Re: Brian buys the drawing
Excellent point! I think that Justin’s initial infatuation with Brian prevents him from really taking to heart some of the harsh things he’s heard about him thus far. The result is that he sees a very different Brian, and here has expressed it through his art.
I would imagine that Brian is at least partially disconcerted by Justin’s impressions, because he often uses his image as a shield, and now he knows that Justin sees right through it. I think this idea, that Justin truly sees Brian, is one of the main reasons for Brian’s push/pull attitude towards Justin early on. On the one hand, here’s someone with whom he’s relaxed his persona a bit. He’s let his guard down, probably because he feels subconsciously safe in doing so with Justin. But on the other hand, that’s scary as hell, because it makes him vulnerable and he has less control over what he’s revealing about himself. Thus the often mixed messages that he sends to and about Justin.
And on a simpler note, I think Brian experiences a bit of a revelation when discovering the very fact that Justin was around to capture the image at all. He may have been telling himself that doing repeats with Justin was all about sex, but the existence of the drawing and the fact that it demonstrates Justin’s presence in his life in a much more personal way is, I think, a bit of a surprise to Brian.