This is the drawing I’ve been rabbiting-on about. The one my friend borrowed to hang in her
bordello home. The one I extracted from the back of the wardrobe yesterday.
As previously mentioned, I’ve not looked at it for a couple of years; certainly, not since BbM burst upon my life. When I saw it yesterday, I was quite surprised by how evocative it is of the iconic image of the Dozy Embrace from BbM. Maybe it’s just me. But that’s what I thought, as soon as I saw it. I even think the guy in front has a bit of a Jack Twist look about him; particularly the elongated face and soulful eyes.
This is a direct copy of an original work by the American homoerotic artist who went by the nom de crayon of Rip Colt. His most famous drawings appeared in the 1960s/70s, after which time he appears to have stopped drawing and went into producing pornographic gay films. I guess that was where the money was.
When I was a young chap, I very much admired Rip Colt’s exquisitely detailed homoerotic imagery. There was always an air of mystery and romance about his drawings. Or, at least, it seemed that way to my youthful imagination at the time. And the models were always stunning. Stunning as in “Drop Dead Gorgeous!” stunning!
So why did I make this copy? For a couple of reasons, I guess. Primarily, I loved the look of it on a romantic level and also thought the models were very handsome. Beyond that, I also wanted to test myself. I wanted to see how disciplined my eye-hand coordination was. I wanted to see if I could reproduce on paper, the image that was coming in through my eyes. Previously, I’d never had any trouble reproducing faces. It was the muscle, sinew, tendons, veins and arteries that I found most challenging here. And the hands too. The hands were particularly challenging. I also wanted a larger version of the original, suitable for framing. The original was quite small.
It’s been so long since I saw it, I’d forgotten what I called it. On the back, I found “Nude Study after Rip Colt,” written in my youthful hand. I have now crossed that out and inscribed its new title: “The Embrace.”
So, here it is, (drum roll) emerging from the darkness after many years in exile, “The Embrace.”
The Embrace
Detail from The Embrace
