Art of the Zodiac!

Just in time for the Holidays -- I've put together a book using LuluPress. It's a complete collection of my Horoscope pin-ups called ART OF THE ZODIAC! That's right...both the Men AND the Women :)

At 9"x12" each page is a full color, crisply printed image. I just got my copy and I'm beyond thrilled with Lulu Press. The book was shipped so securely that I almost wanted to preserve it in its perfect state! No kidding.
j.

Finally, Gemini!

I was reminded that I had not yet put up the final Zodiac Pin-up! So here he is, for those of you born mid May to mid June. You are masculine and attention loving which can lead to vanity. Your restless and impulsive nature make you lots of fun on road trips (or really annoying if you happen to be traveling with an uptight person).

I'm gonna have the whole set of signs up at Cafe Press as t-shirts very soon! I'll let you all know when I get that sorted out.

best,
j.

Aquarius!

It's the dawning of a New Year and the second to last of the Horoscope pin-ups. I have Gemini left to draw and then...then I can begin my merchandising bonanza :)

I've noticed, as I look over the drawings, that I have slimmed down the backgrounds considerably as I progressed. I also maintained a more uniform shape in these later pin-ups. I actually think I like the earlier size better because you got more background behind the character...on the other hand these later pictures fit a whole lot nicer on the 9" x 12" canvases.

Okay, Geminis, you're up next. Hope I don't disappoint!

Happy New Year, folks.
j.

Sagittarius!

I bet you thought I'd completely forgotten about the Horoscope pin-ups, didn't you? Well, for a while there I think I did. But now my work is all caught up and I find myself with time to finally finish what started a whole year ago! I'm a little ashamed it's taken me so long to get all of these done.

While this isn't exactly a holiday image it is the sign for December...at least until the 22nd. Aquarius is also inked and awaits colouring leaving me with Gemini as the last.

Putting together a sketchbook was mentioned in my comments and I'm really considering putting all of the Horoscopes into a book, along with the sketches that lead to each final. I welcome any thoughts you guys might have on what you'd like to see.

Happy Holidays, all.
j.

Rod and Reel!

Gentlemen and ladies (sure, there're ladies here. And why not?) I present to you Pisces. The fishman earlier presented in the January 10th post is in fact Capricorn. Half goat half fish a Merman seemed the obvious drawing...but then I read some more and found out that the fish part of the sign is antiquated thinking. Apparently Capricorn was considered to be a water sign and so the goat was depicted with a fish tail. Modern Astrology labels the tenth sign of the Zodiac as an Earth sign...so my water drawing is kinda wrong. That'll teach me to do more research before drawing.

Onto other things...I encourage you all to check out Meatcute 's latest entry. The site is always a great source of new (and old but new-to-me) beefcake artists. I was asked to contribute some thoughts on style and inspiration and am ashamed to say I failed to deliver. Eep! Work and personal "situations" are my only excuses for not finding the time to contribute any more than a new piece of art. Happily Meatcute's owner and operator included me among the three other artists who DID provide commentary. Thanks, Meatcute!

And finally, here is Dark Taurus again now with background. Blog visitor Zpeedy wondered where this "snapshot" was taken and so I created a background. No pride parade here...just a good old fashioned Ranch with husky cattle rustler.


hugs,
j.

March Madness!

This month has been crazy! Not a day went by where I didn't think about my poor neglected blog and you my Blog-friends but pressingn work kept me from it and you. Happily, this morning saw the wrap-up of back to back gigs (though I still have more to ink, the deadline is not until much later in the month) and freedom to blog again.

So today I give you "Dark Taurus"! Oooh, scary!

I really, really didn't want to interrupt the Horoscope theme with a non-Horoscope post but the sad truth is I am not done all of the signs of the Zodiac yet. This guy above is a re-working of the existing Taurus drawing done for a friend. This particular buddy, who I've referred to in the past as "saucy", much prefers his men closer to if not completely naked. While I don't disagree with him on the fantasticness of the undressed male you all know by now my own Code of Prudishness! Dark Taurus is as nearly naked as my COP allows. And he's still technically a Horoscope so I haven't broken the line!

And speaking of nudity I encourage you to check out the recent sketches posted by Belasco over on his blog. His newest drawings are almost animated in style with a gorgeous fluid line and terrific graphic shapes. I love 'em! I've been working on revising my Jett Vector style to something similarly stylized and absolutely hate that Belasco does it with so much pinache! :)
(By "hate" I mean "am jealous of").

best,
j.

