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Some words about my work
Graphite drawings in FirstHand magazines were my original role on
the stage of gay illustration. After some portfolio showings in
the glossies, (Advocate Men, Torso, In Touch) things settled down
to monthly contributions to illustrate the jackoff manuscripts the
publisher sent me. It paid the bills, kept me in drawing shape,
exercising my imagination muscles. My ‘style’ emerged,
-basically drawing with an eraser. Take a hard graphite stick and
a piece of sandpaper and make some graphite dust, then swipe a big
pink pearl erasure through it and stroke it on the paper. You get
a sharp line if the eraser has a sharp edge and you get a wide soft
stroke using it flat. What you don’t get is a mark indented
in the drawing paper, which means you can rework the drawing a lot
before it’s trashed. If you’re lucky and patient you get
something nice. If you’re lucky and persistent you might get
something worth money. But don’t count on the money being there
just cause the drawing is good.
About the time my drawing was the best the magazine publishers cut
their illustration budgets mostly due to Internet competition. And
so it stays as they reprint old stuff for free. The glossies want
color illos, and so just when you think you got it made drawing
you find out you got to get into color. There’s instruction
everywhere, and I found it cheap on PBS’s ‘Welcome to
my Studio’ with Helen Van Wyck. It looked easier than it was.
But eventually I caught on. You could to, if you wanted. My advantage
was knowing the anatomy from the inside out, being ignored and having
time to learn, and getting enough encouragement from wherever it
came from whenever it came.
Then one day somebody opened my eyes as to what a computer could
do. I connected to the Internet and sat there eyes-opened-wide,
staring into cyber seeing my future. It seems in no time at all
computer tech has combined with my modest ability to paint ok and
draw fairly well and who knows where it’s taking us all. So
sit back, spread your legs, relax and enjoy the show. First though,
some appreciation for my buddy Alex who pulled some tricks of his
own in putting this site together. |
