Interesting things can happen all the time. Hello, nice to meet you all. I’m an artist that goes online by many names, but you can just call me Zek. I’m from Honduras and I have been drawing nudes online for only the past 4 to 5 years.
Ever since I was a child, I used to draw. I never quite understood why but I always had some fascination with nudity; it was obviously innocent but at the same time it was something that marked my future years. I remember drawing a lot of nude bodies when I was 6, I fell in love with Renaissance painting and sculpture and, as a matter of fact, I used to watch Dragon Ball among other animes, which showed full nudity in some of the child characters. So that is how different art forms got mixed up in my head. Fast forward a few years, and I was discovering certain art communities online, for example Deviantart.
Many readers of this site may not be familiar with modern Japanese art styles. Japan is unusual in being well-known for allowing things like nudity and sex in some of their cartoons, but not all animes are sexual or feature mature material. I don’t normally draw in the anime style; I have done it, but isn’t my usual inspiration.
This was an older drawing of mine in an anime-like style. Adelie is a young alien girl who appears in my favorite episode of the Space Dandy anime. There’s a Japanese term used to describe young girls in art like mine, Loli or Lolicon. Of course I draw a lot more but this site focuses on young female artwork.
There are very few art sites that allow you to really draw nude young characters. I was honored to be allowed to write for Pigtails in Paint. This must be one of the most peculiar sites I’ve visited.
Even with the censorship I usually needed to put to my works, you can easily find people willing to insult and hurt you and your work; it’s always part of defending your ideals.
As you will see, I like to experiment and try new styles and techniques. I include mostly works from this year because I’m improving still and only wanted to include what I feel is worth it.
Let’s start with my drawings.
Winnie Werewolf is a young cub who appears in the Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) movies. The movies inspired me to draw her. She was sincerely adorable in both movies. My first one became the most famous drawing of this set, so I decided to make the second one for Halloween. I spent a lot of time experimenting in a more traditional painting style, even though both drawings are fully digital.
On the internet there’s a subculture called “Furry Fandom” and their members are called furries. Many furries like mature or suggestive artwork featuring anthropomorphic characters (characters that are both humanoid and animal, but are able to think and feel just like humans). I don’t see myself as a furry, but many artist friends and most of my followers are furries.
This next drawing was a small experiment I want to repeat one of this days. It’s a humanized and younger version of a villain from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series. This is one of my favorite fast drawings.
Another character I really like is Master Tigress from the Kung Fu Panda franchise. There’s a short TV special featuring her as a child. I wanted to draw her while she was having some fun undressing, probably before taking a bath.
The goblins are naked by this age according to some folklore tales. They are characters created by a friend of mine and fellow artist who goes by the name TheMushman. Examples can be found here and here.
Now Camilia (“Milly”), is a character created by a very talented furry artist, Brian Christy Burke, better known as Drake Fenwick. There’s a backstory for her. According to Milly’s lore, when children are left in the malls they become the mall’s property and are forced to work for whatever store payed for them. Milly was owned by a store very similar to Hot Topic. She loves to wear Gothic clothes and do any type labor for the store. On my picture she is holding some small discount banners to attract customers. She is featured in only a few online comics. This drawing had different variations. In this case, Milly is a Goth young girl who likes to be topless in public places.
I was considering not including this drawing because technically this character isn’t a child. She’s already a full adult, but even so her body is anthropomorphic in a way that makes her torso still resemble a dog, which gives the young-looking illusion. Yet I believe her design looks young enough to be featured here. She was created by my good friend Tchaikovsky.
As a small tribute to Goya. One of the most influential nudes ever made is known as La Maja Desnuda. I wanted to make my own interpretation of it since I was a child. I made a Pokémon my model for it, and couldn’t be happier with the decision; that give a fresh look to it.
How could I complete this without at least one of my own characters. And since everything here has been digital, I thought it would be good to show something done on real paper. She’s named Raindrop Roses and even if her profile and backstory says she’s centuries old, I believe there’s a place for her here. I have a lot of plans for this girl—even a future comic.
Let me conclude this with my most recent girl drawing. She’s Shadow, one character from the webcomic The Monster Under the Bed. When the comic starts she’s only 8 years old. Her design really made me draw her on the very first night I discovered the comic. She will grow up to become a great monster-woman, but I wanted to show how nice she is already.
And this will be all for now. Thanks for such an opportunity. I’ll be working on more art in the future, maybe if people have an interest, I could talk with the staff and post more. If you have any questions just leave a comment or look for me in any of my pages (also here, here and here).
