Everyone loves a bit of colouring-in, right? Especially if the images you get to bring to life have a bit of an erotic edge.

I caught up with Scott – the guy behind the Gay Adult Colouring Book for a behind-the-scenes look at his creative talents.

The origin story

“I’ve been a life model for many years now – with the pandemic hitting, I was unable to pose for artists…” explains Scott, when I ask him about the inspiration behind the Gay Adult Colouring Book.

“I’d tried running virtual sessions one-to-one with artists, however – with the restrictions of living in shared accommodation – it didn’t quite always pan out.”

“This led me to taking reference photos that I would send out to artists to use. After creating one photoset that I was quite chuffed with, I thought that I’d give it a go at creating something myself.”

“In the beginning, all of the artwork was created digitally. I would start to sketch on top of the photo and then, with practice, I started to work just from looking at the reference photo.”

“Over time, I started to play around with different styles – abstract single lines, neon sign, realistic, and retro 3D.”

“I’ve always been fascinated by Piet Mondrian – the simplicity of the geometric lines, primary colours, and white space.”

The creative process

“When I first started off, I would create pieces from photos of myself…” says Scott, as he explains his creative process.

“As I started to get seen more on social media, people would start to reach out to me and ask if they could be drawn. I would post and tag them – with their consent – and my page just grew.”

“Over time, I tried to balance the amount of work I created based on myself as well as submissions.”

“After getting more comfortable with drawing, I started to create images based on artist models and fashion croquis.”

The wish-list

I asked Scott which men were on his wish-list as subjects that he would like to draw.

“Jamie Bell, Tom Holland, Alexander Skarsgard, Alex Pettyfer, and Jonathan Bailey…” he replied.

“I’ve done many commissioned works – nationally and internationally…” adds Scott. “These have been done through submitting photos of individuals or couples. I charge £10 per photo and they get two electronic copies sent to them, sent in the highest quality for printing.

The feeling of creativity

“Coming from a creative background – dance and musical theatre – I spent the majority of 2020 feeling oppressed and needed to find a creative output…” says Scott, when we talk about what he wants to convey to people through his illustrations.

“The Gay Adult Colouring Book gave me that creative output, and I would love to pass this feeling of creativity on.”

“I wanted to create images that were simply enough for people to colour in, while being as realistic as possible – giving them a blank canvas so they can turn the models in the images into whoever they want them to be.”

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