Pecs and Tattoo

Reworked the original "Pecs" pencil drawing.

Also tried a new way to get cleaner, smoother lines which basically involves inking the drawing, scanning it, tracing it as vectors in Illustrator and coloring it in Photoshop.

Tedious process but the result is pleasing.


It would be suitable for some applications but I find it a little little "soul-less". Hope you like...

The Art of Eric Rhein

Eric Rhein constructs delicate images from wire, paper and other objects. Like powerful poems they are compositions from his universe each with a story to tell about the human experience of sexuality, beauty and mortality.

"I think art is the experience of making art. The object that results is a manifestation or trapping of that experience. One doesn't necessarily have to make something to have the experience of art. It can be in one's interactions with life." - Eric Rhein

Explore the seductive realm of Eric Rhein.

New Drawings by Felix d’Eon

Felix has been very busy in his studio lately. Jesse (Felix’s new assistant) informed me that the newest model A.J. is charming and very sexy. Here is a great drawing inspired by him and you can see some photos of the model from Felix d'Eon's diary here. Don’t miss this chance to get an original Felix d’Eon drawing of A.J. or limited edition prints of his other work on his eBay gallery.

Wrestling Dreams

Just a little painting made back in 2003. The theme was based on a drawing I found on the web - later found out that the original was by Gengoroh Tagame. Hope he doesn't mind too much...

Oil on board, 40x40 cm.

Male Physique Photography

INTERVIEW WITH TOMAS MITCHELL

Tell us a bit about yourself...

Although photography is one of my passions, it's not how I earn my living. I started out wanting a career in the arts but got sidetracked in college because I was more worried with supporting myself. Photography is also not my only creative outlet. I write fiction as well and someday I will find a way to put my words and my images together into something greater than the sum of the parts.

How did you get your start in photography?

I've been fascinated by picture taking since I first picked up the family Brownie as a kid. I did my first work with a 35mm camera and darkroom work in college. For years most of my work was casual scenic vacation photography. I didn't start to get serious with photography until I started to shoot men about ten years ago. I started at a nude photography workshop. I've always been into working out at the gym, but I have never been as successful at it as the guys I shoot. I guess those who can't turn themselves into gods, photograph them.

What steps did you take to learn photography?

After I got excited about shooting men I began taking evening courses at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Seeing the work of my instructors (many of whom were accomplished artists) and my fellow students opened my eyes and set me on fire creatively. I got to spend a lot of time in the darkroom working with both black and white and color and slowly developed an individual style for my work. Almost all my training is film based. I have worked with 35mm, medium format and large format cameras and have spent a lot of time working on special darkroom techniques like toning, bleaching, etc.

Tell us more about your favourite equipment and software?

My favorite camera is still my Minolta Maxxum 9. It operates flawlessly and even sounds beautiful when you press the shutter. I use strobe lights in all of my studio shoots and usually arrange the lights to create high contrast shadows on the models' bodies because it really makes muscle definition pop.

Which do you prefer? Film or digital camera?

My shoots are evenly split between the two right now. I have been working a lot with infrared film in the studio because I like the way it creates a soft glow. Since I work with strobe lights I also use very slow films like ASA 50, because they create images with broad tonal ranges. I like digital because of the immediacy of the results. After I drop off the film and the lab, I can start manipulating the raw images from the memory card and have something to see right away. I also like the low investment cost per image that you have with digital. Lately I have found that it motivates me to shoot more freely, to try things I wouldn't necessarily have tried with film because it costs so little per frame. I suppose when I upgrade my current digital camera to something that will create really large images, I will probably shoot less and less film, and then that big investment in darkroom equipment I made a few years ago will all be for nothing...

What inspires you?

The work of other artists, not just photographers, but painters, writers, dancers and musicians.

Do you find it easy to approach strangers for a photograph?

No. I rarely do. And when I do it rarely results in a shoot. I think most guys expect the men who approach them about pictures to have ulterior motives, especially when they want them to do nudes. Mainly I find my models through an agency that specializes in fitness guys.

What do you like or dislike most about being a photographer?

In the weeks leading up a shoot, I am really jazzed about the work, but the night before and the hours just before the shoot I get ambivalent about it, because the pressure to create something new and unique starts to bear down on me. If the shoot gets cancelled, I am almost relieved. Still when you load up the digital images on the computer or get back the proofs from the film shots it's always thrilling to see how the work has turned out.

