Starboy Studios

baz | 23 | art student | check out my etsy shop, i make stuff https://etsy.me/3204uhg

[angelicfruitcaked]

Maybe I should wear more short skirts…

Photo by @starboystudios <33

[starboystudios]

i am so so sorry this took an additional month but here’s my piece for @pidgelikethebird for the secret fairy exchange organized by @gayalienwilde! i was working mostly with colour pencil, so unfortunately when classes started back up i could only work on this a day or two each week because it was best to do in the daylight, which is unfortunately limited at this time of year.

pidge had requested something arthur focused and/or curt x arthur, so i wanted to illustrate arthur's journey to the moment he and curt first met and the meaning that has in his story.

the lyrics on the illustration are from smalltown boy by bronski beat, which i think is one of if not The Most arthur stuart song i have ever heard. bronski beat was an openly gay synthpop group in the mid 80s, when many pop stars we now know are gay weren’t out as such. i heard about them through this trash theory video, if you’re interested in learning more about the band!

to relate to the song back to the illustration, i wanted to represent the transition arthur goes through with the mini portraits at the top - with each major instance of queer fascination with those in the same physical space as him, he literally turns around, vignette by vignette.

on a technical level, this piece allowed me to experiment in some interesting ways - i decided to do all the lineart in pink, and the text and background gradients as well as rendering the figures with coloured pencil took a lot of work to do well, and i’m proud of the results (especially with those gradients). i have a lot of progress photos, if you’re interested those are under the readmore!

i included two photos of the same piece because those pictures were taken with different cameras under different lighting conditions, and i think each brings out different qualities in the piece better. hopefully this means you can also see the metallic coloured pencils used in some areas of the piece (the silver of curt’s pants, arthur’s two glam blazers, the blue shimmer in his hair and curt’s nail, and the darker blue and purple in the text gradient).

[starboystudios]

my piece for @placebopilled for the velvet goldmine secret fairy event!! we haven't really spoken but i saw that you liked the manic street preachers and i thought that taking their lyrics with the context of shots from the film would be interesting. i've been listening to this is my truth tell me yours a lot, so i ended up pairing lyrics from you're tender and you're tired with the dynamic between brian and curt.

this ended up being a triptych because i had several ideas i felt worked best together - the idea for the first one started with the "sand and sea" line, the rest of which reflects brian's allowance for curt to use him as a support, as well as the poetic tragedy of their relationship. The latter two, with the repetitive lyrics at the end of the song, reflect the end of their relationship and brian's denial of that support he once offered to curt, defined by his silent exit.

these were also an interesting experience to draw, as they allowed me to flex some technical skill muscles - rather than drawing from observation, i mapped out the tonal values semi-blindly and only after that did i add colour. each one was executed differently depending on what worked best with each image. the text is also a very technical element, it allowed me to work with the remaining space and create lettering with both consistency and difference, as well as with a visual flow. this is also a style of writing i used in another piece inspired by glam rock.

thank you @gayalienwilde and @placebopilled for this opportunity!! and to the latter, i hope you enjoy this work!!!

[starboystudios]

posting this triptych i did in 2020 as the final piece for the @25yearsofvelvetgoldmine event.

this is about a complicated emotional period in my life, in which i used the character of malcolm as an outlet for my difficulties and as a aid to work through them. as pictured is an acrylic painting of my room at the time, and each of the three images are it modified in somewhat different ways to reflect different elements of that period of time. the only colour in the piece is within the lettering of the phrase “i will do anything for you”, a line i found incredibly evocative from the roxy music song if there is something (there is actually one exception to that, in the nail polish on a pinky finger in the third painting)

this film is so important to me and formative to the person i am and this period of time is part of that impact. thank you velvet goldmine, thank you todd haynes, and most of all, thank you malcolm.

bonus: this sketch i did MONTHS before that was the starting point for the piece.

[starboystudios]

a faux polaroid i drew of malcolm and curt circa the late 80s in mid-2021 that i subsequently mailed to @ant1christsuperstar. and yes, i gave malcolm an overgrown mullet, as mentioned in prior posts. i think he'd still be kind of gothy, though.

like its film of origin, this one is chock-full of little easter eggs. the illustration itself is referenced from this picture of brian molko, malcolm here being about the same age as brian was there. the framed prints are an andy warhol piece and a photo of marlene dietrich. malcolm's sweater is in reference to that one sweater robert smith had with the cat motif. curt's shirt is a really early photo of shudder to think - they had just started up in the DC post-hardcore scene the year prior and i feel like he would be in the know about those acts. and, as a personal touch, mal's necklace is based on one i own.

