His black & white illustrations are mainly focused on the gay leather scene, displaying the archetypes of homo erotica. Other projects like “Cybersissy” and “Baboes” show us a more lighthearted and even humorous side of this artist.Most of his drawings show us gays in various roles, covering quite a lot of the typical urban gay iconography. From the leather boy, to the chained slave all the way to the cowboy riding his wooden horse. The men on display, in different stages of arousal, are exaggerated and masculine, they wouldn’t be out of place in the next marvel comic.
Unlike many other digital artists, Roland Maas achieved to maintain a vivid and even tactile feeling in his drawings. Quite often images created with the “digital toolbox” are clean and rather predictable, but not this time. His multi layered images are build up nearly spontaneous and he achieved to make the vectors, that make up the drawing, become a style element instead of just a visual translation.
Besides his illustration work Roland Maas is involved in many other projects. The mentioned “Cybersissy” is one of them, it shows a drag queen’s surreal flirt, with herself and the camera. Although these images have an hilarious aspect, even absurd, theres also a more confusing and disturbing layer. Like in the Barbie doll scenery where the Queen looses her head, and puts on tiny breasts. A fragile perspective on changing gender and switching identities.
