Restore 3

Yup, not really feeling him as a nude. Something needs to change and I don't know what...

Restore 2

Trying to develop this face more to my linking, so I changed the eyes up considerably. But I don't particularly like his 'look' in general, at least not for a nude. Maybe if I just use him in a fashion sketch but I'm not motivated that way with this drawing (so far).

Heavy Ink

I have it in my my to revisit my old inking techniques, as drawings to post on Instagram. So I've been experimenting with the Wet Charcoal brush which I'm growing to like, but it does take some getting used to. This guy is kind of a retread of some former poses so while I like his face, I might have to change the body more.

Menswear Croquis Spring Summer 2027

I thought I'd take the time to really learn Procreate so that i could be as well versed in the shortcuts and techniques using it as I am in Photoshop, but in the end I sent toe file to Photoshop and continued finishing it there. I started the figure in Procreate though, but I don't know enough about it to feel confident in my explorations there yet. Or maybe I'm just lazy and resort to what I know best.

Random Inspo Sketch 7

I went searching through my archives for one thing, and found a slew of forgotten other things. I revived this particular sketch because I thought the face was very sensitively rendered, something I have had a harder time with lately. I did a few things to clean up his crotch area, wondering about showing full frontAl or not for IG.

Restore

I'm having a big think about my IG presence and account. With homophobic crackdowns (you'll see near-naked women everywhere, there but post a drawing of a penis and boom, persona non grata) happening, I've torn with doing work to restore my feed's visibility versus just doing what I want. I can't deny it's helped build up my presence as an artist, but I wonder if I do work now to make content for it, or if I;m doing work for myself and hoping the audience responds. This sketch was just an idea I wanted to put out, of a face with a highly contrasty thick black line, but it evolved on its own, and now I;m not sure where it's going because I don't particularly like the look of this face.

Archival Twist, Done (I hope)

I went through so many iterations and corrections of this before I posted it on IG, and I still am not 100% sure I like it as is. But done is better than perfect, I often tell my students, and I can't keep fiddling forever.

Archival Twist 4

I thought he was going up on Instagram tonight but at the last minute I said, nah, he's not ready. I feel like I drew out all the energy in the pose, maybe because I clarified his anatomy by getting in front of the mirror and my desktop cam to provide some references, but in getting the musculature right I feel I lost much of the energy of the pose. Which isn't to say it isn't a fun piece, but I think I'm adding in all those color and movement strokes to make up for the loss of dynamism?

Archival Twist 3

So I've improved the drawing, but at what cost? I feel like the line work is a little more polished (in that undone sort of way that I was going for) yet in cleaning up the body, did I lose the dynamic quality of the pose? I know it can be a give and take and then you sort of negotiate with yourself what the 'finished' piece should look like, but it can also change with time. I was hoping to post this on Instagram soon, but not sure that will happen.

Archival Twist 2

It's been weird trying to retrofit the pose into a figure when I didn't see the actual body. Then I decided to alter the face a bit because he wasn't expressing the right amount of movement. But as a piece I'm not sure where this is going! I feel like the guy I'm drawing isn't quite whom I wanted to cast.

Soft Fat Pencil 2

I hate the face I drew on the guy originally. Well, okay, hate is a strong word, but overall I did not like the result even if I liked some of his features. So I redid his face (along with many parts of him, but we're focusing on the face dammit. So, do I like this one better? Actually, no. Back to the (literal) drawing board!

Soft Fat Pencil

I've never actually used this pencil, to my knowledge, so it was a fun exercise to see if it looked like what a pencil should. I changed the scale a bit and it works as a soft pencil, not necessarily fat. But this is very rough so I'd have to see if it can be worth doing a fuller sketch with.

Archival Twist

I also rediscovered a slew of old picture references, among them a pose of a clothed male model doing this kind of twisted pose, while being shot from below. So I wondered if I could do him naked. I put the image away and purely from memory tried to recreate the pose, and see if I can do it as a nude. And there's that wet charcoal brush in the background again (although I used toe Ruffin brush for the body)

Wet Charcoal

I rediscovered the Wet Charcoal Brush too when I went back on some older files. I've been doing some housecleaning both in my apartment as well as in my backup files. And in the process I'm (re)discovering resources and stuff. This isn't the best sketch but it's a doodle totest out the Wet Charcoal brush.

Mongoose Face 2

I find that when I use this brush it requires a certain level of precision that I'm not always wanting to do. I think it makes me want to make things more symmetrical and orderly, and it takes out some of the fun I have in making more organic drawings.

Mongoose Face

No, he doesn't look like a mongoose, but I'm using the Mongoose Brush in Photoshop to draw him. I haven't touched this brush in a long time and rediscovered it when I had to edit an older sketch, and realized it was done in teh Mongoose brush, which was a fave for a while.

Through The Leather

I wonder if this is going to look obvious enough when I render it fully?

Facing 5

I wonder if this is ever 'done' but I brough her up and cleaned up her hand to prep her for posting on Instagram.

Nick, Crossed

Trying to finish up the series, this time featuring Nicholas on his actual cross.

Mistress Antoinette 3

Trying some little details. Wondered if the spikes are too much since it looked like one of the former Times Square balls that you see at New Year's Eve. Also cleaned up her linework a lot, which is not very visible unless you look really close...

Mistress Antoinette 2

I always thought I'd do a cleaner version for the final, so now it's much more paper doll/comic book. But I wonder if that's not edgy enough?

Soft Mask

I have been trying to think of ways to reinvent kink gear, via a more fashion bent. I always liked the comic book character Drifter's scrap-of-cloth mask, and current fashion designers have been exploring facial coverings, so I came up with an idea for a soft leather version. But I drew it on my phone in the subway on the way to a Fourth of July brunch party in NJ, and it's hardly a crisp drawing. Will revisit more thoroughly in future.

Beach Day!

I went out of my comfort zone and went to the beach with new friends, and I thought to myself, I will try and get some beach sketches in. But in the moment, it was too hard to get quick sketches in, and I found myself trying to be more present with my new friends, while being the loner sketching on a sketchbook. 

I don't love the sketches but they are what they are and not bad.

First Entries

My friends Nicholas and Gillian invited me to join them at Jones Beach on Friday, so I thought I might try and be one of those artists who spend some time sketching people on the beach. I always liked those sketches, they feel like, oh, so cool and idyllic. I didn't want to bring full-on art materials, so I foound a small, unused sketch book and did a test with the pencil I wanted to limit myself to. And this is a sketch also inspired by one of the furniture pieces I found in yesterday's IG wormhole.

Inspired By

I found myself on a clicking wormhole in Instagram, inspired by Phoebe Philo's casting for her entire feed, and then following specific models on to their feeds and other connecting feeds. I didn't know what to ultimately make of everything but I had the feeling for a female model who is better described as handsome and edgy versus pretty. Still don't know what garment to put on her though. This is a bit of one of Philo's big constructed peplum-like garments, but not sure I want to continue with it so I left it rough.