Menswear Demo for Lamont

My friend Lamont asked me to do a digital illustration demo in his class, and while I liked the sketch I did well enough, I wasn't so happy with it that I had to tinker with it after I got home, and this is the result.

The demo was done in Lamont's technique of using a reference photo, and deriving the form from there. I couldn't use my normal preferred brushes since they weren't loaded on to the demo mac, but I did like the brush i used and wrote down its name on the sketch, for future reference.

Student Works 3

Made a few more adjustments. Now I wonder if I should do all my students' work?

Mr. Pond 4

I've shortened the torso a bit but also experimented with different underwear for something more designed. Although I think this is too much now and maybe should confine it to his waist area.

Student Works 2

I decided to draw the face in more. I rather like how it looks like it could be a real peson with a heavier chin than I normall draw.

Student Works

One of my students showed me a jacket he  designed and is selling on his newly minted website. I was inspired to draw it but I'm not sure if this is okay to do and mention them by name? Although it's out there in the public eye because it's on a public website.

Charcola Pencil and Ruffin Brush in Photoshop.

Kneeling Porn Pose

I was watching porn as one does (in my line of work, it counts as research! Yay!) and a performer got into a position where he was leaning over another performer, but I liked his stance a lot so I took inspo from it and made it into a solo pose.

TJ and Nick

I went to draw the tandem long pose at Mark Beard's salon for the first time. For those in the know, the NY gay artist community has several silos, and Mark Beard's intimate salon events in his lavish studio in the Garment District have become somewhat legendary as part of the NY art scene. And because of the models who pose there, it's seen as possibly the most exclusive. Years ago I eschewed going there because I felt like I wasn't A-list enough, but to be fair to me, I was also less interested in a nude model drawing session since I was more into fashion illustration. And with my enthusiasm for both TJ and Nicholas of late, how could I avoid drawing them posing together? They're quite the pair of handsome boys, both tall and super friendly.

The Mark Beard sessions with two models are fairly standardized, with a long pose of two models posing in 4 swathes of 20 minutes each, which is challenging because you have to not only get each model's proportions right, but then there's getting their proportions right in relation to each other. I wasn't so happy because I think I didn't get Nick's likeness as well as I have in the past, but to be fair, you only have one chance (and I gave myself an extra drawback of using a pencil that doesn't erase well, not to mention the fact that I refrained from using my electric eraser because I didn't want to disturb people with the sound). But all that said, it was an okay result.

Mr.Pond 3

I am tooling and retooling this face because I think I have to strike a balance between getting a good portrait and making a good drawing—sometimes the two are mutually exclusive! AndI think getting his likeness from this view required certain views of his facial features that I thought detracted from his handsomeness. There's something very retro 50s about how he looks, like in a Sean Connery level of intensity. Maybe it's his eyebrows and forehead shelf?

Anyhow, I added a studded leather...well, what would we call that? It's not technically a brief. Is it a chastity belt? A cock ring belt? A crotch harness? I'm wading in BDSM territory here without a real clue, just a tendency to design super hero clothes that look fetishy haha!

Mr.Pond 2

This one is coming together more easily than I expected, but now it just behooves me to get the right balance between fashion illustration sketchiness and finished, detailed sketch. I'm also thinking, is the reveal of his penis base enough of a come hither, or should there be something very leather-y and surprising underneath? I feel like it should be the latter, but maybe then teh necktie loses the ring element, which was the surprise. Or does he end up with nothing but leather accoutrements since this is a leather story? Hmm, now that i write this, maybe that's what I need—lots of design elements of leather inspiration...

Half Nude Model 7

This guy is getting the better of me. I keep trying to retro-fit arms that I just imagined into position, by posing and finding references and all that, but it just doesn't feel right yet. This is the current version. Yeah, not there yet either.

Nick Head 3

I shot the model without any mask on, and am just drawing it in. but for whatever reason I am drawing in his eyes completely to make sure I have him right before I apply the mask. It feels like a waste, but I kinda feel like it's necessary to get the parts right. Almost like how I will draw a full body underneath a figure after I've created a clothed fashion sketch.

Nick Head 2

What's funny is I'm drawing the eyes underneath the mask, trying my best to make it look like him before I cover it all. I sort of believe it will inform how I apply the mask since the shadows and highlights will work with those, but I also think I'm just being obsessive.

Anime Color

I was pulling out old drawings to see what I could do tests with, and my "Scarfy Christmas" face became the right guinea pig for a color test. I'd been watching episodes of the second season of "Go, Loser Ranger" and noticing how they use a muted lavender shade for shadows. intrigued because of the possibilities for an Illustrator based drawing style—plus I always loved anime coloring— I did this test.

Illustratored Ladies

Nope, it's not a typo—I drew these gals completely in Illustrator, so they're "illustrator-ed" and I'm definitely developing a drawing technique for using it.

