Stand Tall

So this is what it looks like for me when a doodle just works. I wanted to do a nude, from behind and above, just like Rene Gruau sometimes draws. Except naked. And inspired by my friend Ernesto (those traps and neck are very him) He got done in about a day without any stress.

Ralph

Ralph C is a visiting figure model from Florida who was staying at my friend Francisco's place this past week. As a thank you to his host, he volunteered to pose for Francisco, who invited me to draw Ralph with him. I was very inspired and got some of the best drawings I've done in a life drawing session this year.

Doodle Face 2

I thought adding a body would help, although not before I went a completely different direction and tried to adapt an Italian model's features into this face. 

I don't consider it copying since the model's photo was from a completely different angle, and I was just trying to get his features and proportions into this guy's set up. But I dunno, it's just not working for me.

Doodle Face

I've been trying to make the Wet Charcoal brush happen for me. I like how it does a heavy, ink-like stroke but trying to use it for finer lines doesn't work as well for me. Maybe that's why creating this face was such a struggle, other than the fact that it felt like more of the same.Why do I feel like I've been stuck in my own style lately? This face was yet again, another typical 'me' face, and it didn't feel like I was breaking any new ground. He's perfectly fine, just not novel enough to warrant finishing, I guess. I'm showing all the separate versions of him that I did, trying fuller lips and various noses types, but I don't know who this guy is yet. Granted, I'm trying to draw him from imagination so I'm letting the marks do the talking, but I guess that's why he's a doodle—it's just marks leading the way, hopefully into a more realized piece.

Pink Peen

I hate that Instagram has gotten so censor-y lately, even if they allowed nudes like mine, nowadays it feels like we've gone back to an even more homophobic moment, led by their AI. I'm testing the waters more again with my posts but I feel censored, drawing what I think would fly versus what I want to draw, where the drawing takes me...like focusing on this guy's dick, lol.

Heavy Ink, Done

A few face tweaks a few anatomical cleanups, and he's ready for instagram. Although I do find him a bit bland, but thats the face (and hair and styling) that emerged and sometimes that's what the drawing wants to be.

Heavy Ink 2

This drawing feels a bit previous, as it harks back to my older style (the brush is leading the way) and I kinda did this bland white boy—handsome, and kinda mainstream for my tastes. But that's what the lines lead to and I leaned into it a bit with the body hair. Let's see where this goes.

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).

Scott H

This is one of the few people I'm friendly with at the gym, Scott, who I've looked at a lot because I like his profile. sadly, I wasn't able to get a really good likeness of him but I figured I needed to post this on here for posterity's sake.

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.