Mark and I had been doing art together for quite a few years before before he took figure drawing classes. He was very gifted at rendering the figure and he started exploring the male figure and male/male erotic images in his art. He combined these LGBTQ+ themes with prose writings that eventually took the form of a series of sci-fi novels featuring male/male romance.
Mark liked to render muscular men in sometimes brief attire, which meant he practiced drawing the torso a lot. I made the above right side art journal page from a selection from one of his sketchbooks. It showed a partially finished figure with the head and limbs not colored in. It reminded me of how much artwork Mark could still have made if he had lived longer. It's likely that all artists leave behind unfinished work, but since Mark died at age 49 there was a lot more artwork that should have existed if things had been different.
Things to be grateful for: