Reclining Spock
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| Fan Art | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Reclining Spock |
| Artist: | Shelley Butler |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| First Published: | |
| Medium: | |
| Genre/Style: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Reclining Spock is an illo by Shelley Butler.
It was the winner of a Philon Award.
"Reclining Spock" was printed as the front cover of First Time #47.
It has a companion piece, the back cover of "First Time" #47, Baby Kirk (Reclining Kirk).
Fan Comments
1998
What a gorgeous Spock. The pose is so seductive, and even better, it is actually him, in the series, lounging like this...and we know who he is really looking at, don't we? I love the way his hands are. Not just clasped, but as if he's playing with them, all his sensual energies contained right there...for now. Shelley does Spock's hair so exquisitely, too. I want to bury my fingers into its thick silkiness. [1]
I liked both covers of this zine, but as a Spock-lover, I have to confess that even though Kirk is nude on the back cover and Spock is clothed on the front cover, the front cover is my favorite. I’m not sure exactly what Shelley intended, but when I look at the front cover I imagine that Spock is sitting alone in private (his posture is more casual than we see in public), and he’s just decided that he has to tell Jim he loves him; I think he’s a little worried (from the way he’s holding his hands), but there’s something about the way his lips are shaped which makes me think he’s pretty sure things are going to work out well. (If you don’t like that interpretation, then try holding the zine open and pretending that Spock is simply leaning toward the goodies portrayed on the back cover!) [2]
One of Shelley’s best pictures of Spock, this pencil drawing shows him in uniform reclining on his right elbow, his hands partly clasped, his expression somber. We all know where we’ve seen him in this pose before (with The Romulan Commander from The Enterprise Incident) but it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to think that maybe he’s with someone else .... I especially appreciate the absolutely correct angle of his head with the torso, what must have been really difficult considering that Spock is leaning back from the viewer and over to one side. The tilt of his forward shoulder is also just right. For some reason, the shadowing behind him catches my eye too in a very pleasing way, a sort of visual echo that enhances and doesn’t detract from the center of the picture. It hints that there are layers upon layers to this being, some of it hidden, waiting for the light .... About the only thing that seems a little jarring to the eye is the excessive delineation of the hands. They look like the hands of a very old man with too much light on the tendons. Spock does have very large hands — (okay, how many of you immediately thought of the Old Wives’ Tale about big hands? Confess now!) — but this method of shading them brings them too much to the forefront of the picture. The little hitch to Spock’s hips is very provocative. Wish Kirk were in this picture too .... [3]
A wonderful rendition of Spock on the couch of the Romulan Commander’s quarters from The Enterprise Incident done only as Shelley can. I have no idea how she does it, but you can almost touch the velour of Spock’s uniform and feel how soft and silky his hair is. Very few artists can do texture as well as Shelley can. I love the light/dark contrasts, and the detail of the sinews and veins on his oh-so-expressive hands. This is the stuff dreams are made of. [4]