Drawing Ben - 11/22/13

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Ben is in the holiday spirit! We've seen Ben before. This time he came to me with an idea. 

Drawing Jonathan - 11/07/13

BANG BANG! This was a fun drawing session. We had Jonathan in the studio posing. Despite the big gun, he's actually a gentle soul.

Drawing Eryc - 10/24/13

I NEVER TIRE OF DRAWING. I enjoy doing it ever opportunity I get. I have been posting, quite regularly, figure studies for the last year and have enjoyed working on each one. If any of you wonder, I'm not drawing these for work, nor am I enrolled in any class. I'm making these drawings and watercolors because I want to. It's what I love to do more than anything.

A few weeks ago, I got to draw Eryc. Eryc is a dancer and, in fact, owns his own dance company. He's obviously in shape and gave us some great poses. I'm in love with the last painting here. I really captured his weight and mass.

I hope you enjoy looking at my work as much as I enjoy making it. Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or just want to say hi!

Drawing Magic - 10/03/13

NOW FOR A LITTLE MAGIC! Our model last night was magic. I mean, our model last night was Magic. Magic was his name. Like, legit, his parent's named him Magic. Often models with have "stage" names to protect their identity should they become famous actors or politicians. I was a surprised this was not the case last night. 

He was quite the handsome guy, long, lean, and muscular. I'm sure that his training as a dancer gave him the body. It also gave us the great dramatic poses. He was a pleasure to work with. I hope I get the chance to draw him again.

Drawing Ben - 09/29/13

BEN WAS A SURPRISE! Ben contacted me to model. I was nervous at first because he didn't have any modeling experience, but he was a natural!

He's super-fit from his collegiate days as a track runner. With a little direction, he gave some great poses. I think we were both really happy with the experience. He had fun and checked something off his bucket list; and I got some great drawings!

If you're interested in modeling, please contact me. I'm mostly interested in working with athletic/fit builds that connect with my current body of work.

Drawing Francisco - 09/26/13

FRANCISCO WAS LATE, but he was worth the wait! As mentioned in my last entry, Drawing Charles, Francisco had some difficulty arriving on time for our drawing session. Because we got a late start, we had him hold the same pose for the entire session.

Drawing Charles - 09/26/13

LAST NIGHT the our model was late so Charles volunteered to sit. Although I was expecting to draw a young, muscly model, I had a lot of fun painting Charles. It's been a while since I've done a portrait of anyone out of their 20's... or clothed.

Follow Me on Instagram! @JohnMacConnell

I JOINED THE INSTAGRAM BANDWAGON a few months ago, and so should you! I love it! Get a glimpse into my process and inspiration! Follow me @JohnMacConnell!

Drawing Benjamin - 08/20/13

BENJAMIN HAS ONE OF THOSE HEROIC BODIES usually reserved for Italian sculpture and comic book pages. We're talking serious beefcake. Needless to say, he was a pleasure to paint. I kept having the urge to put a "S" on his chest, though... I'm hoping to work with him again. Stay tuned!

Drawing Jeff & David - 07/23/13

I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO FOCUS LAST NIGHT. Jeff and David were both beautiful men. They each deserve a drawing session of their own. It was only by mistake that we were drawing them together last night at Mark Beard's--a double booking. 

While I love the first painting of the two full-body figures together, I wish I would have had more time for the second. The double portrait would have been beautiful. It's such a more intimate composition.

Drawing DanPaul - 5/9/13

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN; I present you with DanPaul; singer, songwriter, artist, and model.

Drawing Ryan 2 - 04/11/13

AFTER SEVERAL CRAZY WEEKS of work, moving, and gallery shows, I was finally able to make it back to drawing. Drawing makes the craziest of weeks better. This week I had the pleasure of drawing Ryan 2, again. I think he's been lifting. He looked bigger. Enjoy!

Boys of Summer: Artwork from the the Pines Nude Drawing Group

THE LESLIE LOHMAN MUSEUM presents 

Boys of Summer: Artwork from the Pines Nude Drawing Group

Opening: April 5th, 6-9 PM

April 6th & 7th, 12-7 PM

Prince Street Project Space

127-B Prince Street, New York, NY 10012

(Between West Broadway and Wooster Streets)

FEATURING WORKS BY: Anthony Gonzales, Carlos Pisco, Dan Evans, Duane Neil, George Towne, Grant Aronld Anderson, Ian Sklarsky, John MacConnell (THAT'S ME!), Kenneth Nadel, Richard Des Jardins, Rob Clarke, Robert de Michiell, Shungaboy, Todd Yeager, William Bil Donovan, W. Douglas Topper, and archival images from the Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society.

If you're in New York, please stop by the first weekend in April for this show at the Leslie Lohman Musuem. It is my first since finishing grad school. It is a collection of drawings and sketches that I created over the last two summers on the beaches of Fire Island with the Pines Nude Drawing group. Mine and other work will be for sale. Postcard designed by me!