Nick Head

Another part of the series that I had to reshoot Nicholas for, and it's his face head on. He's got great features (ruggedly handsome, as my friend Rainer said when I sent him a link to Nick's website) and after having lunch with him today, I found out he's much more willing to do racier stuff, ao I'm pretty intrigued by the future possibilities. This is a qick rough though.

Fashion Faces 2

 

I manipulated the Lululookalike (or so I hope) a little so her chin was better positioned. and I changed up the guy's face too although I have no idea what his ethnicity could be now.

Fashion Faces

I was experimenting with fashion faces from imagination, and trying to channel some of my favorite new women's models like Lulu Tenney, but I'm still sorting things out. I also did a fashion figure with what I imagine can be a more Middle Eastern male face, but I really am just guessing. I should do portraits from photos first and learn the facial features.

Nicholas 04.13.25

Went up to my talented artist friend Francisco's apartment in the UWS (well, pretty much Harlem, really) to draw Nicholas again. I might be overloading on him but I'm still drawing Ernesto after 16 years so maybe not! Anyhow, we had a really good session  starting with some 5 minute quickies, and longer poses that lasted from 10 to 40 minutes because we could extend as needed.

Nicholas always has such a welcoming attitude and it just feels good to draw him because he's so enthusiastic too.

Blue Walker 4

I decided to give him hidden drama, i.e. a lot of tattoos, and pre-bleaching green hair.

3 Minute Duck (in Crocs)

It's been a while since I did a timed, silly drawing filler post!

Model Drawing Demo 04.10.25

I made a mistake when I went back in to reline teh sketch with a softer pencil...I drew in a hair on her jawline but it was really a badly drawn jawline. Ah well, such is life... it wasn't bad for a demo introducing them to fashion watercolors

Contort, Done

 ...and ready for Instagram! I thought it was gonna be a quick publish but typical me, I went in and repeatedly tweaked faces, shoulders, back, even peen.

Blue Walker 3

The irony that it's harder to flesh out the supposed croquis form over the finished/dressed form on the same structure—doesn't escape me. But I keep retooling the body and especially the hands, to make it look like a realistic pose without the clothing.

Mr.Pond

My nude model Nicholas' next pose of the series he posed for. I think my problem was he wasnt really bringing the poses as a model, so I had to direct him to get into good looking poses. That said, I found teh poses I made him do to be my typical poses I've drawn multiple times, so I'm not keen on redrawing them. So I put some clothes on on one of them and it looks much better.

Contort 3

Yup, developing this one further, as it might be next to post on Instagram, because it's an easy in.

Contort 2

I used the base body from the other day's drawing and completely retooled the arms. It's a more commonplace pose but I like how he seems to be, ahem, feeling himself.

Contort

Another doodle, but this time I contorted the arms to be in very posed positions. I think I should develop this further.

Blue Walker 2

It's weird to develop the croquis form AFTER I do the finished figure, but I don't actually do a template when I draw—I just render and correct as necessary. So oddly, it took me longer to create the right form for this body AFTER I made teh finished sketch. Maybe it's because it's nude and I don't draw fashion proportions for nude bodies, so I'm constantly fighting with my urge to make it a sexy nude versus a fashion nude.

Footclap, Done

I finally tweaked all the things about his legs and waist and even head, little details no one but I would notice. So it's published now on insta.

Leather & Fur Demo

Today's model drawing class was about rendering leather and fur. I did a 10 minute demo but was not happy with having to rush two techniques...and I think I drew her hair too high. Ah well...

Although before class I thought I'd make a new demo piece for my samples PDF, but it went nowhere...

Half Nude Model 6

I am having trouble with the arms, and how they react to teh body. Lots of things are just not gelling for me here, except for the face. And then I thought, what if I just use the face in a more fashion illustration and crop it off here and concentrate on the body? Well, it works better, to a point: I still need to fix that anatomy, which isn't quite right yet but I'm not sure how to fix it.

Next of Nicholas

I figured I'd jump right into the next sketch, but that said, I'm not sure this pose is the right one. It's just the next best photo I took that has potential. ugh, the problem with drawing for someone else more than my own vision. I'm not even sure why I'm doing this...?

Well, let's unpack that. I suppose it's the hotness of the model and the curiosity of, well, he wanted to do something more erotic, let's take a look at that and see where this goes. And I used to draw a lot of hard(er)core gay imagery, so it might be a good time to investigate again and say it's the model's inspo (versus me just drawing erections out of my head, which I'm not really interested in). But I do find that this isn't my usual space, which is the softcore approach of, "what if Playboy was done with men instead of women" poses. Maybe that's why I'm pausing right now: I got the hardcore one out of the way, and now I feel like, it's done, I did it, and m not sure it's my space. But I think I committed to a triptych in my head so I need to do at least a couple more...