A pencil catches the light in a bearded jaw. A pair of eyes, heavy lidded and half closed, hold a stare that feels almost too intimate to witness. This is the world Marco Matroso builds one line at a time, and it is the world he brings to the cover and pages of Inspiró Issue 2.
The Hamburg based illustrator has spent years turning found photographs into charged, tactile portraits of men, and with Issue 2 of Inspiró, that work steps into one of the most talked about collections in contemporary queer art publishing. Alongside eleven other international artists, including Bert Van Pelt, AKARoberto, Pete Garrard, and Wayne Howarth, Matroso helps anchor a magazine built entirely around male sensuality, identity, and desire.
Starting With the Eyes
According to his bio in Inspiró Issue 2, Matroso has been drawing well since childhood, always observing people and objects closely before committing anything to paper. Every illustration begins the same way for him, with the eyes. As he puts it in the magazine, if the eyes turn him on, the drawing only gets better from there. That single detail says everything about how his process works. The eyes are not an afterthought or a finishing touch, they are the emotional engine of the whole piece, the thing that decides whether a portrait will simply look at the viewer or actually hold them.
This obsession with observation goes back further than his art career. In an earlier interview, Matroso explained that his drawing skills date back to childhood, and that he originally trained in fashion design before shifting his full attention to illustration, a transition that gave him a sharper eye for texture, proportion, and the way clothing and skin interact on the page.
Muses Found, Not Invented
Matroso does not work from imagination alone. Some of his muses are discovered in photographs he finds on Instagram, images of real men, models, and adult performers who catch his attention, which he then reinterprets entirely in his own hand. A photo becomes a jumping off point rather than a template, filtered through his instinct for which angle, which shadow, which half second of a stranger's expression deserves to exist as a drawing.
That instinct is exactly what gives his work its charge. Scroll through his Instagram and the captions alone read like a mood board for masculine intimacy, beards, bare shoulders, hands gripping waists, two men leaned into each other with nowhere else to be. It is not polished pin up art. It is raw, warm, a little messy in the best way, built from real bodies and real energy rather than idealized fantasy.
Bold, Bearded, Unapologetic
What separates Matroso's illustrations from a lot of queer art in this space is restraint mixed with heat. His linework is loose and confident, his color choices lean warm and skin toned, and his compositions favor closeness over spectacle. Two men pressed cheek to cheek. A kiss aimed at the side of a neck. Bodies caught mid exhale rather than mid pose. The masculine energy in his work does not come from exaggeration, it comes from proximity, from letting the viewer sit right up against the moment he has chosen to freeze.
That approach fits perfectly inside Inspiró Issue 2, a magazine built to expand on the momentum of its debut by bringing together twelve international artists working across photography, collage, digital art, and illustration, all circling the same core idea, masculinity and intimacy explored without apology.
Continuing Where Issue 1 Left Off
Inspiró Issue 2 is more than a magazine, it is a collectible print object designed to hold queer art at the level of craft it deserves. Over one hundred pages, a dozen artists, and a cover fronted by Marco Matroso's work make this issue a genuine milestone for anyone following the current wave of homoerotic illustration and photography. Having his art not just featured inside but placed on the cover puts Matroso in rare company among the magazine's contributors, and signals just how far his instinct for a good face, a good beard, and a good pair of eyes has carried him.
For fans of bold, bearded, deeply human queer art, Inspiró Issue 2 is essential, and Marco Matroso's contribution is one of the reasons why.
Inspiró Issue 2 is available now through The Male Muse Store. US customers please be aware that you will need to order from The Male Muse Blurb Store due to current print limitations in the states.
Follow Marco Matroso on Instagram @marcomatroso to see the photographs behind the drawings.
