I don't think I've ever featured Muscle-Morph Art on this blog before but it's a genre I have a soft spot for. The underlying idea of taking a man and physically altering him to accentuate and improve his 'best bits' is a very appealing fantasy and has a respectable literary ancestory. I suppose it's also akin to the 'transformation art' I have occasionally featured here.
This article features the work of 'Builtbytallsteve'.
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| Builtbytallsteve - Big Stick |
'Big Stick' is an archetypal sort of morph with fairly extreme exaggeration of certain parts of the body notably shoulder width and thigh thickness. That creates a wasp waist, adorned and accentuated here by a skimpy black brief. The clumpy boots emulate Japanese cartooning styles but balance out the rest of the image. It's topped off by a very cute face. Placing this idealised creature in a place of physical work adds a sexy frisson.
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| Builtbytallsteve - He knows what you're looking at |
There are similar ingredients at work here but the clothing plays a bigger role, accentuating the altered body shape. 'Builtbytallsteve' has an eye for bubble butts and the skimpy cut and tucked in crack he has produced here looks incongruously provocative on such a big man. Somehow, alluring dress seems to contradict hyper-masculine muscularity. The chunky thighs and elongated legs bring out that skimpiness all the more.
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| Builtbytallsteve -Kolt |
The morphing here is much more subtle, a general reshaping of the body that creates an impression of bulk but retaining what appears to be normal proportions (except for the bulge in his pants!) The model's youthful smoothness has been retained, it's usually lost to muscle definition in gym-honed bodies and the result is strikingly seductive.
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| Builtbytallsteve -Over The Top |
Talking of muscle definition! As you might expect this artist is drawn to extreme bulk and highly defined muscular bodies but this example is about as far as I go with him. I'm drawn to the pec enhancement here more than the legs which though big seem shapeless. However there's an appealing submissive air to this man. Finely shaped, youthful faces like this don't always seem a natural fit with massively developed torsos and you can sense a sort of apologetic awkwardness in his face and bowed head. The muscle-flexing, hands behind back posing stance, normally powerful-looking, has been relaxed by the artist's intervention into something quite passive too. Add some wrist shackles and you have a fine captive slave!
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| Builtbytallsteve - Ripped Torso |
You may remember the photo on which this image is based. The erotic downwards plunge of the torso, framed by an off-the-shoulder jacket was always there in the original, but the enhancement of the model's upper body muscularity accentuates the tapering effect and gives that cocky 'come on' look added impact. Irresistible to muscle fanciers.
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| Builtbytallsteve -Tight Blue Shirt |
The artist has transformed a modestly attractive image here but manage to retain believability. For me muscle looks it's best when it's bulging out of clothing like this. The enlarged, button straining pecs and biceps/short sleeves combo is masculinity personified.
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| Builtbytallsteve -Texas Cowboy |
Which I suppose is also true of the muscular cowboy. This picture features similar effects to the pictures above (cute face, big biceps etc) but is relatively light on visible musculature. However the artist's manipulations here have drawn out the inherent erotic appeal of the jeans and boots. It's also produced an unexpectedly interesting, opening-out effect with the bar-straddling crotch which now seems engaged in an interesting relationship with it's support rail.
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| Builtbytallsteve -Happy New Year Boys |
The morphing here is far from obvious but the tongues are an inspired ingredient, a perfect foil for the voluptuous bodies of these two young men. The artist pokes fun at muscleboys' tendencies to mutual adoration but for the excluded, outsider looking in it's still highly erotic just to watch it (in the same way that straight men get off on lesbians doing their thing). Nice.
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All gay artists have the power to create idealised men to populate their work. There is something deeply erotic about this process that is usually much diluted in the final product. Morphers have the added bonus of working with real men (at one remove). The downside for them is that mistakes or miscalculations, particularly with faces, can sometimes produce Frankenstein-ish results. Morph artists like Aquadude and JoeR create excessively, painfully beautiful men and then punish them. Looking at builtbysteve's work however there is little sense of that sort of urge. Neither the images themselves, not the captions allude to anything which we might can fetishistic (except for occasional images I found on his blog where his muscle hunk is caged or chained). This artist must experience the deep satisfaction that comes from creating a new man, but it seems his motive is simply and refreshingly, just cheerful admiration and lust.
More power to his elbow!
For more visit builtbytallsteve's blog and builtbytallsteve at Deviant Art