Tickle Artists #57: Interview with TheVerdantHawk

1) Do you want to tell us something about yourself and your art?

My name is Arthur. I’ve been involved in the tickling community for several years now. I have been drawing for much longer and started showcasing my art on an old GeoCities site. I love drawing and writing. I’ve been writing for much longer.

I am mostly self-taught, but I do pick up techniques from others and have received advice over the years on how to improve.

I am currently writing my story called, Verdant Hawk, which is hosted on my website. I have been working on this project for decades, developing my characters, and creating artwork about them, which includes fetish art, of course!

2) What techniques do you use to draw? Do you have a favorite artist that inspires you?

I mix it up between sketching with a mechanical pencil in my sketchpad and scanning it or sketching it in Paintool SAI. I always do my line art in Paintool SAI and then I color it in Clip Studio Paint EX.

My favorite artist who has always inspired me from the day we met is my lovely partner, Helladelicacy! She not only inspires me artistically but also as a person. I grew a lot as both an artist and a person because of her. We collaborate in both love and art.

3) How much was the passion for drawing born in you? And the one for the tickle?

I have been drawing since I was a little boy but never thought I could do it well until I started again in about 1996. This is when I started to refine my technique.

As for my tickling fetish…, that came to fruition when I saw Don Turtelli tickling April’s feet on the 1987 TMNT.

4) What are the tickling scenarios that you prefer to draw?

My favorite thing to draw was always F/M! I also love drawing Hella’s and my characters interacting via tickling scenes! I also love drawing my character, Celeste, tickling men’s feet, but she’s down to tickle women, too. Hahaha!

5) What are the aspects of tickling that you intend to represent with your art? Example: the laughing, the wriggling, the relationship between tickler and ticklee?

I find the best ones I have done are telling a story with my tickling art and showing the connection between the characters. I did that with “Club Tickles”, “Tickle Treasure”, and “Robin’s Pet.”

6) Online there are countless photos and videos of tickling sessions. In your opinion, what do illustrations offer more than images of real scenes?

They’re not confined to a box (no pun intended) but you can think outside the box and explore many ideas that may not be able to be executed in real life. The imagination is limitless and there are so many possibilities to unearth.

7) In your opinion, what makes tickling so interesting for fans of this phenomenon?

It’s a way of tormenting someone and it can be cruel, humiliating, loving, or all of the above, depending on the connection between those involved. I believe most people in the community got into this because this was the torture method used in Saturday morning cartoons.

8) What are your works of which you are most proud?

Right now, “Tristan Tickled”, “Club Tickles”, “Tickletober: Deimos”, “Ivy Ferraro”, “Deimivy Tickly Fun”, and “Celeste’s A-MEI-zing Treat.”

9) Do you have any particular artistic goals for the future?

I would like to do more personal tickling pieces with both my and Hella’s characters, especially pieces that tell a story.

10) Do you think AIs will end up enriching or impoverishing the art of tickling representations?

With how uncanny and ugly AI art is, I highly doubt it. How can a machine know what is going on in your head? You can put in a prompt and it won’t be anything like you imagined. That and you’re going to see four toes on one foot and seven on another.

Art comes from within and it comes from the soul. There is no soul in AI; this is why AI “art” is hollow, soulless, and horrifying.

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