Guy for the day! Alexandre Despatie!

Any search for Alexandre Despatie brings forth the "famous" bulge shot! Alex arching backward, red speedo straining to contain...little Alex. Naturally it must be the basis for my first drawing of Alex.

Despatie really puts his all into his dives. I'm amazed at the ability of athletes to control their bodies so precisely. Heck, I can't even walk through my house without bumping into doorways and rapping my knees on furniture. I'm just clumsy, I guess. But the way Despatie twisted his body on his last dive was just incredible to me. I also caught the trampoline competition and the same thoughts arose. How do they stay on target while twisting around, upside-down and with an audience of millions? The answer, I know, is skill and practice! But still...

Incidentally, I dated these drawings for the days I drew them, after Alex's silver win on Tuesday and Wednesday. You might have noticed that the other Guy a Day posts were back dated to catch up on July's missed days. Back dating the Alex drawings just felt wrong (if I look at the drawings in a year I might think that I had a premonition about Alex's Olympic win by drawing him BEFORE he actually competed).

best,

j.

Guy a Day! Canada takes a Silver!

A for real guy I saw while out bike riding. At first I was simply mesmerized by his entire look...from the long hair under the hat to the pointy toed cowboy boots. He stood on the corner waiting for the light to change. Completely cool. A swagger in his step even when standing still. And then I noticed the front of his jeans. Though my drawing is a cartoon, the image does represent the real deal! Is it possible he was carrying a shotgun in his jeans?

Alexandre Despatie was the inspiration for this drawing and today he just won a silver for Canada. Naturally I missed the event but I'll try to catch the highlights on tonights news. I'll do a better drawing of Despatie in the coming posts.

Ol' swoosh-hair makes another appearance. He spent the night reading in a seedy motel.

j.

Guy a Day! Still catching up!

I find myself with not much to say today...there's a thunderstorm rolling in and my lights just dimmed. Fortunately my computer is plugged into a power bar with battery back-up so I didn't lose my connection. I do believe, however, that I will log off and sit on my front porch to watch the light show.

best,

j.

Guy a Day returns!

Travel with me back to the past...it's July 11th, the weather is hot and muggy with a high chance of rain. We're at the cottage deep in the wilds of Northern Canada. We've been swimming, lounging on the dock...letting go of the stresses of city living. Meat sizzles on the barbecue. We pop the tab on our soda (substitute favourite alcoholic beverage) and guzzle away our thirst.

The only two drawings I did at the cottage. All I had was lined paper. Maybe forgetting to bring blank copy paper was my subconscious telling me to relax the old drawing hand for the week.

The above two are Pride holdovers. I'd actually already inked the drawing of the skateboarder and so threw it into the batch. He was super cute and I love the casual way he boarded. The Daddy is loosely based on an actual fella hanging out on Church st. Not especially my type but I liked the way he wore his shorts!

Drawn after the week at the cottage, but with fond memories of jumping into the lake. When I'm older I hope I'm able to own a cottage...and have several art proteges who will visit to swim in my lake. I'll be the James Whale of the comic book scene :)

best,

j.

Battle to the Death!

So there I was peacefully lying on the dock, listening to the waves lap, lap, lapping at the rocks, cold soda fizzing by my side, thoroughly engrossed in my first reading of Dune when I snapped bolt upright....I'd forgotten to set up my blog for an automatic update!

Crumbs! I've been working on a mock cover for a nonexistent galactic barbarian comic. Just something to doodle when I get a minute here and there. Only I didn't even have a spare minute to scan the unfinished pencils let alone ready the update. *sigh*

So here I am...late. And with (please don't be angry with me) no Guy a Day update!!!

I drew a few at the cottage. But I was really enjoying Dune and swimming and eating and napping and reading and swimming and I didn't really do a lot of drawing. Now that I'm back I've got quite a lot of work to catch up on. Soooo...I probably won't be updating with the same regularity as I did in June and the beginning of July. But I will be drawing a guy for each day of July, catching up on the days I missed. The cottage inspired a lot of sweaty, sun-soaked images that I really need to sketch.

My apologies, guys. I'll get back on track once I'm caught up with work.

your semi-suntanned summer lover,
j.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: GaD!

The last picture says it all. I'm off on a vacation for a week! I'm going to sit on a dock by the lake, read, sleep, eat bbq'd meat, swim and not bathe for a whole week. That means I won't be able to update for a week because there is no internet in cottage country (at least not for me). What I am going to do is set up a few things to post while I'm away so that there'll still be a reason to drop by! :)

When I get back, monday the 21st, I'll have a whole weeks worth of guys to post.