This is not the first time comic style art has been posted on this site. Ronxerox has also been on Pigtails in Paint. Personally, I like Zek’s art and enjoyed this post. I don’t like Ronxerox, did not enjoy those posts. However, this is intended to be an educational site, and both Zek’s post and the Ronxerox posts are important for that reason. I believe that both should be on Pigtails in Paint. Fans of Roy Lichtenstein would dispute the contention that comic art is not “fine art”.
I am sorry for being negative, but I have respected this site for a long time. It has been an amazing source for exploring the history of girls in art.
This post is to me an unfortunate turn. All over the internet, when it comes to artsites you get washed over with this kind of imagery.
Don´t get me wrong, I like anime/manga, but just not mixed in with “fine art”.
Without necessarily doing any qualitative comparison, I believe there is a virtue in making distinction between different artistic expressions.
And my love for anime and manga, or other popcultural phenomena, aside, I think anyone attempting serious artistic study quite easily can identify the art in this post as severely lacking in “artistic merit”.
I make a small disclaimer here. I use citation marks here to point out that I am not trying to be elitist or naive enough to not acknowledge that my views are not universal or some kind of absolute truth. Fine art is to me more of a handy label that diluted too much will make any discussion about art (quality, merit etc) quite pointless.
My view is not that one thing is good and one thing is bad, rather that there is a semantic value in separating apples and oranges even though they are both fruit.
However I stand firm in my opinion that the art in this particular post is subpar and not really doing “popart” (if I may call it that) any favours. Although it is of course quite interesting to get to hear creators talk first hand about their work.
Just my thoughts. I hope my meaning comes across even though English is not my native tongue.
Thank you for your comment. I figured an explanation may be required for this post, but in this case, you have a misconception about the purpose of this site and the function of art.
The mission of this site is to offer portrayals of little girls in the arts and media. That might include almost any form of expression and although quality is often a reason for inclusion in this site, it is not paramount. The notion that this site covers only “fine art” is erroneous. That is a peculiarity of our founder’s (Pip) background and education and would naturally be reflected in his contributions. It was my intent here to signal that this popular art form is as welcome here as a plethora of others so long as it has merit and contributes to the discussion. You say this work has no artistic merit, but art is not in the product, but in the need of the artist to produce it. In reading the text, you will see that he was strongly drawn to the nude form which compels him in this way. He should be given the space to sort this out in his mind so that he may continue to develop. I also like encouraging initiative. This blog is a lot of work and I don’t want Pigtails to be like so many other art institutions and only support artists they are sure will make a big splash and a lot of money. Young people should be given their space and not slapped down based on phony pretenses just because they do not fit the mold of what society believes an artist is.
Now if you have a suggestion for a particular artist or artwork, I am willing to listen. You should make such a request in a private email. But it should be understood that to make this request a reality, there needs to be someone versed in the subject matter to do it. I am not and it will take time for me to become so or to find someone competent willing to make a substantive contribution in anime, manga or other expressions of Lolicon.
I am skeptical about your contention that English is not your native language, unless you had someone else write this comment for you. Thank you again for your time. -Ron
The name Pigtails in Paint was chosen by the site’s founder, Pip Starr, and it reflected his personal inclination towards painting. But with new authors, the topics expanded to other classical arts (drawing, sculpture, photography), but also to cartoons and comics, to movies and TV documentaries, and finally to social topics such as the girl in advertizing, or the political use of the girl image. Therefore any visual material involving girls falls within the topic of Pigtails, as long as it is accompanied by an intelligent discussion.
I liked several of Zekrom’s pictures, I was in favour of including something about his work.
Sorry for replying to this so late;this is the artist here. I can also say that English isn’t my native language either.
You see, I also like the fine and more professional artworks you can find here, but in the core art can be a lot of things–you don’t need to be a professional to be an artist, and not everybody will like your work. It’s always part of the process of being an artist. Yes, I’m not professional but I want to become one. I honestly find your comment very disrespectful.
I have been studying art on my own unlike many of the important artists you do respect. Of course you have to be great to be remembered and they have amazing artwork that are still known today. Anime, comics, cartoons–all are part of society and the derivative arts are extremely misrepresented. More sites should do like Pigtails and let more young artists express their ideas. I know many amazing artists capable of doing incredible things.
Some people today may become the artists that the art schools of tomorrow will use as examples; nothing is written yet.