Hang In There And Keep Drawing! (It gets better!)
So I haven’t been posting much here recently, what with small life issues and the whole world seemingly ending-
-but then I had a bunch of rapid-fire revelations as I worked through the above piece, which really helped me get back into drawing and enjoying the drawing process. And I thought if I posted them, they might help other struggling artists out too.
Also I wanted to show off my latest art.
So here are the big revelations I had, we’ll talk through them as we cover my steps for the work above, in case that helps someone too:
You’re drawing for you, not them
No matter how much you suck now you WILL get better
If you want that particular brand of horny you’re going to have to draw it yourself
Maybe the point of life is to experience good art
Let’s get started reviewing my process for the piece above, along with these big r/iam14andthisisdeep thoughts I had.
Step 1: The Initial Sketch/Funny Idea
(And thank you AI autocorrect, for suggesting that I put the 💡 emoji after that header. Really glad we spent $100 billion destroying the environment for you to give me that.)
I had been feeling very unmotivated to draw recently, after realizing that I was never going to become a famous artist, was never going to earn a millionaire living from my work, was never going to escape a 9-5 office job by drawing topless girls-
-but I was sketching one morning while having coffee and looking at some bondage photographs (FOR RESEARCH) and decided to draw the above, to practice some one point perspective and a tiptoe pose, and it wasn’t anything… until I added that spider.
And her expression while looking at it.
And then I couldn’t stop giggling.
Because, yes, she’s hopelessly tied up in a dark, dreary dungeon, naked. But what’s REALLY bugging her is that large spider/beetle thing slowly ticking on the wall towards her.
It’s just her expression, with the big whites over her pupils (remember our “9 expressions every pin-up artist should know” blog post?) that’s sending me.
It tells a story right away. Anyone can put themselves in her shoes and understand what’s going on, without any words.
I’ve always tried to describe my style as “Norman Rockwell, but horny”, and this is a classic NR situation, a caveman emotion anyone can grok, a panel that works without text. But Norman Rockwell would never have drawn it.
Because he’s currently dead.
And couldn’t/didn’t like drawing naked women.
And didn’t like bondage (probably).
But also, not a lot of current internet bondage artists would have drawn something like this either. Because it’s not what they want. It’s a little bit too silly. Too pin-upy.
And so the only way that image would have ever existed in the history of the world is if I drew it.
Right here and now.
And forgetting any internet points, or upvotes, or commissions or sticker sales, that’s what we have to really be doing this for.
To spend a little bit of our very precious free time on this earth creating something that makes US laugh.
And hopefully, when other people see it, making THEM laugh.
But that part’s not required.
Whenever I post my pinups on r/pinup, they never get ANY traction. And that used to make me feel bad- obviously I think they’re great, I’ve spent hours on it, why doesn’t the world fall over itself trying to give me praise? It makes you want to stop drawing.
But then I realized, I’m not doing it for them. I’m doing it for me. And you should too. Do it for me. By which I mean you.
It will make you much more motivated and grounded.
On the technical side, I’ve always fought to figure out how thicc my pinup girls should look- should I go for the super skinny (but closer to my references) J. Scott Campbell look? Or the more muscular (nearly Rubenesque) Frank Cho look?
Recently I’ve found an even thicker contender:
I’ve always been more Cho than Campbell, but if you take a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model reference photo and trace her 1:1, you usually end up on the Campbell side. That’s just how thin female wrists and ankles are, if you zoom out to show their full body.
Campbell’s waists are usually too insect-small though.
But after seeing the Art of Solar Puff (you should really go support him on Insta, he’s not as well know as the other two), I decided I had to thicken up my girl for this piece:
Which one do you like better? IT DOESN’T MATTER- I drew the one on the right for me, and that’s what I’m going with. You should too.
By which I mean draw absurdly thick girls for me to enjoy.
No, obviously, I mean draw that specific brand of weirdness that you enjoy. Because there’s no one but you who can do it. Or the autonomous Grok AI helper which will soon be living inside all of our smart microwaves. It can make porn too.
But yours will be better.