Best,

j.

p.s. That's my dog lying under the hammock. He's such a sleepy little pup.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: GaD!

I've been checking out Aaron Nace's photos on his Flickr page and thinking about my Guy a Day sketches. I really want to be more creative with some of the situations I draw...including adding more humour. Hence the classic slip-on-the-banana-peel and guy-carrying-plate-glass-window-with-out-of-control-cyclist-rolling-down-hill gags. The other two were guys I'd seen on the weekend and are just regular style pin-ups.

Work is really keeping me super busy lately. I'm absolutely loving what I'm drawing right now...I'll let you know about it soon (Hint: It rhymes with "duperman" and "girthgay").

Happy summer!

j.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: GaD! July Edition.

These are all guys I saw and snapped shots of at Pride. The guy above was in the crowd and had the best white moustache. I love the way he cuts just a strip of it to bare his chin. He had a great tan which made the moustache stand out even more. He was a lot taller than I've drawn him here... a failing of mine that I tend to draw fairly stocky characters and big heads. I've got to really plan out ahead of time to draw a taller character.

Imagine that the shorts here are orange...just like the shorts the girls at Hooters wear. Super adorable orange shorts. This guy was working with a theatre company and helped me apply an Avenue Q tattoo to my arm.

best,

j.

Belated Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday, Javier! Hope this little sketch makes up for my forgetting (I had to go back to my first post to remember what you'd requested.) I chose Ron Ely because I'm a big Doc Savage and Tarzan fan.

Regular Thursday post to come on Thursday!

best,
j.
p.s. Let's not count this as the 100th post. Let's pretend it's the 99 and a half post! :)

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: GaD!

Hey, it's my 99th post and it's also my last Guy a Day post for the month of June. I'm going to aim for the same dedication in July...though it may be hard to post with the same regularity. Work is about to pick up big time. In fact the last image is my real FedEx delivery guy handing me my work for the next month.

I've drawn this kind of guy a few times for my blog. He's kind of a goofy version of a 50's greaser, and totally my type. I suspect he's actually shaving in a Garage washroom after being on the road all night. This weekend's Toronto Pride was great. I took every opportunity I could get to store images of guys in my memory bank (and my digital camera). Those photos should inspire some fun Guy a Day drawings over this next month. James F. requested a bear type and since I'm a little partial to wildlife myself I sketched the above. A guy very much like this was hanging out by a Tim Hortons (very Canadian) this weekend. I clicked my brain camera and did my best to draw him later. I loved his dark beard and called him Captain Haddock after the Tintin character.

So many faux hawks this weekend. That and the skinny jean are the new style that reminds me just how old I'm getting. I hated wearing skinny jeans in high school and will not be buying a pair! The twist that I love is that guys are now wearing the skinny jean with a saggy waist so that their underwear sticks out the top. It's like a saggy-skinny. Basically the shape of an ice cream cone. Hot!

Oh, and I apologize to real skateboarders who may see this image...I did not reference my board but drew from memory. I've drawn skateboards enough to know the basics but not the actual style of board the "kids" are riding today :)

And my dear FedEx man! Always friendly and always a delight to get a package from him.

I hope everyone had or is having a great Pride. I've seen a few photos from San Francisco and New York. If anyone has links to their own Pride events and wants to share please feel free to do so in the comments area. I'd love to see more worldwide celebrations!

best,

j.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: GaD!

It's Pride Week here in Toronto which means heading down to Church st. a lot more than usual. The other night I was at Hair of the Dog and couldn't help noticing an extremely tall, oddly handsome waiter/host. I've never asked a person to pose for me so that I could really focus on drawing them well. And I still haven't. But I badly wanted to ask this guy to sit for me for a half hour. I did my best to sketch him in the little book I always carry around. His proportions were really fantastic...kind of a small head on a long neck and over six feet tall. He had to duck to get through doorways.

These guys are just made up. Though I did see someone with the Ipod arm band which inspired the jogger...and the face on the guy dressing was a guy I saw downtown one day.

This weekend is gonna be pretty busy but I will do my best to draw a guy each day. I'll hopefully also sketch while I'm out at the Pride festivities this weekend.