Supersize It!

Tipping the scales in today's Horoscope is Libra! This is one of those signs that keeps popping up in my life (no puns intended). More often than not when I'm really getting along with someone new I find out they're a Libra. Perhaps it's the level headedness and ability to veiw things from more than one side. I don't mean to play favourites so I'll just say some of the nicest guys I know are Libras.

I also get along well with Scorpio and Cancer...and, surprisingly, other Leos.

j.

All Hail the Jungle King!

The mystery is no longer mysterious...the secret is out! The last six posts have been Beefcake interpretations of the Signs of the Zodiac. The first was Scorpio, then Virgo, Capricorn (not Pisces as was commonly thought...more on that when Pisces is done:), Aries, Taurus, Cancer and now Leo. Being my sign I really wanted something special, not that I feel I've shortchanged anyone on the other signs...I mean that I took into consideration what I would want to hang on my own wall!

Salutes to Carlos and Francois...heck, you've all been asking for more flesh and here it is :)

Incidentally, Leo was one of the first images I came up with which led to the idea of drawing all the Horoscopes. I pictured the King of the Jungle with a big mane of hair and necklace made of teeth. He's maybe not leonine enough when it comes right down to it. But I believe there will be other versions of this "character".

best,
j.

Sunshine Day!

This guy was tough, let me tell you. I drew him first with a lot less clothing...but the anatomy was awkward. I tried to fix him a few times but in the end the best solution was to use clothing to hide the mistakes (hopefully their hidden). I actually really like the t-shirted version more. I think it's more colourful.
I know how much you guys like skin so I'll post 'em both and let you judge for youselves whether the addition of clothing was a good thing

Yee haww!

When I draw I like to listen to music that fits the image on which I am working. Usually that means pulling out a few soundtracks from movies with a similar theme (last post's barbarian was inked to the Conan soundtrack, and a collection of old movie music called Now Playing). This cowboy called for a different sort of music. Thanks to Mr. Paul Dini I was introduced to Bob Wills and the song Roly Poly which I stuck in the player alongside Loretta Lynn. I capped off the music selection with a heaping helping of my personal favourite country music star Miss Dolly Parton. Boy howdy, I love Dolly! :)

I think the background to this one would have looked more natural as a brown or tan. But there was so much brown in the costume and lasso that I went with blue. I have yet to go through all of the finished pieces to this ongoing theme but I think so far blue is the most common background colour.

Y'all come back now!
j.

Viking! Hammer!

This one is one of my personal favourites in the continuing theme. Mainly because I love John Buscema's Conan artwork which I looked through when drawing this. Also because I inked with a brush instead of the Pitt pen (whish is how all the rest were inked). This one needed to be brush inked because I wanted more roughness and texture in the fur and muscles (read that as mus-Kulls, like how Popeye would say it). I especially like how the Hammer looks...imagine getting cracked on the noggin' with that hefty piece of stone? This guy is truly a God of War! ;)

best,

j.

Anthropomorphic!

This was a tough one. When I set out to draw the s**** of the ****** I didn't want to draw anything anthropomorphic. My own little rule proved challenging when tackling this entry...so I opted to ignore it. And why not! I used to love drawing mer-people when I was a kid. Clash of the Titans was (and still is) one of my favourite movies and this guy's lower half reminds me of the Kraken. I also used to watch the Hercules cartoon and drew a lot of centaurs and satyrs. I suppose this guy could have ended up half goat...

best,
j.

Adam!

All right...this is THE closest to nudity you're probably gonna see on this blog! I know that more of Adam's bits and pieces should be visible but you won't see it here so please don't ask. :)
So this is image number 2 in the continuing theme. I think everyone already knows but I appreciate the fun of prolonging the "mystery". As a hint...this is Adam before the fall. That means he still a virgin!

More to come!
j.

The Wild One!

Over the next few weeks I'm gonna roll out some pin-ups on the same theme. Just for fun I'm not going to tell you the theme :) Won't it be fun and interactive to play a guessing game. Odds are pretty good the "game" will begin and end with this post because, frankly, you guys are some smart cookies and this particular drawing is full of clues.

best,

j.

p.s. Oh yeah...Happy New Year!