You may love posting pics of your bae at the bar, but at its best, Instagram is a handheld art gallery, and like photographers, illustrators have embraced it as a platform for showcasing their brands. We scoured IG for our favorite queer illustrators, and compiled them here for your pleasure. Because a gay can't live by Tom of Finland alone.
Illustration: Hilton Dresden
You'd be hard-pressed to find a queer Instagram artist with a more sparing, yet effective use of shadow than Medina, whose largely grayscale nudes blur the lines between sex and wrestling, BDSM and brotherhood.
One of many budding queer illustrators who mix sex with sweetness, Barry, with his minimalistic, pink and blue contour-line drawings, presents erect penises and compromising positions with the innocence of a vintage coloring book.
Many of us are turned on by pubic hair, but Japanese illustrator Yamamoto is shifting our perspective with his romantic nudes, adorning all of his subjects with flora just above their family jewels.
More intent on celebrating culture and feminism than explicitly addressing her queerness, lesbian illustrator Kirk is nevertheless unapologetic with her work, vibrantly depicting the "other" with her unique approach to facial contours.
Lately, Fortin is posting more imagery of himself and his interests than his precious, pseudo-transgressive art, but you still get the cute vibe he pours into his animated characters, which are a bit like the Garbage Pail Kids if every garbage pail were filled with cotton candy.
Incorporating ink and watercolor into his simple, caricature-esque, portraits, Greenfield—who calls Adelaide, Australia, home—also pens a column about the diverse people from his stomping grounds.
Arguably the preeminent drag illustrator, Sell has crafted eye-popping, two-dimensional versions of virtually every contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race, including those in the new season, like New York's Aja (pictured).
Deon gives you a glimpse of his whole creative process, showing you the costumed models who enter his studio, himself hard at work, and the imaginative finished products, which evoke sexy tarot cards and comic book covers.
This precocious, Mexico City-based marvel has built a digital portfolio of near-photo-realistic renderings of gay icons, from Marilyn Monroe and Miranda Priestly to Lady Gaga and Lorde. (And, of course, Beyoncé).
Curator of the popular Drink & Draw class held weekly at Manhattan's Pieces bar, Burrowes, for his own work, seems to draw equal inspiration from fantasy characters and Tom of Finland male ideals.
Like Ethan Barry, but with a wholly different aesthetic (think bubblegum and Playmobil via a fetish shop), Brooklyn-based Cute Brute brings a playfulness to the joy of sex, while promoting political resistance and a general lust for life.
With a sketchy style and neon color scheme that tends to evoke pop drawings of the late '80s and early '90s, Rodriguez depicts men (and women) at every level of fame, be they big-name actors, local New York performers, or mythological figures.
Melbourne-based Cannon can say a whole lot with very little, letting her simplistic, lesbian-leaning, and body-positive line drawings speak for themselves even when she's not pairing them with lines like, "I am fucking beautiful."
Endlessly inspired by mid-century female oppression, Olsen creates eerie work with droll pessimism (the accompanying text never ceases to put a girl down), but if you're reading between the lines, you're in on the feminist joke.
One of our favorite fashion illustrators, Teodoro, with his broad black strokes and bursts of color, is the epitome of art-chic, his gallery mimicking the sketchbook of an in-demand designer.
Tuller's marketable eye has landed him published work in Billboard, Winq, OUT and The Wall Street Journal, and his subjects range from Quentin Crisp and runway models to Taylor Swift and Zayn.
A contributor to the black-centric zine The Tenth, Lowe doesn't share his artwork on his account, but click the link in his bio, and you'll find the SVA-educated animator's commissioned designs and sketches, which show off a professional's eye for form, movement and a touch of cultural levity.
At once baroque and boundary-pushing, the work of of Valentin may feature a crowned and tatted stud, a man fellating the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or two boys linked by their nipple piercings, all captured in his trademark blues and saturated flesh tones.
Whether it's birds, butts or body-ready tattoo designs, Chin's art is often laced with his Asian influences, and his gallery is peppered with handsome personal photos.
Once a champion of all things pink, the mega-popular Simmonds recently rebranded to make red his signature color, which, coupled with his activism, is perhaps a response to this country's bleeding heart.
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