Happy New Year! 2024

I spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not I would say Happy New Year this year. There's so much politically going on that I wonder if it will actually be happy? But then I realized, the greeting is a wish for happiness, and that's definitely something I would wish for because of all the political tumult.

I started drawing at 11:55 am until past midnight, on these two boys leaning into each other...

And this marks my 18th year blogging, omg...

Babaå

There's a new label I discovered called Babaa (not sure how to type the line above the last "a") and they have these great big unisex sweaters, so I thought I'd draw one.

Leather Jacket

So, this doesn't look like the title at all. Lemme explain: I wanted to draw a guy ONLY in a leather jacket (hence the penis), but when I had the idea that he looked like he was in a nonchalant pose that begged a second model, it suddenly turned into a more sweet, gay narrative. But there might be a leather jacket in there in future...

Scarfy Christmas, Done

I kept the top part of teh head and kinda changed everything else, and it was working so we=ll I finished it and posted it on Insta.

Scarfy Christmas 3

Maybe I abandon the actual face and scarf and start from scratch...and that croquis pose is looking better already.

Scarfy Christmas 2

I'm trying for the contemporary faces again—wider noses and fuller lips. But while it's looking right, it just looks too contemporary for my liking! Ugh, I can't seem to escape my own aesthetics. Maybe an eventual penis will detract properly from his face haha

Scarfy Christmas

Merry Christmas! I am trying my hardest to comceptualize a Christmassy post for Insta, but I'm too distracted by actually celebrating Christmas this year—I have 4 different groups of friends to deal with! First was Erwin last night, with our usual ramen Eve. Today it was dimsum lunch at Hutong with Greg, Charles, Mieko et al; and tonight it's dinner with my next door neighbors, a last minute invitation to have dinner. After last year's snoozefest, I'm happy to accept invitations!

Anyhow, he's a guy in. scarf,m possibly with the scarf extending down to his crotch to (slightly) cover his dick. But it looks too fashion right now...

Random Inspo Sketch 6

I always draw a quick face then refine it late. In this instance, I wanted to try a more contemporary face, with a wider nose and smaller, fuller lips. He's looking too much like a young Val Kilmer for my liking though.

Plus I'm not doing too much since it's Christmas Eve and I've been busy figuring out presents...

Random Inspo Sketch 5

Refining the pose a bit. as well as the head. I always default to a standard Gozum head, whatever my muscle memory automatically lets me draw. But I also realize that look can be a bit dated so I tend to go back in and refine things, which is one of the beauties of sketching digitally. In this case though, I wanted that early 90s look, with teh wavy hair that just seemed so Ralph Lauren and desirable (I think that's where my longstanding tsunami hairstyle back then emerged from)

Random Inspo Sketch 4

One of the accounts I follow recommended a vintage menswear account that I didn't realize I also followed, but who don't show up on my feed because all I click Like on are next-to-naked men. So when I went to inspect them again, I got inspired by a photo of a guy leaning on a ledge...and I immediately deconstruct it in my head to be naked lol. But that's kind of a niche I've leaned on, analyzing clothed poses and extrapolating the body underneath.

Random Inspo Sketch 3

I saw a model looking heroic on Insta, fully clothed. And as is my wont, I imagined him naked, or partially...in this case, I'm wondering if a pair of pants being undone is apt here...?

Random Inspo Sketch 2

Just developed the sketch from yesterday a little more... it's an inspiration sketch because I saw a similar pose online and forgot where, but I was left with the idea of the pose and had to get it on pixel. Plus lately I love drawing that kind of hand hanging limply from a wrist...or as my fellow compatriots at D.G.Williams/La Rosa used to call it (or was it the Saks people?) The Claw Hand.

Random Inspo Sketch

I love drawing a properly seated pose with spread out legs—I suppose it's because I see so much of it in porn, but at the same time, I think it's provocative in fashion because it's wide open legs for chrissakes! Even if you don't show anything or make it look sexual, I feel like it's sexual no matter what. Plus there's something about a lean stomach slightly bent that gets me going.

Footclap

Ernesto was hanging out on my couch after a session and he was on his phone in his underwear, with his feet sole to sole on the couch. I just noticed it after months and how cool of a position it is, so I anted to get it started as a possible sketch. Lots of possibilities and nothing finished lately.

Bendy 5

Trying to refine this to post on insta, but I find myself wondering if I should post something more Christmassy...I'm kind of too busy with the holiday to finish anything properly.

