaps Japanese cartoons inspired me a lot in this way. I loved TV Japanese anime like Great Mazinger, Captain Harlock or Captain Future… Muscular women came a long time after. At this time, I didn’t even know a woman can have big muscles! Even if I was greatly impressed when I read the first issue of She Hulk!

• Do you have formal art training or education? Where?
No, I’ve learnt by myself. My parents didn’t want me to do a school art lol!

• What artists have influenced you?
At first, Zebodoi, in the 90s, before web. I’ve bought some of his artwork at Athena2, a French shop in Paris. There was another guy in the late 90s, early 2000, on the web…I can’t remember his name but he was famous at this time. Oh yes! Scoundrel! He was everywhere and now totally disappeared… Technically speaking, my influences come from classic comics, mainly French, Italian and Belgium artists. I grown up with Japanese Anime but those didn’t influence me much I think.

• What type of artwork do you create?
Most of time my artworks are very comics style. I like to do all sort of things, mostly Sci-fi or fantasy things. When I do “Muscle Art”, I like to do funny, glamorous or erotic stuff, with often a fantasy touch. My characters are often sci-fi or fantasy characters, I liked the idea of hijacked Panthers such as described in John Norman’s "Gor" and to turn them into wild and very muscular jungle warriors.

I like to do “porn” things sometime, it’s quite rare but it’s funny. I prefer my women being quite realistic, I don’t like much “oversized” muscular women and I don’t draw very well this sort of thing.

• What is your preferred medium?
Pencils, markers and paper! I do colors on computers because it’s the easy way but I don’t really enjoy that. I prefer classic methods!

• Do you have a favorite subject matter?
Woman! It’s the most beautiful subject in the universe! :D  I love classic pin-up girls, and I like to draw muscular girls in the same way. It’s how I like really drawing bodybuilders: showing they are women first.

• Describe your artistic style:
Detailed, too much detailed sometime. Even if I have done more than one hundred pages of comics in my life, I’m still not really satisfied with my work.

• Is there something that makes your artwork special?
Hmmm, no, technically there is nothing special. The only special thing is perhaps the way I show female bodybuilders. Most of the time, I want to show them like women, simple women but with a little particularity. Yes, of course, I do fantasy stuff, but then, the characters are not bodybuilders, they are warriors, wild Panthers or Sci-fi soldiers… It’s a bit different.

Perhaps it would be interesting to ask to people who like what I do, they would give you the right answer! :)

• Who or what are your inspirations?
My inspirations often come from my Women Physique World and Muscle Elegance magazines, my main models are Denise Masino, Lindsay Mulinazzi or Annie Rivieccio. Of course there are others but I often use pictures from these women. To be honest, my very first model was Annie, she always looked awesome.

• Can you describe your creation process and technique:
I imagine a scene and when I can really “see” it, I start to do sketches. I use a light box and I can make many sketches before I can find the right drawing. Then I do a more detailed drawing, always with a pencil and my light box. Then, I can ink the final work from this detailed drawing.

• Was there one artwork or event that was a turning point in your career? Why?
Not really an artwork, but an event, or two. When I discovered female bodybuilding in the late 80s, first, I was amazed! The second time was when I bought a Bill Dobbins book. That was in 1997 I think and I started then to draw muscular women.

• Have you received any awards, prizes or other fame for your work?
Ahaha! No! Of course not! I’m just an amateur. I receive congratulations and encouragements from people who like my art, it’s enough for me.

• Is there one of your own works that's a personal favorite? Why?
Hmm, maybe the drawing I have done for the Freya website. It combines beauty, femininity and strength. And I like the “Mucha” style.

• Do you have any future plans or ideas you can tell us about?
About “female muscle”, I will go on working with “Amy’s Conquest”. I can’t do more. My days are not long enough to do more! :D

I’m working on a comic, something I do for my own pleasure (and maybe self published later). I want to mix my love of the 70s era and old American cars.

The story will be a sort of “Starsky and Hutch” stuff, about two cops, a man and a woman, in the Los Angeles of the 70s. it's an hard work, especially to make the atmosphere and appearance of the streets of Los Angeles at that time. And the fashion too!

• Anything else you would like to add?
Yes, thanks to all people who support me :)

See more of Stef's work at his Harbodies DeviantArt page.

Artist Spotlight on Lyman Dally

 

Lyman Dally was a skinny and bullied kid from New Jersey that liked to draw. He later began lifting weights and eventually became a competitive bodybuilder. This opened his artistic eye to anatomical structure, detail and movement - qualities that still influence his artwork today.

