Not the Gay Agenda

::: Feminism, humor, and the Gays™ :::

[thatwasthenightthingschanged]

HEARTSTOPPER (season 1): soundtrack

[artbyflor]

Henry completely butchering Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen is one of my favorite scenes ever. what an icon

[vkelleyart]

SPOILER ALERT.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is not throwin’ away his shot! *chortles*

Per EVERYONE’s request, albeit @andakillerqueen beat everyone to the punch, here is the Red Room Scene from Red White and Royal Blue! Having seen this room in person on a tour of the White House, this was a fun challenge. Although I swear, it took just as long to paint the dang Hamilton painting and its picture frame as it did to paint Henry and Alex. Lol

[vkelleyart]

All right, I didn’t plan for this one to jump queue, but tomorrow being Thanksgiving in the USA, I couldn’t help myself.

Happy Thanksgiving friends, with love from Alex Claremont-Diaz and Cornbread. 🦃🇬🇧🇺🇸❤️

“Cornbread knows my sins, Henry. Cornbread knows what I have done, and he is here to make me atone.” - Alex, Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

[vkelleyart]

He lets Henry push him backward on the bed and kiss him until his mind is blissfully blank, lets Henry undress him carefully…. Henry kisses his mouth over and over again and says quietly, “You are good.”

- RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston

[vkelleyart]

“They take about a hundred portraits just sitting on the bench next to each other and smiling.”

This week was Red, White & Royal Blue‘s 1-year bookaversary! It felt only fitting to draw the courtship photobut then I might have taken it a bit too far...

[vkelleyart]

Then, without warning, it changes again, turbulent chords circling back into something familiar—the Elton John songbook. Henry closes his eyes, playing from memory. It’s “Your Song.” *Oh.*

- Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

(Note: Next time I feel compelled to draw a piano on Procreate, please slap me in the face. 😅)

[vkelleyart]

During the wait for Wayward Son art, I figured now was a good time to catch up on the RWRB queue. :) This isn’t exactly the lake scene, but it’s one of my favorite moments leading up to it.

June plucks away at “Annie’s Song,” you fill up my senses like a night in a forest, and the breeze keeps moving to meet the highest branches of the trees, and the water keeps rising to meet the bulkheads, and Henry leans down to meet Alex’s mouth, and Alex is. Well, Alex is so in love he could die.”

- Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

[vkelleyart]

Please have some holiday FirstPrince art of Henry stuffing his Christmas cards with rosemary sprigs all because Casey McQuiston had the audacity to write this tweet:

❤️🎄💙🎄❤️🎄💙

[vkelleyart]

“When I was younger,” Henry says, “I had this very elaborate idea of taking somebody I loved here and standing inside the chapel, that he’d love it as much as I did, and we’d slow dance right in front of the Blessed Mother. Just a... daft pubescent fantasy.”

- Red White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

(Cue up Elton John’s “Your Song”) ❤️💙❤️💙

[vkelleyart]

(This is not a good model for social distancing. Lol)

By popular request, the heartwrenching lake scene from Red, White, and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston.

“Sweetheart.” — Alex

[vkelleyart]

“He’s part of it all now, headlines and oil paintings and pages in the Library of Congress, etched right alongside. And he’s part of *them.* Goddamn forever.”

- *Red, White & Royal Blue* by Casey McQuiston

A bit rushed in the thick of Nano, but I am MANIFESTING GOOD VIBES, Y’ALL. 🇺🇸

[vkelleyart]

I admit to rushing through the environment on this picture. I’m still feeling sick and my eyes were pretty angry at me for making them stare at a screen to finish it (which, I suspect, is why I made this scene so dark. Lol). But I tried to nab the humor of this, one of my favorite moments from RWRB. :)

“Oh my God, what are you doing? I can’t even look at you.” - Alex, Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

(PS: If you’ve left me an ask, I promise to answer as soon as I’m feeling a bit better!)

[vkelleyart]

Last fanart of the decade, folks. It seemed fitting to wrap up 2019 with this iconic New Year’s Eve kiss from Red, White and Royal Blue seeing as it technically happens tonight!

“Christ, you are as thick as it gets.” - Prince Henry

Trying not to cry in the Starbucks as I write this... This decade was game-changing, but 2019 most of all. I could never have imagined the path my life would take when I started drawing again, and you’re all a part of that. Thank you endlessly for all your love and support, and here’s to 2020 being even better! (Also, Alex and Henry wouldn’t want us to forget: it’s an election year. 😉)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[vkelleyart]

Slowly but surely getting through the RWRB list. ❤️💙 Presenting the private airstrip scene (because SWOON.)

“I want you to know, I’m sure. One thousand percent.”

He removes his hand and there, sitting in the center of Alex’s calloused palm, is the signet ring.

-Chapter 10, Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

[vkelleyart]

I always knew I wanted to draw this as a split screen moment — each of their bodies creating the parentheses with their respective bedrooms bleeding into each other — but it was my talented friend @penpanoply who had the idea of hand-lettering the quotations from Alex & Henry’s emails into the bedsheets between them. So she did! Be sure to click to view the close up of her perfect handlettering and the gorgeous sheet patterns she created!

“He rolls onto his side and listens, trails the back of his hand across the pillow next to him and imagines Henry lying opposite in his own bed, two parentheses enclosing 3,700 miles.” - Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

It’s always a pleasure to collaborate with you, Jeska. Thank you again for your hand in this picture. I love it so much. ❤️💙

[vkelleyart]

Pleased to finally share my contribution to the @historyinthemakingzine, a lil’ comic called “Mementos.” (Be sure to head to H.I.T.M.Z.’s tumblr to download the whole glorious zine!)

Note: I may have gotten a little caught up in the idea of dueling stories. Henry’s is in words. Alex, however, is a more visual person. 😂

Special thanks to @omgcmere whose beta read really brought out Henry and Alex’s voices, and to @argylefetish, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, and @fight-surrender for their final sweeps! EDIT: And @scone-lover for last minute Brit-picking! (Gosh, it’s been so long, I completely forgot what we all went through to make this thing! 😅)

Enjoy!