Guy a Day!

A little theme begins with August 7th's image...the previous sketches of facial hair inspired me to take a look at chest hair. Above is "The Superman". I had a roomate in college who had a perfectly shaped Superman "S" symbol of hair. Totally untrimmed, naturally pentagrammical (five-sided). This type of chest hair is misleading when seen shirted. The tufts peeking over a neckline, or out of an un-buttoned dress shirt suggest a full torso of hair. The reality: what you see is all you get.

The "T-Bird"! So named because the growth of hair forms a capital letter "T". Hair may be sparse around the nipples and thin out as it heads south but it definitely connects with lower stomach hair as it enters the pants line.

Definitely more to come :) And please feel free to suggest alternative names for the various styles of chest hair. These are simply my names for them.

And speaking of chest hair, Happy Birthday* to RJ Danvers . Clicking the link takes you to the very cute young fella's totally not safe for work blog. He's a comics fan which is totally how I know about him and is my only interest in him, this I swear.

best,

j.

*Belated Birthday, really. This should have been monday's post but Monday was Thanksgiving Holiday here in Canada and I was out eating a large dinner with my family. Gobble, gobble. One of us!

Facial Hair!

Beards are definitely "In" right now, and I'm all for it. For a certain part of gay culture beards were never out (Hello Bears and Cubs). But the straight crowd hasn't always been hair friendly. Lately, though, I've noticed a whole lot of straight boys with beards. And not just scruffy, let it grow-all-over beards...these guys are keeping their beards neat and trim.
So I thought I'd sketch up some of the facial hair I've noticed around town. I'm not saying I'm a fan of all the particular types of beards drawn, but I must say that a man's look can improve greatly, in my eyes, with the addition of a beard. Matthew Fox, for example, looks a whole lot more appealing to me with all of his island grown scruff.
I left out one trend in bearding...the "Chin Strap". It's that thin line of hair that runs from the side burns, down the jaw line ending in a little cup of hair under the chin. A buddy of mine expressed perfectly my feeling on this particular look when he said "Friends don't let friends grow chin straps." Agreed.

What are your thoughts on the current trend in facial hair?

best,
j.
p.s. Is it un-PC to label the "Fu Manchu" as such? I wasn't sure but couldn't find any other name for it. Apologies if it is offensive to some.

Guy a Day! August beginnings!

A couple of these are based on real people I know or have seen around town. As Autumn approaches clothing layers are added and it becomes more difficult to appreciate a person merely for his/her physical appearance. The artist must imagine peeling back the additional layers of clothing in an attempt to discern attractive surface qualities. The secret glimpse of skin becomes more and more difficult to find as thicker underclothes are added to the daily wardrobe. Those extra bumps and bulges may simply be an extra fold in a pair of thermals.

Take heart -- though it is Fall out my window on my drawing board the season remains Summer. I've only just begun August. The Olympics are a few weeks away. Warm weather prevails. Such is the benefit of falling behind in my duties.

best,

j.

Guy a Day! Finishing up July!

Today is the first day of Fall and I can't think of a more fitting way to celebrate than by posting the final Guys from the days of July! Think summery thoughts!

best,

j.

Guy a Day! Wednesday update?

Well, these lads should have gone up on Monday. Then yesterday came and went with me completely forgetting to update again. So Wednesday it is. It seemed just too long a wait to hold off until Thursday. 

The weather is turning colder here in ol' Upper Canada. There are always a few holdouts...guys wearing shorts well into October. Generally, however, colder days means heavier clothes and less outdoor activities. Wherever can I turn for inspiration? Has a man ever been "hot" in a full snowsuit and ski-boots? ("Hot" in the attractiveness meaning of the word...not in the actual Webster's "an increase of temperature" definition). 

I had a dream last night that I was back in school, trying to solve an absolutely impossible math problem with a pencil that wouldn't work properly on paper that was too thin. The teacher handed out new pens to everyone because we were no longer allowed to solve math problems with erasable pencil. Later at home I worked on the homework until four in the morning. At the end of the dream I spilled hot chocolate on my notebook. Anyone with thoughts on possible meanings behind said dream are welcome to comment.

best,

j.

Guy a Day! Still in July!

Oh brother...we're already into September and I'm still catching up on July's Guy a Day. That's pathetic. What can I say...I get distracted easily. I bought "The Big Penis Book" and have been thoroughly pouring over the articles. So far one of my favourite articles is on page 54...just goes to show the old "self portrait in front of mirror" is as old as hats.

Firstly, I must point out that the above fantasy is at least eighteen years old. In high school my locker was just down the hall from one of the jocks who hit puberty early (I'm pretty sure this guy had a full beard by grade ten). He'd been in a few school plays showing off chest hair and that, along with his overall huskiness, made me madly in love with him. If he wasn't at his locker in the morning I'd linger a little longer until he showed up. He was only a year older than me but looked a whole lot older. I was a late bloomer :)

*sigh*

I should add up how many guys I've drawn with body hair and how many without. Take some statistics on my guys and see how it all averages out.

best,

j.

Y'wanna B'Wana?

A buddy of mine loves the B'Wana Beast. I drew this as a card image for him and then completely forgot to give it to him on his birthday. I even postponed putting it up on my blog before his birthday so that if he happened to be checking out my blog last week it wouldn't ruin the surprise.
The actual B'Wana Beast comic book is fairly lame. I only have one issue but the art is not so hot and the stories are borderline stupid. But B'Wana himself is a guy in a loin cloth which merits checking out even in the worst of situations.

best,
j.

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.