My love for drawing started when I was a child. I remember my drawing classes at Rafa-e-Aam High School, near Am Khas Bagh in Multan. It was a public school, but that class was where I really learned the basics. I practiced sketching pots, utensils, and simple shapes, learning how to use different angles of shading and the strength of a black pencil to create depth.

Most of the time, I didn’t have fancy materials. I would just draw on whatever I could find a notebook page or a scrap of paper. I became fascinated with drawing the human body. Bodies are difficult to draw, but I liked the challenge of trying to make a face or a feature look exactly like the person in front of me.

I remember one time in school, I drew a full naked man in my notebook. When I showed it to my classmates, most of them were annoyed or shocked. I felt I had to hide the genitals in the drawing, and eventually, I even tore the paper out. I was afraid that if people saw it, they would think I was a “weird” person or a “gay” person, which was dangerous to be in that environment.

But I didn’t stop. Over time, I kept drawing naked bodies and faces. I wanted to understand how different people have different features and how to capture that uniqueness on paper.

My “Kamasutra” Sketch

The artwork I am most proud of and the one you can see featured in the gallery on my website is a very personal piece. I drew it on the thick cardboard cover of an old notebook. If you look closely at the image, you can still see the holes on the side where the metal rings used to hold the pages together.

In this sketch, I used my own naked body as the subject. I drew myself in many different positions within a room, but it isn’t a normal room. My body merges with the furniture. In one part, my body is upside down, and instead of a head, it merges into the wood of a bed. In another part, my leg is resting on a brick cupboard built into the wall, but the cupboard itself has human legs.

This image is more than just a sketch of a room; it is a guide. It is my own version of a “Gay Kamasutra.” The different positions of my body throughout the room represent different sexual positions and the connection between the physical self and the space we inhabit. In the center, there is a metal grill door, and to the left, a bed where different versions of my naked self interact.

For a long time, I had to hide this side of my art. Today, I share it because it represents my journey of accepting my body, my sexuality, and my identity as an artist. This sketch on a simple notebook cover is where my history in Pakistan meets my freedom today.

I invite you to look at the gallery on my website AliRazaKhan.com to see this work and others. My art is my way of showing the beauty of the human form and the stories we carry within us.