MARTIN’S MAGICAL MAIDENS

Interview by Scrambles

If you've opened a magazine, picked up a comic, or even bought a case for your killer axe you have most likely seen the work of the mightily talented Martin Abel.

Probably best known for his stupendously sexy Pin Ups, Martin is an artist in the truest sense: dedicated, passionate and straight up jacked on nicotine and coffee. When most of us were still savouring the strange candy produced from our nose, a young Martin had rendered numerous depictions of his favourite characters Thomas the Tank Engine and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By 11 he had a gig drawing a short comic strip for the local paper. By 11 I was convinced I was a Velociraptor.

He is now living the dream, working from home and nursing a swelling portfolio of personal works, illustrations for magazines and comics as well as a merciful undertaking of private commissions for us lesser folk who can’t draw.

Being a great fan of his work I sat down to talk with Martin about pinups, punching aliens and just how bad new Metallica is.

Martin, thanks for finding the time. Are pin-ups your preferred style?

While I can create artwork in any number of style and subject matter; and often do for the agency I work for, pinup girls have been a passion for some years now.

Would you be happy if people identified your art work with pin up over any of your other creations?

Most people know my work through the pinup girls I create, which I am totally fine with. Eventually I want to really get into storytelling, comics and children's books. There is so much unexplored territory, but for the moment I haven't quite finished with pinup girls just yet.

Thank God for that. Any strange or memorable requests for commissions?

I run a little project called 'Headshots' which are basically just caricatures of people they can use as their Facebook display picture and so on. The most strange commission I have had fell into this category, he gave me a few photos to work from, one of which being himself talking to socks on his hands…

I think I know the man you are talking about, his name is Mick and he is not quite right you see.

[Laughs] It was extremely weird, but I had fun doing it. I basically could not stop laughing.

Apart from that, there were always some weird things to draw for Picture magazine when I worked for them. I was creating the reader letters illustrations entitled "My Best Fuck" etcetera, we had some pretty wacky stories I had to illustrate back then.

Back to your pinups: Do you feel your girls are "perfect" examples of the female form, both artistically and as a physical representation?

The perfect female really is a personal preference. What I find perfect might differ from other people. I definitely have a vision of what I find to be perfection, sometimes I get it right and other times not as much. Female perfection is a very hard thing to capture.

To be honest, perfection to me can be more about personality and character, so when I create a girl who just stands out from the rest, it is a really good feeling.

So you try to inject a little bit of a different personality into each girl you create?

It can be pretty easy to get into a routine of drawing similar girls, but every now and then I think '...Wait, I need to put some more character in this.'

Alright, I have to ask: Do you ever get aroused by the images you create?

[Laughs] People have asked me this before believe it or not. And the answer would be a definite no. Sure I find things attractive and sexy, that is what pinups are about, but to me it is more about beauty, and the beauty of creating.

Ok, so what is your favourite part of the female figure, artistically speaking of course?

My favourite part of the female figure to draw would be the eyes. But then again hips, thighs and collar bones can be very sexy too…Honestly; I'm in love with every aspect. Oh and I guess boobs and bums are ok.

What are your wife’s feelings on your art, particularly your pin ups?

She loves them. Its one of the things that brought us together as she is quite the talented artist as well, and she loves to draw girls.

She is always helping me when I am unsure about how a pose looks or a girls clothes. Actually, with the clothing aspect she is very helpful, since I don't wear women's clothing…And she does. So she knows more about it than me.

Have you kept your first drawings of Thomas the Tank Engine and the TMNTs? Would you ever show them to the world?

You raise a very good question here, and I think I am going to have to search around my parent’s house. I know my dad always keeps stealing art from me and hiding it away. So maybe I can find some really super old drawings, Id love to show them off it would be pretty funny.