A Dr. Sketchy Event

After our day of sketching at the Fulton Street Terminal 6 of us decided to go and sketch at a Dr. Sketchy event down on Orchard Street. What is a Dr. Sketchy event you may ask. Well here is what is on their website.

"Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art school is the world's premier alt.drawing movement. Artists draw glamorous underground performers in an atmosphere of boozy conviviality. Found in 2005 in a dive bar in Brooklyn, Dr. Sketchy's has now spread to over 10 cities around the world."

Several of the women in our group had attended these events in the past few months, and they gave us a little info about what to expect art wise and model wise before we went. Artists sit on couches, ottomans, chairs, tables, and the floor while the models pose on stage.  The event lasts from 4 - 7 pm. On Saturday the theme was "Men Who Would Be Women and Women Who Would Be Men." The three models were dressed in costumes ala the early 1920's. One woman was dressed as "Sammy Tramp" although she was much too classy for a tramp. The other woman was dressed in rather ordinary clothes from that era. "Johnny Panic", a guy who had this svelte body was dressed in a long sequined red halter gown, long black gloves with red fringe, and heels. She/he looked striking. lol Some of the poses got a little risqué but it was all in fun. Was everyone drinking? Not really. I didn't have time. We were too busy trying to capture the poses which first started with 1, 2, 3, and then 5 minute poses. Here are my quick sketches. I was drawing with a Tombow marker which has a narrow tip on one end and a sort of brush tip at the other. The ink bleeds when you touch it with water, which is how I shaded the later sketches.

Johnny Panic had feather fans.

The poses got a little longer.

And as they got longer I could take time to shade a bit.

These were the 15 minute poses. Usually all 3 models were posing together but there was no way I could do 3 people in the time we had...or fit them on my paper.

Then the pose times got shorter again...back to 5, 3, and 1 minute poses.

If you look carefully you will see that the guy dressed as a woman has no dress on in the last sketch. He did a bit of a strip-tease at the end of the long poses right down to a g-string. lol Here are the rest of my sketches.

The crowd at the event included a lot of young sketchers in their 20s-30s. We were probably the only "seniors" in the group, but we didn't mind. Our plan is to go back again. The Dr. Sketchy events are held about once a month so we will be watching for them.

Needless to say my fingers were exhausted after sketching from before 9 am until 7 pm. lol