Lyman is best known in the bodybuilding community for his Max Rep™ Mr. Astrotitan 2206 cartoon series which ran in FLEX and Muscular Development magazines during the 1990's. This mostly self-educated artist has taught at the prestigious Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art and lectured on muscular anatomy, using live female bodybuilders for examples. He has also created over 5,000 editorial illustrations, book illustrations, storyboards and created popular cartoons for MAXIM magazine.

After Max Rep ended, Lyman began creating award-winning art around his passion for wine, and started an online comic series called Living with Les. You can see more of Lyman's work at Lymandally.com Wine art: Oentourage.com Online cartoon about the economy: Livingwithles.com

He also revived Quadra-Blu as an ongoing webseries in 2011 at quadra-blu.com.

Artist Spotlight on Joe Jusko

Joe Jusko is among the top Fantasy, Pin-up and Comic artists in the world. He is known for his realistic and highly detailed paintings in and out of the comic book industry.

Joe was born on September 1, 1959 on the lower east side of New York City. He began drawing early in life, inspired by his brother and a love of comic books. He drew constantly, saying "All my friends were out playing baseball and football, but I just couldn't keep from drawing." He was accepted into the prestigious High School of Art & Design in NYC, the only high school in the country focused on careers in commercial art. By graduation his work showed professionalism, polish and he won the DC Comics Award of Excellence in Cartooning.

Instead of College, Joe began a five month apprenticeship with artist Howard Chaykin. This led the 18 year old to selling his first painted cover to Heavy Metal Magazine. "I would have given them the cover to print", laughs Jusko, "but I gladly accepted the $250.00 they paid me!" After a few more covers, he gained the courage to contact Marvel Comics. They gave him a shot which started a relationship that lasts to this day.

in the early days, there wasn't enough of work to support Jusko as a full time artist. For several years, he worked as a NYC Police Officer in the South Bronx. He loved it and while the diversity and action was exhilarating, he ultimately knew that art was his true calling. After that, his career began to take off.

Jusko went on to create hundreds of images for almost every major comic book publisher. His work has appeared on book covers, calendars, posters, t-shirts and toy packaging. He also worked with ad agencies on storyboards and campaigns such as the WWF's Wrestlemania VII. He had a long run as cover artist for The Savage Sword of Conan and has painted every major Marvel character. With his multi-award winning paintings for the Marvel Masterpieces Trading Cards, Jusko has been credited with starting a trading card boom in the 1990's. This led to his groundbreaking and prolific art of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creating art based on every major book by the famed author.

Jusko has earned countless awards and honors and continues to work. His recent graphic novel, based on Lara Croft, won a Certificate of Merit from the prestigious Society of Illustrators. His original paintings are held in collections worldwide and the book "Art of Joe Jusko" was released in 2009 to rave reviews. He says, "When I consider where I come from, and how few people actually get to live their childhood dream in their adult life, I feel nothing if not fortunate and very, very blessed."

See more of Joe Jusko at www.joejusko.com

Artist Spotlight on Bad Attitude Ink

Jose Ivan Negron AKA Bad Attitude Ink is a cartoonist, currently living in Brooklyn, N.Y with his lovely wife, Rebecca and their cat, Shmucky. Jose has been drawing since he could pick up a pencil and hasn’t stopped, except to indulge his addiction to video games and movies. He studied art at The High School Of Art And Design, in N.Y.C and graduated ultimately from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, having won the Mark Rothko Art Scholarship that year, one of only ten students in NYC high schools to receive the scholarship yearly. He also took classes at the School Of Visual Arts and Parsons School Of Design on weekends and summer vacations. His friends thought he was nuts for going to school in the summer and on weekends, but quickly forgave him when they learned he got to draw naked girls in his life drawing classes. He now does work under the moniker Bad Attitude ink and still draws naked girls every chance he gets!