Drawing Ryan - 01/24/13

ANOTHER GREAT NIGHT of drawing with Mark Beard. This time with the golden boy, Ryan. Such a handsome guy. He had some amazing poses. I wish I would have had enough time to finish at least one of the portraits (and do another dozen drawings). Enjoy!

Drawing with Mark Beard

LAST NIGHT WAS A TREAT! (Get it? Halloween humor! Sorry...) I had the opportunity to join artist, Mark Beard, for an evening of life drawing. I got an invitation to his studio for the session; and it was something very special. Entering his studio is like entering the studio of a Renaissance artist. Every wall is covered with classic drawings and paintings, busts and sculptures pop up here and there, old books and reference photos strewn about (okay, maybe an Edwardian artist's studio), and projects in-progress are tucked in the corner to be scrutinized later.

The space is fitting, of course, for Mark's work. He is responsible for the amazing murals you'll see in the Abercrombie & Fitch stores, which look like they're from the Edwardian era. Beautiful Abercrombiesque athletes doing the sorts of things you'd expect -- rowing boats, riding bikes, playing football, painted like gods. He's a master of his craft.

It was clear where Mark found his inspiration from. Gabriel, the model, was clearly a real athlete. He could have been carved out of stone.

A big thank you to Mark Beard for hosting the session this week. I can't wait to go back!

The Village Voice: Spinning Out of Control

The eighth installment from Harry Siegel. On newsstands October 5th.

Read it on the Village Voice website.

The Advocate is the Best!

The folks at The Advocate Magazine are the best! In the mail, I just received a few copies of my issue, AND A POSTER OF MY COVER! Can you say, "Best Client Ever!" It's so cool of them to send me the poster. I was already planning on getting the issue framed. Now I have even more.

Made my day, guys. Big thumbs up. Thanks! :)

The Advocate: The Cuomo Evolution

Check out my illustration for the cover for the September issue of The Advocate!

Marriage Equality has been passed in New York State and this issue talks to the man who pushed for it, Governor Andrew Cuomo. I know you want to run out and go grab it now, but it's not on stands, yet. So, you're just going to have to settle for reading/seeing my artwork on the Advocate website.

I'm so honored to have been asked to create the image for this monumental issue and I'm excited it turned out so great. Once it becomes available you should get one right away. Trust me, it's going to be a hot commodity. I think I'm going to frame mine. :)

Super Family

You could say this was a Super-fun piece to create. A friend of mine asked me to create a family portrait for his partner for his birthday. The whole thing was very hush, hush, as it was a surprise.

Their family consists of their two, twin (adorable!) sons and them. The only instructions I was given was make it big (3'x5'), so it would fit their large wall, make it focus on the boys, and to do something fun. It was also hinted that the birthday boy had a thing for comics, which is why they thought of me as the creator of this piece.

With that in mind, I was a little nervous about creating something they'd like. That much freedom gives a lot of places to mess up, but I was assured they trusted me, and didn't even want to see sketches before I began the final piece. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, though, and I just prayed they'd enjoy the idea.



I was nervous throughout the creation of the whole thing cause of issues of size, using watercolor (a very unforgiving media), and not to mention I had to get four likenesses! You could say the whole piece just "flew" by, though, once I got started. For fun, I decided to take some pictures as I worked. Half way through, I decided it would be fun to turn them into an animation. As I wasn't planning this, I have to apologize for the lack of clothing in some of the stills. Now you know the perks of working from home...

It was a really fun piece to work on. I'm so happy to have had the opportunity. I was also lucky enough to be able to visit the piece at it's new home.

Michael Phelps

So the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics have started! Yes, I know swimming is a Summer Olympics event, and that we won't be seeing any of Michael Phelps this time round (except he still seems to slip into commercials here and there...), but I created this piece a few months ago, and now seemed like the most appropriate time to post it. If I had to wait two years, I'd probably have lost it and it'd never see the light of day. And who's going to complain about looking at Michael Phelps, anyway?

It continues the portrait series I've been working on (Obama, Britney, Armstrong...) and it also continues the experimentation I've been doing with combining rendered and vector elements. Originally, I planned to draw a school of fish swimming with/fleeing from Phelps with the same attention and detail I rendered the swimmer. Last minute, I decided to try something a little different. I like the way the fish become more of a pattern upon the piece. Ideally, I'd like to have screen printed the fish directly on top of the original piece, but I don't have the facilities or nerve to do that...


Here's the original drawing, too. I've chosen to include it just so you can see how little I'm actually doing with photoshop. Everything tonal is done by hand. I basically just fill in large areas with color (background-aqua, phelps-peach; etc). The fish I drew on a different sheet of paper, scanned and then traced in Illustrator. The drawing is really doing the "heavy-lifting" of the piece. The color/computer aspect of the piece is really simplistic.

And since this blog is about my running also, I should also mention that this post is also extra appropriate to post since tonight is my first night of swimming for cross-training. I've got my speedo and cap all ready, wish me luck!

Anyway, Happy Olympics! Maybe I'll get a portrait of Apolo Ohno done in the next fourteen days...