Beauties in All Their Forms
Self-taught artist Dylan Pynk sees magic in our differences and hopes you’ll see it, too
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Name: Dylan Pynk
Age: 31
Location: East Tennessee
Day job: Retail, Merchandising Manager at a large chain
Degrees/Education: None, completely self taught
Art medium/media: Digital (Samsung Tab using Ibispaintx) and the occasional acrylic paint on canvas
Primary subjects: People, Sex, and Pop Culture
Bluesky: @dylanpynk.bsky.social
Diversity is really important to Dylan Pynk, and he wishes it would be for you, too.
Dylan Pynk is a digital artist from Tennessee, who specializes in various types of gay male nude art.
“I have a personal rule, if I have to flick my thumb down your feed more than twice to see an overweight person, a Black person, a Trans person, or anything other than a fit white cis man, I’m probably not going to engage with your art,” the 31-year-old artist from Tennessee says.
“Gay men, specifically, have a tendency to idealize Euro centric beauty standards and completely toss aside the notion of glamorizing any bodies outside of that rigid ideal. I find this incredibly frustrating, but also incredibly boring. As Queer artists we should be able to see beauty beyond the standards set by society, or else we’re just doing our part in upholding that standard in which we will never truly fit in at the end.”
Scrolling through Pynk’s Bluesky, you can see he practices what he preaches. There’s a wide range of men represented, and yet he has succeeded in creating them all with his fun and fanciful style.
When did your art journey begin?
I’m sure it’s cliche to say, but for as long as I can remember I’ve been drawing, writing, painting — any creative endeavor I could get my hands on. Some of my earliest memories are of me sitting on the couch drawing with my crayons and telling my mom I was going to be an artist when I grew up. And I never quit saying that.
How did you get where you are today?
So having never taken any art classes since elementary school, I really had just pushed art to the side by my teen years into a hobby of constantly painting. I probably did over 100 canvases — some good some bad — but as social media evolved, I started to see more and more digital art around and decided I wanted to try my hand at it.
I started just on my phone with my finger using a crappy art app for Android, and I made the best of that for years. After about 4 years, I decided to invest in a tablet and some better software and gave myself the goal of drawing every day, or at the very least every other day. I slowly started finding my groove with it, and to this day I’m still learning little tricks and things every time I draw.
Would you change anything?
I wish I had gone to school for art instead of an English degree. Even if I still didn’t graduate, I would probably have a lot stronger foundation to work on. Being self taught has worked for me, but I do sometimes wonder how much better my work could be if I had more formal training and peers to challenge me in those formative years.
How has being Queer influenced your art?
Being Queer and a part of this community is foundational for my art. I primarily focus on Queer subjects, and like many AMAB Queers before me, my art also has a heavy focus on sexuality and sensuality. Finding a community that appreciates sex and art and the common ground between the two gave me the confidence to cast aside any concerns about making art that anyone but me and my community would be proud of. I’m so grateful to not have to censor my ideas for anyone.
What are your inspirations?
My inspiration comes from all directions: Movies, video games, television, old media from my childhood, new media from weird corners of the web — I’m never sure when the next idea will hit me. I definitely owe respect to Keith Haring, Alberto Vargas, and Andy Warhol.
Keith inspired me to grasp my Queerness, harness it, and use it to fuel my art and my drive. He also inspired me to embrace sexuality in general in art.
Alberto Vargas’s impact capitalized on this, teaching me to lean into the idealization possible in art, and how it’s more about conveying the right sensation and feeling as opposed to recreating your mental vision to the exact detail.
I owe a thanks to Andy Warhol’s work in pop art and bridging that gap between pop culture and fine art.
If you mix the Queerness of Keith, the idealization of Alberto, and the pop culture knowledge of Andy, I would like to land somewhere in that mix.
Where do you want to go with your art?
I don’t have the biggest, most grand aspirations. In all honesty, my biggest goal in creating art is to make things I’m proud of and to find an audience that would support me in doing so. I would like to sell my art at more places — and do some shows, sure — but at the end of the day, my biggest goal is to have a body of work to look back on one day with pride, and hopefully bring some joy and inspiration to people like me.
What’s your favorite work you’ve created?
My favorite pieces I’ve ever done are all from an ongoing series of fantasy / medieval-themed portraits. The second piece I did was called, “The Knight,” and I am very proud of it still years later. It inspired me to do the entire series that I plan on making into several projects (stay tuned!).
What advice do you have for other artists out there?
There are two pieces of advice that changed how I create for the better. First and foremost: Create every day. Be it a sketch, a doodle, a haiku, your eyeshadow, something, anything, just flex that muscle every single day. It’s easier to keep the flow going than it is to close and open the dam.
Secondly I would say: Stop measuring your art’s worth in social media attention, in how your friends interact with it, or anything other than how it makes you FEEL. Are you proud of what you’ve made? Good, you should be. And that is all that will truly matter in the long run. Creating just for success will never satiate that feeling of needing to do better, but knowing you’ve done your best for yourself will.
Looking for more queer male nude art?
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