Are you going to consider a career in photography?

I gave up hoping to make a living in photography pretty quickly. The only significant money is in commercial work, and I don't have the temperament for it. Also I enjoy shooting what I want and pleasing myself first.

Any advice you would give to other aspiring enthusiast photographers out there?

Ground yourself in the work of other photographers. Learn the tools of your trade (camera, lens, film, Photoshop) and take lots of pictures. It doesn't hurt to try to mimic the work of people whose images you admire at first. All great artists start out imitating other artists. Most of us do it badly though, and in the end we find our own style.

See more work by Thomas Mitchell on his blog and on his website.

Yay! My very own Joeboy!

All the way from ComicCon in San Diego... after what felt like an eternity, it finally arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Boys will be Boys: Extended Edition by Joe Phillips. The photo above shows a special treasure inside. My very own Joeboy, even looks a bit like me. OK - maybe when I was a bit younger :)

There is something so awesome about receiving gifts from far away places. After a little disagreement with the South Africa Postal Services - firstly over the actual arrival of the parcel and secondly involving a frantic search for the incorrectly stored item - they finally gave it to me.

Trembling with excitement all the way back to the car, I could not wait to open it - but had to wait a bit longer to get through the strong packaging. Inside was the book, a Joe Phillips Calendar and a comic book from ComicCon.

So I just thought I would share my happiness. And, to the person that made this possible, I can never thank you enough...

See more of Joe Phillips' artwork on his website: JoePhillips.com

Quick Anatomy of the Back

One of my good friends was kind enough to create and send me this brilliant guide to the Anatomy of the Back. We are not allowed to perv over the images... it's all in the name of research you know! Enjoy!

Altar Boy

Not really an altar boy... but he has a sweet naughty smile that looks like honey could not melt in his mouth. Drawings get very dirty during sketching. Usually I clean up the whole thing but this time it reminded me a bit of a halo so it was left on the outside.
Pencil drawing on A4 paper. Hope you like...

Just a little survey...

Here is your chance to participate in the future of this blog. Let me know which topics would you like to see explored more often on Drawfellas. The last one isn't really an option 'cos I know you want more of that :)

a. Drawfellas art
b. Art by other artist
c. Art teqniques and tutorials
d. Male art photography
e. Male anatomy for reference
f. News etc. about South Africa
g. South African guys
h. More nekkid dudes

Francois Sagat Smiling

Just a little homage to that handsome French guy, Francois Sagat. Can't say to much about him as I don't know anything except that he seems like a really good guy. What I do know for sure is that he is to me the ultimate modern specimen of the male ideal.

Strange thing is that I have never seen any of his movies, only photos, but I like how he has also used his talent for other endeavours and inspired numerous artists. He obviously has a creative streak himself. Visit his blog and see for yourself...

How did you find Drawfellas?

How bizarre... Over the last 7 days, you have found Drawfellas via Google looking for the following search terms:

fella (857)
jacques sultana (84)
muscle art gallery (48)
hairybears (35)
hottlead (30)
human anatomy lessons (20)
figure study (16)
jacques sultana (16)
humplex (14)
jungle boy (13)
jacque sultana (10)
male artist background (10)
the humplex (9)
how many male are there in gauteng in the mid 2007 (7)
philip swarbrick (7)
cast of the loin king (6)
jockstrapped (4)
i've graduated at the (4)
drawfellas (1)
lz hewitt (1)

Philip Gladstone Fine Arts

"The Cellist Elevated by His Bath", Acrylic on Canvas

Philip Gladstone lives and works in a home on a quiet lake in rural northwestern Connecticut and spends his days at home with his family and, of course, painting up a storm. His work is available on E-Bay - buy some before I buy all of them (I wish - maybe one day when I can afford US dollars). Visit his amazing galleries: Philip Gladstone Website and Blog.

Portrait of Alex

Just some practice with ink... fine black ink pen on A4 white paper. The textured paper was added later in Photoshop. I don't know anybody called Alex... the name just popped into my head and stuck.

The quest for art that excites...

At the moment, this artist is still learning to produce pretty pictures of attractive guys. It dawned on me recently that in order to ultimately produce memorable works of erotic art, I will need to investigate the very definition of the concept.