Oh yeah, last post I drew a guy whose picture I found on the net. Well it turns out someone who visits my blog (Hi Thom) knew who the guy was. Check out Eric at his blog KnuckleCrack Eric is a writer, activist and organizer of jump rope parties. Also, you can judge for yourselves just how off I was on the likeness :)

Happy Pride, folks.

j.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: GaD!

Okay, so this first guy is probably the dirtiest drawing on this whole blog. What can I say? It was Friday, the weather was lovely and I was in a good mood. I hope you guys don't mind.

Even when I tried to draw this guy again I couldn't get his face right. This is based on a photo I found on the net...since I didn't take the photo nor do I know who the guy is I don't feel right posting the photo.

Drawn from memory, this gardener was working on a neighbour's flower bed. I love summer.

best,

j.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: GaD!

I just realized that, as a fan of acronyms, I should have called the latest drawings "Man a Day!". The acronym would then be M.A.D. as in Mad about Men! Oh well.

Thanks again for all the great comments, guys. The last post has a few visitors from Spain, which is cool.

best,

j.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: GaD!

Another real guy I saw the other day. This also happens to look an awful lot like a caricature of me. But I swear I have not intentionally drawn myself as one of the Guy a Day guys!

Bum!

What, no Monday? Sorry...I've got a bunch of work to do today and have yet to get a chance to draw Monday's. I thought you guys would rather an earlier update with one guy short than to have to wait until later in the day for an update. Monday might have to wait until Thursday's post.

Thanks to Lyle Masaki over at http://www.afterelton.com/ for guiding fellas over to my blog. Lyle's mentioned me a few times in his columns. I've met Lyle (if he's the same Lyle Masaki, and I believe he is)...it was very early in my comics career...at the Chicago-Con, I think. Nice guy and I remember disappointing him with my Fruitbat and Swallow story in Love In Tights. He felt it had too many sexual innuendos and compared to the light hearted and more romantic stories that appeared in Love In Tights, he was right. I was a little embarrassed at that and have really tried to show more humour in my art than "sex".

Back to work!

j.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday!

Cheyenne Jackson in Xanadu...I've never seen the show but I saw some of the cast perform on Regis and Kelly. And enjoyed this clip with Cheyenne and Nathan Lane and one with two guys interviewing him after a show.

When I ride my bike through the city sometimes it's really hard not to run into things when I see a good looking guy. This guy really (more or less) walked past me the other day and I almost rode through a red light.

best,

j.

p.s. The first image...I love tan lines :)

GaD: Saturday, Sunday, Monday!

It was a hot weekend here in Toronto and I've got barbecue and summer activities on the brain. Thanks for all the comments so far, guys. I'm looking forward to hearing thoughts on this batch. The last image is a little bonus...two guys for the price of one!

A little explanation for the multiple arms...I couldn't decide which was the best pose and in the end decided it was funnier, and showed the poor guy's nervous frustration, to have all the arms in the final.

Next update: Thursday

j.

A Guy a Day!

I was gabbing with some pals the other day and the subject of how often we update our blogs came up. I admitted I'm somewhat lax and wish I was far more prolific. Common on drawing blogs and message boards is the "Drawing a Day" challenge. I draw pretty much every day but most often it's work or simple doodles that aren't much to look at. Here at Man's Adventure I always want to give you guys some Beefcake, obviously :) Unfortunately my everyday work doesn't include a whole lot of man art.

So I'm going to start something new for myself right now! I'm going to draw a Man a day for the rest of this month. This way I'll (hopefully) update more often and you'll get so much more than just the single drawing I usually post.

What I post won't be finished art but just sketch drawings. I really admire the fantastic sketches Belasco posts on his blog, as well as guys like Dan Panosian, Meatcute, and Johnny B. Those guys all post sketchy, freeform drawings that are really great to look at. Usually I just doodle a few heads or a cartoony bit of nonsense, but I'll try my best to do a complete body every day!

Now, I'm open to requests on this challenge. My imagination is limited...I'm a chest man so most of my Beefcake is frontal. If anyone has a pose or model or character you think would be fun for me to draw feel free to suggest it. I love hearing from you guys!!

So without further blather from me...here's todays GUY!

Oh, I lied. A little more blather...a new photographer recently caught my eye (a Dudetube recommendation, I think). I love this guys pictures. He reminds me a little of David LaChapelle in his candy colours and imaginative staging...and he's kind of a hottie, too. Check out Aaron Nace, you'll be glad you did.

best,

j.