I took a minute to find out more about Jose and his artwork.
• What do preferred to be called?
Jose is fine. My friends called me Joe and Red when I was growing up. I had red hair as a kid. It’s a little reddish gray now.
• When and where were you born?
I was born March 12, 1966 in a little town in Puerto Rico called Aibonito. I moved to the states to live with my mom who had remarried and moved to New York when I was 4 years old.
• Where do you currently live?
Brooklyn , New York. In the Brighton Beach area also known as Little Odessa because of it’s large Russian Community. I really like living in this neighborhood.
• What are your interests, hobbies or passions?
Well, there’s art, obviously. Has been my main passion since I could remember. I was so passionate about art as a kid that I came home crying one day because one of my classmates told me I couln’t draw. Made me SO angry to be told that. I am also a serious video gamer and an absolutely huge movie buff. I watch all kinds of films. Big budget, low budget, Direct to video stuff. I love movies. I still love comic books but don’t read them as much. They have gotten stagnant over the years and just seem to be recycling the same stories over and over again. I mean, really, how many times can you re-tell or re-interpret a characters origin ? I do read a lot of trades and still follow the work of some artists, though.
• Do you have a job other than producing your artwork?
Yeah, unfortunately, I have a “Day Job.” Not that I don’t count myself grateful to have a job in this economy. I just wish I could draw full time and not have to do something else. On the other hand, I work for some very cool people who give me a lot of freedom, so I am very lucky in that sense. Oh yeah, I work from home too, so that is a bonus !
• How long have you been an artist?
I think I was born an artist, so my whole life. Even as a kid, before I knew what I was doing, I gravitated towards images that caught my eye. Once I put pencil to paper, it was all over. That was all I ever wanted to do. And let me tell ya, I did that at a very early age . LOL.
• What inspired you to become an artist?
Comic Books. In a nutshell. Which is why I still love the medium even though I don’t really read them anymore.
• Do you have formal art training or education? Where?
I have a scattershot type of formal art education. I studied and took classes at various schools but never graduated from an art school. I went to high school at The High School Of Art And Design in NYC. I didn’t do so well there academically.
It was a very rigid environment. Not very conducive to being a creative person. It really felt more like military school to me. Also, I had a couple of teachers who were basically just collecting a check. They would tell you that you were making mistakes but when you asked for help, they would walk away. I got the feeling they were trying not to share their “secrets of the trade”. I was really unhappy at that school. I left there and basically dropped out for about a year or so and then went back to school at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn. I did really well there, my head was in the right place and academically I did very well. I had some great teachers who “got” me and motivated me in a way that I never got from going to Art And Design. Through my whole high school career, I still took weekend and summer art classes at Parsons School Of Design and The School Of Visual Arts.
• What artists have influenced you?
Gil Kane. He did an issue of Spider-Man when I was a kid that absolutely, positively floored me. It wa an issue where Spider-Man was fighting Morbius, The Living Vampire and The Lizard both. Amazing work. Just so much energy and the anatomy on the figures was insane. Gil Kane just blew me away. Also, John Buscema, John Byrne, Frank Frazetta, Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, whom I didn’t really learn to appreciate until I was older. Nowadays, I love the work of Travis Charest, Frank Cho, Mike Mignola, Alex Ross, Ryan Ottley and Adam Hughes. From the “real” art world, I absolutely love Mucha, Tiepolo and Rockwell. Every artist who has done good work has inspired me at one point or another. I really think you need to be open minded to influences as a creative person. If you close yourself out to a variety of work, I think you short change yourself and your art. I met Marshall Rogers, who had made his name on some issues of Batman with Steve Englehart, and althoug he didn’t influence me in the way that the other artists I mentioned did, he influenced me by pointing me in the right direction. I met him at an old Creation Con back in 1981 and he took my sketchbook, full of scribbles with absolutely no direction and sat with me for nearly two hours, telling me what I was doing wrong, what I needed to learn and what books to use as resources. He didn’t ask for a damn thing in return and I went home with a sketchbook full of Marsshall Rogers’ sketches and roughs. It was one of the most helpful experiences in my life and for that I will always be grateful. I heard he passed away a couple of years ago. Well, for what it’s worth, he left a legacy. Seriously, a great guy.
• What type of artwork do you create
Straightforward comic book art. I dabble around with digital painting and such but I stick to what I know and believe I do well.
• What is your preferred medium?
Paper, a 4h pencil lead and either Pitt Artist Pens or Rapidographs. (Tech pens for those of you that don’t know what Rapidographs are :D ) I color on my PC with Photoshop and a tablet. I’ve dabbled with Corel Painter, which I think is awesome, but mostly use Photoshop to color.
• Do you have a favorite subject matter?
Women in genre settings. Always strong female characters in either a sc-fi, horror, sword and sorcery, fantasy or action type of setting. I love drawing that tye of stuff. I love drawing women.
• Describe your artistic style:
