Tickle Artists #97: Interview with Ned9091

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

I’m Ned9091. I’ve always enjoyed drawing cartoon tickling scenes for fun, though they were projects I tended to keep anonymous from my ‘real world’ projects. Most of the scenes that I draw depict males in tickling situations (there are some female tickling scenes that I think are great, or hot, but when it comes to tickling in general, using guys for the ticklees just seems a lot more fun and appealing.) When I first joined Deviantart, I was afraid people would think that these tickling cartoons I drew would be too weird, but after spending some time here, my tastes might actually come across as rather ‘conservative’ compared to some of the other things out there, lol!

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

I usually just make a black and white drawing on paper, and then put it on the computer and add color to it, so it’s nothing very complicated or fancy. I am currently reworking a large amount of my older drawings (between 30 and 40) in an attempt at self-improvement, since I think that they deserved far better renditions.

My favorite artist would probably be Norman Rockwell, since I really try to depict that vintage, clean cut, all-American look that he painted (though what I draw is much simpler.) I absolutely love the old-fashioned looks and aesthetics from the 1940s and 1950s, so most of my drawings take place in that era. I also enjoy depicting military characters from that time period, in all different kinds of uniforms (since I am also kind of a vintage clothing and uniform buff.) I know that might look a bit unusual on Deviantart, since most of the characters depicted tend to be very modern looking or anime styled, but I think that it makes my work somewhat unique.

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

I always enjoyed cartooning, but I also always loved seeing tickling scenes in cartoons when I was a kid (it seems that most tickling artists did), so it was fun making scenes of my own when I got older, but then by using my own made-up characters. I also enjoyed drawing tickling scenes of other famous cartoon characters, like George Jetson, Ranger Smith, Tintin, Dick Tracy, J Jonah Jameson and many others. Especially cartoon dads, for whatever reason!

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

Probably the kind of situations that could never take place in real life. Like being tickled by a gigantic tentacled sea monster, or a tickling plant monster deep in the woods, or even an extraterrestrial being using a kind of ‘tickle weapon’ to attack any human threat it comes across.

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?

Since most of my ticklers are retro sci-fi monsters, I try to draw them as though they are frightening, deadly creatures that would not hesitate to kill and eat their restrained victims. But then, instead of that, they suddenly whip out tentacles and vines and tickle them into helpless submission while still retaining their scary appearance. It just seemed really funny that way. What I draw and write is clearly for an adult audience, but I still try to keep things kind of lighthearted and humorous, since I just really don’t go for the darker stuff.

Some of my ‘steamier’ pictures will feature a ticklee that has been stripped naked and getting tickled all over, but some of the ticklees from my other works are still fully dressed while being attacked, since I also found the whole concept of having someone get tickled under their clothes as very appealing. The image of a 1940s/1950s era handsome, well-dressed man in a double-breasted suit and a fedora hat with ‘ticklers’ wriggling up beneath his suit jacket or up inside of his trouser legs (and driving him wild) was so much fun to depict.

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

I think it’s the ability to depict more impossible scenarios than what could ever happen in real life. There’s no such thing as tickling sea monsters or plant monsters, but anything is possible with an illustration. And in a strange way, an illustration of a tickling scene is more ‘real’ than a filmed one. You might see a video online of some poor ticklee being tickle tortured in a roleplay scenario where they’re trying to get some information (tell us the combination to the safe, or you keep getting tickled! ha ha ha!), but you know that it’s all just staged. It’s still fun to watch, even if you know that it’s not for real.

I guess that they really could hold up a bank and then tickle torture a real bank teller for the combo for the safe, but then they’d probably go to prison, lol!

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

I think that Achillesheelart said it best when he mentioned that it was very appealing to see a strong, capable guy being completely defeated by just some gently tickling fingers or feathers. Just the whole idea that something so soft and gentle could bring down a giant and turn him into a helpless, laughing mess. That was kind of the reason that I enjoyed drawing so many military-based subjects and scenes with all of these strong servicemen just waiting to be teased and tickled. Like seeing a slew of wriggling little pink tentacles restraining and tickling a tough, young marine while more tentacles teasingly pull off his dress blues uniform. It’s a lot of fun drawing scenes like that.

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

My favorite picture that I’ve uploaded so far would be -Danger on the High Seas-, which is the first one in a series that depicts a gigantic sea monster attacking an American World War 2 era warship during the 1940s, after which its many tentacles seize and tickle all the servicemen on the ship. This particular drawing is basically the same description that I gave in the last answer: a handsome young marine being tickled into helpless laughing hysterics while more tentacles slowly undress him from his uniform. Just behind him, there are more tentacles tickling a laughing army general by sliding up beneath his uniform, while up on the higher deck is a sailor and another marine about to get tickled themselves.

My second favorite drawing would be a piece of fanart called -Dr James Possible Tickled-, which depicts Kim Possible’s (one of my favorite cartoons as a kid) father stripped down to his boxers and then restrained and tickled by a kind of feathered torture device. I always had a thing for cartoon dads, but this guy was probably my favorite, lol!

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

Probably to just try and spend more time on each drawing instead of just rushing through them, since I am very impatient. When I look at a lot of them, they appear far too simple, and I think they could use some improvement. I had the past habit of becoming so dissatisfied with my works, that I would take down everything on my page, just so that I could redraw and repost them. I’ve done that twice now, so I think I will just leave things as they are and simply focus on new projects. That being said, there ARE a bunch of remakes I am currently working on, but I will release them along with new pieces when time allows.

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

I am somewhat half and half on the opinion. I have seen some good AI tickling art, and I’ve seen some that was really bad or just far too strange. Like most things, there are both positives and negatives that will come out of it, and while some AI art looks amazing, I think that there is always going to be a demand for art that was just made with pencils and paper, whether its tickling art or any other kind of art. But I have to admit, when I tried playing around with AI myself, the results that I got were just scary, lol!

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