Tickle Artists #27: Interview with KimmoTK

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

Hi! I’m KiimmoTK, I’m a freelance artist from Southern Europe. I’ve been drawing since I was very little, always SFW stuff, but it wasn’t until 2018-2019 that I started drawing fetish stuff. Before I started drawing for fetish I was from the shadows for years, never interacting with people in the community, I just gave likes and little else. It was when I started doing vanilla NSFW that I got the bug of “Hey, I like this, why don’t I do it too?” and, well, here I am.

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

In my younger years I used to use paper and pencil, but that quickly went away when I got my first digital tablet, much more comfortable and less cumbersome with the eraser. I’ve gone through all kinds of digital drawing programs, from Paint Tool Sai 1, Sai 2, Photoshop, Krita, etc… But until recently I couldn’t get the hang of using Clip Studio, there was something that prevented me from using it comfortably. That went away until recently, when I started to use it seriously. I still find it hard to understand certain aspects of the program, but I think I know how to handle it well.

If we’re talking about artists… Well, I have a few. I’ll start with the tickle fetish ones. We all know who Kusujinn is, of course we do, haha. But I also have to mention WTFeather, his expressions are a delight. PolarBearNSFW‘s situations he puts his characters in never disappoint me, Caroo and PawFeather with his expressive and representative style! I also can’t forget Cadomiumu, an expert in tickling muscular gentlemen….

As for vanilla NSFW, the first place goes to KukumomoArts, I’ve been following this person for years and I love her way of drawing anatomy and poses, definitely a great recommendation… Especially if you’re bisexual (wink wink)!

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

Since I was quite young, I always liked to doodle on the table or class books, my father bought me lots of notebooks for me to fill the pages, I drew a lot of dragons and creatures. I don’t remember very well the age when I started to draw, but I do remember when I started to do it more seriously, maybe because on my adolescence, 14-15 years old, there wasn’t a day that I didn’t take the tablet to make a drawing (no matter how bad it was).

As for the fetish… Well, as I said in the first question, I started seriously in 2018-2019, I always saw my favorite artists and I was bitten by the bug to do it too… and I was very well received! I don’t think I’ll ever regret posting my first drawings on DeviantArt.

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

I definitely have two, that’s why I can’t decide hahaha. I love scenarios where a person is kidnapped to get information… And what better way than tickling? It doesn’t leave any kind of mark and is insufferable to even the toughest of people.

But, I also like scenarios between couples. Many of my followers will already know me for that, I have a couple of fish OCs that I draw constantly, I think I’m slowly earning the nickname of “that fish people artist”, lmao. The thing is, tickling a couple is always a strong point for me, the intimacy, the fun and the eroticism of the moment… It’s something that gets me.

Now, if you mix those two: couples and interrogation, you get a really nice mix of what I love.

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?

It depends on the drawing I’m doing at the time. If it’s an interrogation, I like to express the confusion/fear/hysteria in its various faces – a lot of people have already told me they like the way I depict emotions, I take that as a cool compliment!

In general, I like to depict a bit of everything in my drawings, the twisting of the posture when you get tickled and want to protect yourself, the moment of the outburst of laughter, the embarrassment that the ticklee goes through, the superiority that invades the tickler. If you know how to interpret them all well, you can come out with a very recognizable work!

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

Unreal situations, always. As far as I know, there are no crazy machines that can tickle various parts of your body with various tools (If there are, tell me where, I need one for… scientific research). Joking aside, there are several aspects where I consider that drawing/writing trumps something more than videos of real people, and that is free will to the imagination. The situations with magical tickling, mechanical tickling, etc. The kind of torture you can subject a character to. What if the person being filmed fakes or exaggerates their reaction? Well, that doesn’t exist in an illustration, because whoever drew it wants that person to be really ticklish. And sure they will.

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

Well, it’s a somewhat ambiguous question. There are people who like it for different reasons. There are people who like it because of the humiliation it involves, or because there are feet (or any other body part) involved, or because of the bondage the person is subjected. Tickling can be combined with many types of fetishes, that is well known. That’s why I think it can attract so much attention.

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

Well, you got me there. I’m quite indecisive in this area. Having changed my style so many times over the years that I’ve been drawing in the fetish, it’s impossible for me to choose any moderately old work because of the self-imposed demand that I usually impose on myself. My critical eye makes an excellent exercise when it comes to finding fault with old drawings that prevent me from enjoying them as other people do. That’s why I think that the ones I’m going to choose are recent, but I’m going to tell you that what most attracts my attention and makes me feel proud is the situation in which I put a character and how I represent it.

The drawing of Lois I did recently was one of the ones I’m most proud of, her twisted posture, her expression of hysteria and fear, the good anatomy of the body and hands. Overall, I find it, in my eyes, the best drawing I’ve done to date.

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

I would like to improve in the dialogues. It’s something I notice that I limp when I’m asked to write something or I have to do it in a drawing. I think I’m improving in that aspect, but I’m still raw. Anyway, the usual, improve in anatomy, postures, expressions, etc…

I would also like to learn how to animate better. Even if it’s hard for me to animate, I think that at the end I get a very good product that people like a lot.

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

As an artist, I have strong opinions against AIs. I know it should be a tool to help artists, but sadly it hasn’t ended up that way. It has ended up for people who are afraid to pick up a pencil and go through the same process that every single artist in the world has gone through. The fact that a machine transforms your words into an image does not make you, in any case, an artist. Especially, if that art or style of art you reference on the machine is being taken from a real artist.
But back to the question. Neither yes, nor no. AIs rely heavily on the concepts and art that artists produce to create content. If artists don’t innovate, neither do AIs. AIs are not capable of thinking up a new concept appropriate for the fetish on their own, they simply copy and paste something that is already done. So, to put it this way. They won’t innovate unless the artists do.

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