When I initiated this theme I did not anticipate quite how many contributions from different artists I would uncover. I do not know the identity of the artists in the first 3 examples, so if anyone can help out I would be most grateful.
The Diabolical Horse (artist unknown)
This group of pictures travels a long way from the original, simple wedge device in search of added excruciation (if that's a real word!). This must be one of the most inventive, an obstacle course that is absurdly challenging. However, the simple drawing of the victim at rest is surely one of the most convincing representations of the basic wedge effect, he is well and truly grounded on the apex of the 'horse', you can almost feel the pressure! The solid sides of the horse contribute greatly to the 'splitting' effect (compare the picture below)
Treteau (Trestle) - artist unknown
By the same artist, this is a more basic modelwith added destabilising effect.
Again, it's beautifully simple, sometimes less is more!
There's clue here that the artist may be French - any ideas, gents?
Dildo Horse - artist unknown
We saw the dildo variant of the wedge in my A-Z article on Swordman, I'm not sure whether the wedge actually contributes anything to the torture with the dildo acting as go-between and you can see in this picture that the victim is actually raised above the wedge. Compare with the first picture above. I'm not sure what the outer dildo's are for, unless this is a wedge made for three! Actually, you get the impression that torture is not the primary object here. Having said that, it's a nicely rendered image with good body detail and an appealing facial expression. I feel I ought to know this artist but I'm afraid I don't. The drawing style and vibrator detail suggests Japanese origins to me.
Nowid50 - The Pain Lover
This contribution belongs to the kitchen sink school of torture (as in everything but the kitchen sink). The serrated saw-tooth top edge of the wedge is certainly original but slightly odd as a static device. I like the leg stretching and arm pull-back ideas, but hate the nose ring. As you can see there are some anatomical challenges for an artist trying to pull off this pose while working purely from imagination (at least I presume he is!)
I quite like this picture as a composition so I won't slate it's technical flaws, but it does illustrate the pitfalls of rendering as a technique. In a way it's the computer-aided equivalent of my first example in this post. Naive but rather interesting.
For other posts in this series click on the 'wedge' label below