Customer Reviews

The Art of Dave Nestler

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Wow. I don't even know where to begin because there are just so many elements to this book that I just love.

I met Dave Nestler at the Glamourcon in L.A. and looked at his art up close and personal with my own eyes and I had a long talk with him about his art and his book. And I saw with my OWN EYES the originals to these prints in this book, so I KNOW it hasn't all been photoshopped and airbrushed for the sake of mass audience.

He prides himself in doing the ENTIRE book in acrylic. That's right. Acrylic. No watercolor. No airbrushing. No photoshopping. No oil. Just acrylic.

That itself is a master achievement because you RARELY find ANY artist who does erotic nude pinups with acrylic. Most nowadays use airbrushing to achieve quicker effects. But he spends days and days perfecting just small areas. I personally saw a painting of a car where it had a chrome grill on the front of it, and any artist would swear it's been airbrushed and I almost argued with him until I saw it up close. I could see every single brush stroke up close. He was right. He really does do it all in brush.

That being said, is a HUGE achievement for ANY artist. But aside from that, there are many other reasons I like this book and one of the main ones being that half of the photos are of women in poses where they are surrounded by (what appears to be) a form of shiny duct tape or bluish leather ribbon. He has taken a form of bondage and designed it to enwrap the flesh of beautiful sexy women in a way where it defies any bondage you've seen before. He captures the beauty and sensuality of the skin, while putting such DETAIL into the ribbon (and again, he did NOT use the shortcut of airbrushing) that you can see every highlight and detail, you can see the leather as though it is shining right at you.

The first half of the book - pages 1-27 are all pictures of that (with different sexy and original pictures involving light ribbon bondage)

The second half of the book - pages 28-48 are completely different and are not bondage at all and vary from a sexily dressed angel with wings and a halo, a bikini wearing woman in a fireman's hat with water hose, a sexy female vampire, a dominatrix straddling a chair with a leather whip, a woman giving a car a carwash while straddling the hood (and the DETAIL of the car's chrome grill will leave you BREATHLESS!), a woman in a lake surrounded by waterfalls holding a frog, a sexy woman in a safari freaked out by a snake, a sexy semi-nude brunette dressed in army camouflage, the list goes on.

I really cannot stress to you how valuable I think his work is. The fact that each strand of hair is done in acrylic is mind-blowing to me. If I were to compare it to something else, it's like giving someone toothpicks and asking them to build a house out of it. He has done that.

I wish I could give this 6 stars, he is fascinating!

Wicked Intentions is one of the few books I own by Dave Nester and is a must for the library any pin-up art collector or tattoo artist or enthusiast of the female form. His treatment and painting style acknowledges the dignity of the subject matter while creating a seductive hunger that would make Hugh Hefner proud.

With every bit of Nestler's images created meticulously by hand with layered acrylic washes and a small brush, Dave gives credo to traditional craftsmanship that most who celebrate the term "old school" cannot relate to. He proves that there is nothing wrong with the practice, determination and spending 100 or more hours to create a works of art and shows exactly why that patience to create project can go much further than shortcuts will allow.

I had a chance to spend some time at conventions with Dave, and always had a thrill with the conversations and the perspective of this man and reveled in the awe of his work. Dave Nestler is a good man and great artist...with a very small brush. Out of all his books, Wicked Intentions is my personal favorite. This is a must-have for any fan of pin-up art!