Floor Squat

I might be using the wrong term here—is it a squat if you sit with your legs on each side like this? I could never do this, and I always marveled at people who could even back when I was a kid. I think we used to call this piké, although now that I think about it, pike might be the other direction inward. Anyhow, I started and ended this drawing in a day, which feels quick but I have to remember that when I draw from life or a photo, it's easier and takes less time composing, and more just rendering. It's such a great way to work, I miss doing it more... but thankfully, my friend Ernesto has posed for a number of positions for me, that I have archived as photo references, and this was one of them.

After Ronan 3

One more. After I draw the forms, I start manipulating them as paths, and Illustrator IS an illustration program after all.

After Ronan 2

I have to say I'm really enjoying these...

After Ronan

I've slowly gotten surrounded by Ronan Bouroullec's drawings. Last year it was seeing them in the beautiful Issey Miyake collection that featured them as prints. Lately I had seen them in EQ3, decorating the walls of their store/showroom in Chelsea, and then oddly enough in a video of a Japanese kid's vlog about his life in Japan, where a print of Ronan's shows up in the wall of his apartment.

This past week I found out that EQ3 was closing its showroom in my neighborhood, and I wondered about the frames and later, the prints that I had admired while just passing though. I didn't realize they were all connected, and upon noting the artist/designer's name in the little credits near the frames, I resolved to buy some if they went on sale, which they did. By the time it reached 90% off, I had bought 3 different versions that they had had on sale, for a few dollars each! I don't even have teh wallspace so I have no idea where these are going...

Anyhow, BEFORE I got to buy the prints, I thought, well, I can't afford them all so maybe I'll channel what I like about them and use them in making new prints, but using some Illustrator techniques I recently started experimenting with. I debated whether to consider them drawings, but I did use my Wacom stylus and Illustrator's pencil tool to make the original lines that were filtered into these gradients. It was originally going to be a feather but I kind of went off script...

Bendy 4

Retooling this head and wondering if I really want him on the the bendy nude, or if I'll just take it and make a new, fashion illustration body for him? Hence the more fashion-y haircut on the right...

Bendy 3

I decided I think I should do another white guy. But I realize that since I freehand it, the proportions are always off and I need to go back in and fix things. His head is not quite the right size...

Bendy 2

I'd been retooling yesterday's drawing's face, and thought I'd try an Asian guy. But then I thought, this might not be the best pose for him, as it implies being submissive, which is an Asian stereotype I don't want to encourage. But I thought the face turned out okay, although I do tend to draw the same kind of Asian, when I was hoping for someone who looked younger and more genteel...

Bendy

I saw a model on Instagram doing this kinda yoga pose (I don't know what you'd call it) wearing only a pair of jeans, and I thought this could be a good pose for someone naked, as it would show off the ass in a way that almost implies bottoming (yeah, this is how my mind works). So I put the image away, and then drew from memory and imagination. I don't think the anatomy is quite right so I plan on asking my friend Ernesto to model it for me to get the muscles in proper order (plus he has a nice ass lol).

I like the guy's face but not for this pose. I might do a separate pose and drawing just for that face...

Beary Joey

My friend Joey had a baby shower today, and instead of buying the baby something I decided to just paint a little drawing of a teddy bear but wearing one of Joey's menswear pieces (he's a menswear designer). I did it all in watercolor and colored pencil, which I really should have photographed, so here's a digital simulacrum as stand-in.

Lean On Me 2

I tried to flesh out the form more but in this instance, my proportions are all off. I managed to create the relationships with the head and the shoulder a bit, but it's really off still, and even more so with the body. Maybe I'll just go to a photo reference...

A Single Line 2

I was looking at my Single Line fashion sketch from the other day and wondered if my proportions were even correct. Sometimes the illusion of the perfect distillation of something is dispelled when you try to complete it as a drawing and realize that proportions were all off. I though that maybe the pleats were too far in from the side, but after I made the opposite line, it's not perfect but it works. Whew! I was afraid I was gonna lose faith in my sense of spatial relations...

Lean On Me

Especially if you look like that! Saw a pose online that reminded me of when a nude model was hanging out post-session and he was leaning on a surface naked while checking his phone...and I decided to take pics of him in that pose (he let me, btw). Although this guy is leaning on a higher surface and I'm not sure it looks so natural...

Bearded In Repose

After yesterday's post's exercise, I thought I'd try a nude, but it ended up being more than a single line...and that's fine! I really like how it turned out. It was originally inspired by OnlyFans model sebleblan's mustache, but I decided to make him bearded just to change things up on my feed. I also made a toweled version just in case Instagram's AI/algorithm get trigger happy.

A Single Line

As a challenge to myself, i started sketching and then I set parameters that i cou;d not life the stylus until I was happy with the sketch. And I was happy with this!

Inspired By 5

I decided he needs a friend in a very Fashion, "we're walking in two different directions" placement.