Which brings us to our second point:
STEP 2: If you want that particular brand of horny, you’re going to have to create it youself. (Also, digital linework.)
I’ve though about making that particular phrase into a sticker to sell at farmer’s market, but just haven’t found the right image for it yet.
If you have an idea for one, go back in time to 1776, embed it in a complex code on the back of the Constitution, and I’ll find it eventually, when I steal the original copy from the National Archives. Yes that was a real movie once.
Moving from paper to digital, above is the digital line work I got from tracing my pencil sketch almost exactly, you can see me trying out a few bricks for size, and hey, did you know that your vanishing point doesn’t have to be ON your actual drawing, but can be way off to the side somewhere? I didn’t, until embarassingly late into my art practice, so maybe this image will help a newer artist. This is how it looks in Procreate when the vanishing point is off the canvas:
You can do this with pencil and paper too, it’s just harder. If you find your vanishing points are too close, consider having them off the page!
Keep in mind this unshaded Ink-only phase is when your art will look THE WORST compared to your perfect pencil sketch, so don’t get discouraged here, fight through it. It will get better.
Also, remember how I described my art as “Norman Rockwell, but horny”- this is why I have to keep drawing. Those two jokes in the background is something NO horny bondage artist would have drawn:
When I added that little bookcase in the background, implying that the girl had the guards like, doing runs to the Home Goods store for her, since she was so well liked but also down there for so long, it made me chuckle.
But when my wife suggested the “Prisoner of the Month” poster in the far background to make it really obvious, I just started to LAUGH.
It’s just one of those dumb things that’s almost out of a Mel Brooks movie, we were literally out at a restaurant drawing and I couldn’t stop laughing. That’s why I draw.
Oh, and also of note- THOSE FUCKING BRICKS. Those bricks literally, by themselves, took 10x the time I spent drawing the fucking SUBJECT of the piece. I was absolutely pushing my hair in. It fucking took FOREVER, and I was constantly questioning if it was worth it.
I don’t know how Arthur Adams does it. (He’s a really great inking artist, you should go check out his intense backgrounds, there’s a million more bricks than I have, and he’s still alive, so he’d appreciate the follow.)
Next let’s flat and shade this thing.
Step 3: Flats and Shading This Thing. (Also, it does get better.)
The best reason to keep your old sketchbooks is so that you can look back and do comparisons like these:
I love that in the 2021 picture, one of my helpful text notes was “Legs look pretty good” as if I knew fucking ANYTHING about legs back then.
There was some young kid on reddit who was looking for public feedback on his art, and it looked almost exactly like my picture from 2021 and he was a little down about it, saying it wasn’t good enough, and while everyone else was giving him a million different corrections on why his proportions were wrong or what he should be doing differently, I was wishing I could just show him the above pictures to prove that, no matter what, if you keep fighting and practicing, your skills will get SO much better.
That comparison above is just 5 years, that’s the difference between 8th grade and graduating high school, or going to college and leaving college. It’s nothing in the big sweep of your life. And it looks like two completely different artists.
If I had posted that 2021 picture on reddit asking for feedback I would have probably set myself on fire.
Keep practicing, keep fighting, and it gets so much better. I promise.
I’ve got other tutorials on how to shade sexy human skin and I’m doing those same steps here, let me know in the comments if you want more tips on shading skin. Personally I find shading the most fun stage, where the drawing really comes alive and 3D.
Now, let’s finish this thing.
Step Whatever: Let’s Finish This Thing
There’s so much work I’m skipping over, like the glow around the torch, the brick texture brush, the third joke of that little book page turner on the ground, and that FUCKING HALLWAY where I could never get the perspective of the back hollow area right, but just to get this post out and done but here you go, here’s the final image:
I’m happy with it, which is all that matters. I could have made her expression more pin-upy with her mouth suggestively open but its funnier this way, she looks sort of worried but also resigned at the same time.
The book with it’s little reading fork near her feet always makes me laugh.
I might try to post more regularly here, just to show off and answer questions new pin-up artists (and me) have, so if there’s any questions you’d want answered, you know how to contact me!
Have fun, and keep drawing!