Na-kyum is a talented artist who excels in painting beautiful gay erotica, though he does so under a pseudonym. Yet recently, he has given up painting, vowing never to create lewd art again. But the notoriously lust-driven nobleman Seungho Yoon didn't get the memo—nor will he accept it—and forces Na-kyum to become his in-house painter, demanding the artist create his erotic works just for Seungho to enjoy. Can Na-kyum endure being Seungho's personal painter of the night or will the late-night activities be too much for him?

Painter of the Night has story and art by Byeonduck. Translation by Lezhin US Localization Team. Lettering by Karis Page. Published by Seven Seas (September 23, 2025). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I don't think I've seen a series truly explore the kinks of voyeurism and exhibitionism before, or at least not from this angle. It's more typical to see things from the perspective of a criminal voyeur. But in Painter of the Night, Seungho Yoon explicitly wants Na-Kyum to watch him engaging in various sex acts with his male partners. The stated goal is that Na-Kyum, a talented painter of homoerotic works (emphasis on the erotic), can then create images of what he's seen for Seungho to enjoy afterwards. But the way that the older lord makes and maintains eye contact with the young peasant painter tells a different story…he enjoys the fact that Na-Kyum is there, watching his every move. Being watched is part of the pleasure.

Well, for Seungho, at any rate. His main partner, Jihwon, is much less enthused about being observed, even if he does go out of his way to put on a show towards the end of the volume, and Na-Kyum is also clearly uncomfortable about the entire set up. When the story starts, Na-Kyum had renounced his erotic art, with the implication that he did so at the behest of his beloved teacher. (And “beloved” may very well mean in the romantic sense.) Seungho is forcing him back into a profession he no longer wants to engage in, and that's before the lord takes Na-Kyum's teacher under his wing as collateral. If Na-Kyum doesn't keep painting, Seungho will ruin his teacher's reputation. It's blackmail, pure and simple.

These issues, much more than Jihwon's jealousy, make the book feel unnecessarily cruel. I think that's the point, to be honest; alongside the voyeurism kink, this is also about a relationship with a serious power imbalance, and that's meant to be part of the appeal. And both elements are done well, so if you enjoy those tropes in your romance fiction, I think this will be very enjoyable. It's also remarkably explicit without going overboard. I've read books with more detail that didn't feel nearly as smutty as this one, which again is likely part of its appeal. This is for a specific audience, and it has no problem with that.

While I don't love the way faces are drawn (there's something off-putting about them that I can't quite figure out), it's clear that a lot of care went into this, from the colors to the body language. I appreciate what it's doing even if it didn't work for me, and if dark BL is your preference, don't sleep on Painter of the Night.

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

This one is not going to be a hit with the Puriteens. This erotic BL story features dubious consent with no kink negotiation in sight. But let me spell it out for the media illiterate: Painter of the Night is fiction. It doesn't need to include consent because the consent occurs when you, the reader, agree to pick up this 18+ kinky book. As long as no real people are being harmed, feel free to read about this unlucky blorbo being forced to watch and illustrate public sex to your heart's content. Heck, while you're out here being a grown-up making your own grown-up decisions, go ahead and charge this book to your Mastercard!

I previously discovered Painter of the Night on Lezhin Comics, so this review was a reread for me. I was drawn to the story's historical setting of classical Korea, its spicy scenario, and its characters' deeply expressive faces—in a comic that features so many types of sex, the eye-fucking is somehow the most intimate and intense. It's the story of Baek Nakyum, a former erotic artist who has ceased to paint due to personal reasons (guilt and trauma? You guessed it!) and the promiscuous nobleman Yoon Seungho who will spare no expense (and, later, no punishment) to make him pick up the brush again. Seungho sleeps with all kinds of men in front of Nakyum to get his paintbrush tingling, but the painter is too busy being a bundle of horny nerves in response to this treatment to draw much of anything. It doesn't help that Seungho keeps his crazy eyes fixed on Nakyum even as he gets up to all manner of filth. Meanwhile, Seungho's assorted flavors of the week are getting vexed that their boytoy is focusing his energy on the painter, who is a peasant at that, to give his noble paramours their due. But Seungho's sexual appetite is matched only by his mercurial moods, and nobody knows who will be his next subject of sadistic torment.

Painter of the Night is a completed comic, but of course this volume ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. At 133 total chapters, it'll be a long while of “will they or won't they” before we find out if Seungho's mind games end up working on Nakyum or simply drive him into a psychotic break. In the meantime, this is a pure, uncut kink story of the likes that we rarely receive in modern BL stories: exhibitionism, voyeurism, and the aforementioned dubious consent. It won't be in everyone's strike zone but for those it hits, it'll hit hard.