Posted to Instagram: I’m studying line, as an assignment, and copying this work (Untitled, c. 1984, Graphite on paper) of Étienne, a Chicago born artist who was contemporary with Tom of Finland and they liked each other’s work.  This assignment was to study the way a chosen master does line. So delightful to me is this scene, that I selected it to draw.  My rendition has not been rendered exact to the original, as you might suspect, but I find I’ll not wish to adopt Étienne’s means of line, I think I’ll prefer the shading that Tom does instead.  The content is what pleased me most here, seeing that bare naked, exquisitely toned, and muscular soldier’s gluteal perfection. Lol. Few things are as beautiful, to me. The overall piece looks crowded, sloppy, and disjointed in terms of foreground and background all feeling to be one and it makes it hard to read the scene.  Between the two artists I’ve thus far researched for this assignment, Tom of Finland will definitely be the guy I’ll prefer to study line with, as his drawings read so much clearer. His line and shading make his scenes much easier on the eyes to make out what is going on.  Dare I delve into that content though? I’ll have to decide. My copy on the right, graphite, charcoal and ball point pen on paper.  The original is on the left, by Etienne, sourced on page 94 of of the book, “Tom of Finland, The Official Life and Work of a Gay Hero,” by F. Valentine Hooven 

After going through some of the shape lessons as well, I’m surprised to come back to this lesson feeling some improvement. Line study after Aaron Blaise

Hi, I’ve been practicing my depth and form drawing skills and I’d like to share my latest attempt. I started with graphite and then used charcoal to emphasize the dark lines. (I tried using charcoal from the beginning, but it was too difficult for me.) I hope that people can tell the depth and form in my work. I would appreciate any feedback you may have. Thank you! By the way, before I learned from Proko, I can't and don't know how to draw shoes, but I can did it now! Thank you!

Oh man. I just had a taste of soft charcoal pencil that wouldn’t take to the paper that had already been darkened by a normal graphite pencil. That exercise made me happy inasmuch as I didn’t trace but drew from observation. I felt I would challenge myself and didn’t have a robust way to trace, anyway.

I felt I needed some more practice with line wight. I apply line wight fine when I doing exercises to hone it, but after Im done with the exercise I don't think about it so it doesn't get into the drawing. I think some of it is that often I get lost in thought while I draw especially if Im working on my own project. It's kind of frustrating because I'll be working on a drawing and then I realize that something is off and most of the time its the lines or line quality. Can anyone relate?