I have a comic book, illustrative style with some graphic design sense. It’s bold, with strong lines and a heavy graphic bent. I always try to create the best design I can with a character as a central focus. I guess that’s the best I can do to describe it. I think other folks do a better job of describing it, actually.
• Is there something that makes your artwork special?
Visually, I can’t say. I don’t think it’s any more special than work created by other artists but it is special to me in that people like seeing it and have been supportive of me doing it. That makes it really special for me.
• Who or what are your inspirations?
The artists I mentioned in response to an earlier question of course. But movies, music, video games and books all influence me in the way I work. I listen to movie soundtracks all the time while drawing, and there are plenty of times where a game influences me to a point that I need to pick up a pen and draw something I saw in the game.
• Can you describe your creation process and technique:
Yeah, definitely. I usually don’t do any layouts, because they ruin the flow for me and make me bored with a project before I even get halfway through it . LOL. I prefer to just go ahead and draw whatever I’m supposed to be working on. It allows for more spontenaity and freedom. I normally sketch out the image in 4h pencil lead, tighten it up a wee bit with the same 4h lead and then whip out the inking materials. I use Pitt Pens, Tech pens and a Pentel Artist Brush for heavy black areas. That’s it. Oh yeah…I wear headphones and have Itunes playing my music. That’s really a part of the process. Who knew Itunes could be an art tool ?! LOL
• Was there one artwork or event that was a turning point in your career? Why?
Yeah. The issue of Spider-man I mentioned being drawn by Gil Kane. Also, Buscema’s Conan and John Byrne on just about anything he did in the 80′s. These guys were just the best at what they did. Seriously. Other guys have come along who are doing terrific work now, LIke Jim Lee for example, but when I was growing up, these guys were just awesome to me.
• Have you received any awards, prizes or other fame for your work?
I actually graduated high school having won a Mark Rothko art scholarship. It was an award that was given to 10 art students in NYC high schools every year. The best part for me the year that I was a recipient was that no one from The High School Of Art And Design won. I kind of felt vindicated after having left that school in a miserable state. Here was some kid from some local, neighborhood high school winning the award and no one from the big, high falutin art high school won.
Awesome. I know it sounds petty. Just let me have that one, okay ? LOL.
• Is there one of your own works that’s a personal favorite? Why?
Nah, not really. I have images that I like. But I always find things wrong with my images after the fact and I just move on to the next image. I just like drawing.
• Do you have any future plans or ideas you can tell us about?
Well, I am supposed to be doing some work for an adult oriented web site, which if all goes to plan, I should be getting some script pages for either today or within a day or so. I also have a friend on Deviant Art that I work really well with, who is an amazing colorist and I am working with him on a series of prints and some other things. We have discussed doing a muscle girl inspired web comic and some other ideas but something always keeps popping up. Fortunately, it is art related so I can’t complain. I would like to establish myself enough so that I could do some comic conventions and genre shows and just meet fans and shoot the breeze with them. I would love to do everything from Comic Con to the Chiller convention. I love all these genres and don’t want to be or allow myself to be pigeon holed as just one type of artist.
I’m doing a lot of muscle girl work. I sort of just fell into that. I was hired by someone on Deviant Art to do some muscle girl commissions and the rest is history. Next thing I knew, the visits to my Deviant Art page started increasing and I started picking up a lot of Watchers who were muscle girl fans. It’s been the best thing that has happened to my work as far as exposure in years. The muscle girl fans have been the most supportive and loyal fans I have met and they have been great for my work. I am really grateful for that. The cool thing for me was that when I was younger, I was a fan of female bodybuilders like Raye Hollitt, Corey Everson, Rachel Mclish and Lisa Lyon. So these folks were just bringing me back to something I enjoyed when I was a teenager. I am definitely going to keep doing muscle girl related work.
• Anything else you would like to add?
Ummm….2 plus 2 equals 4 ? Oh wait…that’s not what you meant. Sorry. Yeah, I just want to say Thanks to my wife, Rebecca. She’s been the best thing that ever happened to me and the most supportive of my work since I first met her. So yeah.. Thanks sweety :D
• Where can people find out more about you?
I pretty much just stick to my Deviant Art account, which is badattitudeink.deviantart.com I don’t have a Myspace or Facebook page as I already spend an inordinate amount of time on Deviantart and would probably never get anything done if I had pages on those other sites. I do have a blog at badattitudecomics.net

Artist Spotlight on Zebodoy

French artist Zebodoy is obsessed with muscles on women and draws them massive and ripped. His muscular detail is almost medical textbook quality and he pushes every muscle fiber to a size and definition only capable in the fantasy realm. The minimal earth tone color palette and ominous, angular faces give his artwork a rich and unique feel.

Little is known about Zebodoy, but he cites his favorite artists as Frank Frazetta, Brom, Travis Charest and Alex Ross. Besides Women’s Bodybuilding (and Andrulla Blanchette in particular), his other interests include drawing comics, science fiction and dark fantasy.

His website is now gone, but you can check out his DeviantArt page for more.