Erotic art was one of mankind's first handicrafts. The Paleolithic "Venus of Willendorf" with her "unbridled erotic force" is considered a traditional symbol of potency, more than a work of art. Today, the term erotica is often seen as neutral or even good, while pornography is always bad. Finding a workable definition of erotic art seems tricky. It seems to have a lot to do with chemical desire and concerned with sexual stimulation, or arousal.

Freud is famous for his theory of the Id, Ego, and Superego. Later in his career he scrapped this theory and supplanted it with drive theory. He said that everything boiled down to twin urges toward Eros and Thanatos, best translated as pleasure and aggression. So erotic means the desire of pleasure, and only sometimes sexual pleasure - or in the case of art, art that evokes desire. Simple pleasures can have sexual overtones. One example is the zipper - considered quite erotic when it was introduced. Opening something is inherently pleasurable, for example, unwrapping a gift.

Morality or drawing the line between the "erotica" and "pornography" is not the goal of this post, however "erotic art" seems to hover somewhere between these concepts. The definition is highly subjective, varies for different cultures, and changes globally every year. Luckily each person can decide for themselves what they consider to be art and whether they find it erotic or not.

We have become bombarded with an daily avalanche of images, it becomes hard (no pun) for aspiring artist like myself to produce art that still touches us where it counts. How do I translate the erotic charge or thrill of a glimpse, stolen in the locker room and share that experience through my work, while still keeping it in the domain of "popular" art.

So erotic means the desire of pleasure, or in the case of art, art that evokes desire. The successful artist should give us enough hints to allow the viewer to find the erotic in the work.

Just some of my thoughts... Let me know yours.

Related Links:
Wikipedia: Erotic Art
Wikipedia: Erotic
Wikipedia: Homoeroticism

Drawfellas Studio

More of a desk really... its not always this tidy. The metal tin keeps all my pencils and other bits away from the cats. They like to play with them and hide them from me. In the other tin you can see a large soft brush used to remove eraser filings from the drawings.

My favorite drawing tools - some pencils, erasers and an erasing shield. The cotton buds and compressed paper stick is used for blending and the bulldog clips keeps sketches in position.

Modern Eros

Eros, mischievous and charismatic is the Greek god of lust, love, and intercourse. He was also worshipped as a fertility deity. In some myths, he was not only the force of erotic love but also the creative urge of nature, the firstborn light that is responsible for the coming into being and ordering of all things in the cosmos.

He had two kinds of arrows: one was golden with dove feathers that caused instant love; the other was lead with owl feathers that caused indifference.

I wanted to make Eros a bit more modern and opted for feather tattoos instead of traditional wings like his Roman equivalent, Cupid. He could be someone you run into on the street, crewcut and funky facial hair but still classical features. The background is a bit cheesy but I ran out of ideas for it.

Give me your comments and let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy...

Paintings by Jacques Sultana

Do yourself a favour and check out the beautiful work by French artist, Jacques Sultana.

Jungle Boy: Final

The Loin King catching some rays in a sunny spot of the forest. The object of this project was to learn how to abstract a figure to a cartoon style image and try and create a more espressive face. Also, to try and create the illusion of depth with the fore, middle and background. Not a traditional loin cloth, realized too late it should have been more of a tattered flap of cloth, but some VPL showing. There should be more cast shadows and colour on his body from reflective light, but I am bored with this for the moment. (Click to enlarge)

Jungle Boy: Preview

Jungle Boy: Part 3

The third and final installment. To eliminate the hard edges between colours I do the following in Photoshop. Using the colour picker, I pick one of the two colours next to each other (or hold down Alt while in brush mode to toggle between brush and picker). Now the brush gives me a value in between the two colours which can be used to blend them together. The next part involves colour picking and blending like crazy until the transitions between colours are smoother but still looks "painted" (image 1). Some more detail gets added to the background (image 2) and I am done with the small version of this image. The image is scaled back up to its original dimensions. Some pixelation will occur but I am left with a good guide to start painting on at a higher resolution. Now the real work starts. I delete the line art layer and replace it with the clean line art from the original file. The next part is hard to describe but basically involves lots of colour picking, blending and smudging to make it a lot smoother and remove any pixelation. More detail is added and working in other colours for reflective lights and shadows. Working in Photoshop also allows me to play around with different filters and effects. The final version will be posted soon...