[starboystudios]

a painting i did in early 2020 of jack fairy, before lockdown, while i was still trying to figure out how to consistently draw micko westmoreland's face. i really liked implementing symbolism and reference in this one - as the earrings are reminiscent of those eno wore with the black feathered coat, and the lipstick reflects their childhood blood-lipstick attempt - but my favourite bit of meaning is with the wound over their heart, as the blood they’re using as makeup comes from how much of themself they gave to others and the glam movement. this piece took me a lot of work, taught me how underpainting works, and is a testament to them being one of my all-time favourite fictional characters.

[starboystudios]

some malcolm (and jack fairy)-centric drawings from 2021. i still really like these, especially the kiss one, it has so much character to it. a lot of this is also me experimenting with malcolm and style - most notably this shirt keith richards wore (as i feel mal maybe grew up as a stones fan), and some jewelry i actually own (an earring and necklace - the latter of which you may also notice him wearing in an illustration i plan on posting).

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

and THIS is where i figured out mullet malcolm. i saw that sweater somewhere online but i forget where, maybe depop? anyway, here are some sketches of him and jack fairy in the 80s. you will soon be seeing this mullet in a full illustration.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

back before we knew micko westmoreland was 5'6”, @silverfactory and i had a headcanon that jack fairy was quite tall. this can be seen in many of these mostly-domestic post-glam drawings i drew in 2020 of jack and malcolm (living in berlin together), most notably the one in which they are dancing (more like mal sleeping upright) on one of those… you know how like in rooms in the seventies there would be a point where the floor was raised by a step or two (and carpeted)?

anyway, i still quite like a lot of these. the last two in particular were a specific request from @silverfactory to see more seasonal drawings of them as a kind of cheer-up. the cat in the second is jack’s cat (and most constant companion), maila, according to her headcanon.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

this illustration is one i made for @silverfactory as a birthday gift in 2020. we had been talking about the idea of jack fairy in relation to flowers, and orchids symbolizing androgyny, and this is what came out of it. if i’m not mistaken, the orchids are the second of the two varieties listed here. i’m ​kind of hoping it’s the one called black opal because the stone in question is the gemstone i’ve seen that looks the most like the alien gemstone.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

these drawings are around three years old, but close to four years ago, i believe @silverfactory and i developed an idea surrounding malcolm having cigarette burn scars from a prior relationship and/or self-harm, partially in reference to a couple placebo songs (1) (2). at some point, we decided that he gets them tattooed over at some point in his life (probably the 80s, as pictured with the jack design - mal has shorter hair here (which i don’t really like, tbh) because this is before i figured out the design for the gothy mullet that ultimately suits him better, which i believe will be seen in later drawing posts). it’s hard to see in the sketch, but the tattoos in question are pansies.

this also relates to a little easter egg in my full illustration of the flaming creatures i did some time later in which, if you look very closely, under the mesh he is wearing, you can see these scars.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

sketches from 2021 - @silverfactory wanted to see jack smiling because they’re not incredibly facially expressive in the film so i decided to draw them to see how it might look. i don’t know how well i did, as micko westmoreland's face was usually very hard to capture, but i like the intent nonetheless.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

these drawings are some old VG sketches from 2020-21 i didn't know where else to put. the first is 60s dandy jack fairy, the second is a continuous line drawing of jack fairy and written next to them is the name of a song i think they would sing, and the third is malcolm with a vintage 20s cat shaped fan. spreading my malcolm cat lady (gender neutral) propaganda

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

jack fairy in lingerie drawings based on an old conversation with @silverfactory. the last drawing is their 80s jack design.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

posting old drawings for the @25yearsofvelvetgoldmine event - this comic was drawn i believe in 2020 based on this post and brian's reply is something @ant1christsuperstar said in response to it.

[starboystudios]

some sketches from the time near the start of the pandemic when i wanted to make a jack fairy long furby (jack furby) and a malcolm furby buddy as a prior test. project concept was kind of daunting at the time but here is the designs. i do still want to make these eventually, i think. bonus below the cut.

@25yearsofvelvetgoldmine

[starboystudios]

posting these old drawings from early 2020 for @25yearsofvelvetgoldmine - they are from something that, if i'm remembering correctly, @silverfactory and i tried to map out almost four years ago in which the Big Stars in velvet goldmine were all supernatural beings drawn to the gemstone and arthur is a present-day journalism student who comes across it and the pin grants him the power to percieve them. he moves in with the art-student flaming creatures and shenanigans of supernatural beings only percieved by like half the people in the flat ensue.

jack is one of the aos sí, and brian is referred to as "maxwell siren". curt is a kind of wolf-man thing who can transform back and forth between the two forms? i didn't draw him because i was intimidated by the idea of having to draw his dick. i think.