Inspired By 4

One painting style I see often and I like doing my own version of, is a man's face with prominently red noses and ears. I love how that look feels boyish and possibly sexual at the same time. Strangely, my reds were pretty bright to start with but by the time I stopped painting this in this style, it all had muted down...

Inspired By 3

I wanted to experiment with my watercolor style again, with some other brushes, and see how this face ends up. Line work is always different from full color, so I was curious to see.

Inspired By 2

If you go back to the beginnings of this blog (all the way  back to Jan 1 2007 yo, you'll see how much my style has evolved over the. past almost 18 years. One of the things I'm proudest of is how I draw faces now, as I can identify key moments in my life when I started drawing differently after practicing, experimenting and observing more. Since I like to draw faces without copying from pics, they're certainly not as realistic as one that is based on a photograph. But I like to think my imagination and hand has evolved to the point that my faces look like they could be drawn (ahem) from real people.

With this one, I'm proudest of how his lips protrude. It's such an odd thing but I just feel like it looks to me to be as believable a face as ever, compared to the many faces I've done before, in that particular part where the cupid's bow meets the fullness of the top lip.

French Boy in the Train Light

On my way to Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Erwin's place on the UES, the trains were pretty empty and my car just had a French family of 4 (Or maybe French Canadian, I could overhear them talking). Anyhow, the one son was really well lit and I kept thinking, you need to remember his facil shading. But then I remembered I could actually draw it, since I had Procreate Pocket on my iPhone. The original study wasn't great, so I made a Photoshop version the next day.

Inspired By

 ...Stavrinos, but not in the way that you think.

I haven't been inspired to draw much lately, but reading about the life of one of my faves, George Stavrinos, I felt inspired to try and do something good. And this was a doodle that started to feel more nuanced )I loved his nose and lips) and that led me to refine him more. I think he could look like a contemporary male model of that very young-looking type. And this is just my line style using a new Grut brush (well, new to me—I have not used the P Borrowed Pencil Hi in a drawing that I can recall) so nothing like the Stavrinos style. Just that I was inspired by Stavrinos's story.

Sitter Form 2

After the initial idea, if I'm not particularly set on refining it to an extent that I feel is post worthy, I often leave things to be reworked later. So, this is that later.

Sitter Form

Several posts on Instagram (and porn!) that I was browsing through showed a guy naked and leaning back on one arm. Of course, in the porn his other hand was , uh, getting busy. But in this potential Insta post, I just want it laying there, covering his nethers somewhat.

Ruddy Flush 2

I know models look younger but I'm trying hard not to make him so twinky.

Ruddy Flush

I got an image in my head of a dark blue outline filled in with a very vibrant pink nose and eye. This isn't turning out quite like I imagined but it's not bad

Find Joy 2

My clients wanted a few changes so even if I haven't gotten a full decision on their project this year, I went ahead and retooled it a bit, thickening some lines, cleaning othes, and adding a new character while retooling an older one.

Stance 2

Was thinking a swoop of color (inspired by the brushstrokes or Ronan Bouroullec) might be a good finish for this pose. Plus I retooled his feet.

Behind 2

I was wondering if it would be better to see the guy's face as well as his hands, so I tried an over the shoulder look...he reminds me a bit of 90s model Erik Etebari...

Stance

Still on a dancers kick, I wanted to do something on a profile with spread legs, and just for the form of it. I dunno if this will develop into something further, but it's an immediate line...

Behind

I love poses where you see a man's hands from the back, as a lot of dancers often do some great things when their hands are the only things you can see on their backs. I saw a few from the dancers I follow and it ins;ired me to do something similar, just on a whim.

Find Joy, Too

I always offer a few variations for clients to select from, so I also did an updated version of my Polar Bear Hugging Penguin card of 2017.

Find Joy

I have a client who asks me to design a non denominational holiday card each year, and with teh results of the election bothering so many, I thought I'd encourage people to find the joy in your everyday lives, inspired by the holiday title of EQ3, a furniture store in my neighborhood, but twisted into a pseudo New Yorker cartoon.

Near Naked for Insta

I took a break from Instagram posting because of the elections, a hectic class sched, and most of all, a reticence to post another nude since I think IG is on high alert with the elections, and they censored one of y cut paper pieces, which is obviosuly NOT a real nude. Ah well, anyhow, I thought this guy would be apt with all those factors involved (after 2 weeks of not posting).

Gym Guy's Hair

 There's a handsome, hot guy who goes to my gym and looks a bit like Chris Evans with a buzz cut. I was observing him under the lights and noted how his hai had an interesting shadow pattern, almost like that of a sphere (if it was a hairy sphere). So I made note of the patterns and attempted ot draw it from memory.