She moves in mysterious ways.

Yesterday's Dr. Sketchy was hosted by Blick Art Supplies in Dearborn and featured Lana of Detroit Bellydance who posed for us once before. I was running much too late and only had time to feed the dog before running off for a haircut and then on to the session. So I ended up using my tablet pc again.

I love my tablet, but for doing figure drawing it has it's downsides. One is that the screen is small and I have to zoom in to see detail which then means I can't see the rest of my drawing. It also provides me with the dangerous "undo" button if I feel I've made a mistake. Figure drawing isn't about fixing and re-fixing what you're doing, it's about teaching you to do it right in the first place. But I do like having all of those colors and digital media at my fingertips! Plus I don't have to scan anything in afterwards. Maybe I was being too harsh on my tablet. Still, I bought one of those fancy Moleskine (how DO you say that anyway?) sketch books and meant to get one of those little water color sets to try out for next time.

So, here's Lana in various poses and various colors!

Sketchy and sketches

I played it lazy last night and used my mighty tablet pc at Dr. Sketchy as opposed to real paper and pencils. Azucena teasingly calls it cheating. I've made it a point up until now to not use the tablet so that I would be forced into fixing on the fly whatever mistakes I make using traditional media. How else do we improve but by learning from our mistakes?

Our models for the night consisted of three hula hoopers, including Revolva (awesome name) who posed for us before. All proceeds went to Blight Busters which gives hula hoops to inner city kids for World Hoop Day. The fun part of drawing hula hoopers in action is that nobody can tell you that you got it wrong. The models were moving far too fast to get an accurate picture of what they were doing. In fact, all of my sketches are amalgams of the three hoopers, using an arm from this one, a leg from that one...etc. The session was more about capturing the feeling of movement than any kind of accuracy and it led to much more cartoony drawings than what I normally produce at Dr. Sketchy.

I'm also throwing in three sketches from lunch break earlier in the day. Kind of my warm-up for D.S.: a girl from a pop-up ad on my email, Ellie, and Azucena admiring a rock.

Coming up next: My Comic Con report! I got to meet Dr. Sketchy creator Molly Crabapple herself! Stay tuned!

More from ye olde booke of Sketchy

A few weeks back Cafe 1923 in Hamtramck held the opening for the first Dr. Sketchy art show. And of course we had a session of drawing as well. Everyone's favorite model, Muana, posed for us in all her Geisha finery. We even got to go draw outside - a Dr. Sketchy first. The show will be hanging until July 12.

A few of my sketches hang along with Azucena's and others'.

Sketchy for May

Demonique, one of our models from last year's anniversary sketchin' session, returned for another go at posing for us. Once again, here are my interpretations - the ones that turned out half way decent anyway.

Oh, and June 6th is the opening for a special Dr. Sketchy show at Cafe 1923 in Hamtramck, featuring artwork from a bevy of art monkeys! I'll have several sketches on view myself. Stay tuned for more info if there is any.

Six degrees of Sketchy

For the seventeenth Dr. Sketchy model Zachariah posed for us along with his fancy guitar. We don't get many guys posing for us, but he was great and could hold a pose like nobody. My interpretations look a bit like Kevin Bacon crossed with Chris Isaak. So if you ever need to know how those two are connected, now you know. The last drawing is from a fifteen minute round robin that two other people finished from my original sketch.

Young Sketchy in Love

I'm a few weeks behind in posting these, but here's some art from a special Valentine's Day session of Dr. Sketchy.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Sketchy

Just the other day the post Xmas/pre New Year Dr. Sketchy session was held. Here's a smattering of what poured forth from my pens and pencils including models and art monkeys alike.

Halloween's a bit Sketchy

Last week was a special haunted version of Dr. Sketchy. Our models were the Motor City Rah-Rahs, cheerleaders for the Detroit Derby Girls roller derby team. Hula hoops were in full gyration as the Rah-Rahs decomposed throughout the evening. Lookit those evil eyes. Apparently they were possessed.



Oh, and I finally got the Dr. Sketchy stickers made. I guess there was a lot of calls for t-shirts too, so we'll have to check in with the good people at J's Silkscreens (where I worked while in college).

Here's the usual selection of sketchy-art, including the final pose where all I could see was the bottom of Suzanne Baumann's shoe.

Sunday Brunch with Dr. Sketchy

Sunday afternoon a small group of us local artists lounged in Cafe 1923 in Hamtramck for a laid back version of Dr. Sketchy. Our model on short notice was Sean Bieri's wife Sofia. She's been an artists' model for years and I have sketches and paintings of her going back a while. After some warm up sketches of cafe patrons and a few other art monkeys, as well as our barista April (who filled in as impromptu art judge and prize-giver-outer), we got down to business.

Dr. Sketchy Detroit is One Year Old!

Happy Birthday! The Belmont in Hamtramck once again saw the congregation of Metro area artists zipping out some awesome artwork. Sean Bieri's been running the group for a year now and last night was the best turnout yet. We had Sean's home made cake, four (yes, FOUR!) models, fire eating, prizes, beer, a little art gallery, and nature's fireworks. Here's my contribution (artwise) to the festivities:

Just 'sperimentin'

Sketchy X

That's Sketchy 10. Yup, we've had ten of 'em and the Doctor shows no sign of slowing down. Last night's episode featured Christopher from Causing a Scene, as well as one Jessica Rabbit - at least that's the name she's using. It was a challenge to get both of them down on paper at the same time when the clock was ticking. And just when I thought all of the magic had drained out of my pencil it all seemed to come together. I even won a prize for the theme "Something Arresting". Although it helps to know the Swag Faerie's weakness for all things Blade Runner.

My prize was a grab bag full of art monkey goodies, pencils, markers, magnets, a notebook, and a graphic novel about Laika, the little dog that was the first living being launched into space. I had just read an article about her and how the records of what happened had only been released after the Soviet Union fell. The official story had been that she was peacefully put to sleep with an injection several days after her launch. But the real story was...well...read the book.

...and there you go!

More Sketchy

A few weeks back we had another session of Dr. Sketchy. Our model this time was Muana, who posed for us back at the Detroit Fringe Festival. She was a lot of fun to draw. I ran into her a few days later during breakfast at Bart's in Ferndale. She said she had a great time and wants to do it again. I say yay to that. I may have to color in that second sketch below that's all cartoony.

Also below, the lovely Katherine unkowingly poses. I liked this one so much I had to include it.

On the Fringe

Friday the 13th saw another installment of Dr. Sketchy, held this time at Detroit's Music Hall as part of The Fringe Festival. The turnout was a bit light due to the cold and flu season, but we had plenty of models to choose from and a few new artists. No captions on these. Just use your imaginations.

Sketchy-Book

I promised I would post some more of my sketches from our Dr. Sketchy sessions. Gaze in wide wonder:

Tim TV humbles himself before his god

Michie DeVale takes a literary break

Mee-oww

Matt Feazell pumps up the jams

Art Monkeys

Lana the Belly Dancer

Lana in super spectacular colorific...um...color

HATCHED!

Last Saturday was the first official outing for HATCH, the Hamtramck art collective I belong to. We all snuggled up inside Cafe 1923 for some coffee, an art show, and a little Dr. Sketchy. This is the first juried show I've ever been in . No kiddin'. I'm 41 and never been in an art show before! We had a great turnout and took some steps toward getting a community arts program off the ground. With a few more events like this it's sure to flourish!

I didn't take many photos, but here are the few that aren't blurry. Oddly, there's none of me.

Dr. Sketchy coordinator Sean Bieri shows us the back of his head. And that's Hatch president Christopher Schneider standing in the center talking it up.

Jim Mackey and Michelangelo Cicerone discuss the composition and technique of one of the entries.

Hatch members Suzanne Baumann and John Nagridge.


Michelangelo continues his art discussion with Matt Feazell, creator of Cynicalman.


The John Nagridge Fan Club.


Local art lover waiting to get in.


Well, someone took my picture.


It's Hatch shop proprietor and Dr. Sketchy Swag Faerie Katherine Baluta, along with her friend.


John can't wait to do some Sketchy-ing.


Art Monkey Bill Kuehl waiting to get started. By the way, that's my entry all blurry up on the wall.



Our model for the day Xaina reads up on what to expect from her session in Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book.


And here are my interpretations of Xaina:

And here's the super special color version:

Dr. Sketchy

Once a month or so a group of Detroit area artists congregate in a small bar in the hamlet of Hamtramck for a night of drinkin' and drawin'. Dr. Sketchy was started by Molly Crabapple in New York City as an alternative to college figure drawing classes. The models are culled from the local burlesque scene to add a little spice to our sketchbooks. Our local Hamtramck chapter was started last August by cartoonist Sean Bieri. Here's a few sketches from our most recent get together featuring Queen Bee. I'm not too happy with them as my magic pen wasn't working right or something. Perhaps I'll post some others later on.


And, imagine my surprise when I was flipping through a copy of Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book (that I won for another rendition of Queen Bee that doesn't appear here) that I discovered one of my sketches from our first Sketchy session was included really small!