Draw-A-Thon

 As a fundraiser the High School of Art & Design in NYC holds a Draw-A-Thon each year. From 10 - 7 there are 2 rooms filled with nude or costumed models. You pay your admission and sketch away for as long as you like. The NYC Urban Sketchers take part in this event even though it is NOT urban sketching.

I started out in the nude room. There were 5/6 stations with models posing. It has been a long time since I drew nude models and I have to say I felt very rusty with the proportions of the human body. The models were great...and so were the sketchers. I worked in a variety of media...some more successful than others. Here are a few of my sketches.

I sketched in graphite.

I tried one in watercolor.

I did one in water-soluble ink and included some of the sketchers. The room (their gym) is kept really warm for the models. All of a sudden we noticed our model start to sway. She nearly passed out from the heat! People got her seated and brought her lots of cold water. After that she only posed sitting down. I was midway through sketching her...just down to her boot tops when it happened so I had to finish her legs from memory.

After lunch I moved into the costumed room. There were people in a variety of odd costumes but I liked this one the best. I am sure she was from some show or program but I have no idea of who she was supposed to be. I originally did this as a broader sketch but realized that my body proportions were so off that I cropped out most of her arms. I find I make the heads of the models too large for their bodies.

Lunch time came along and I sketched one of the sketchers in the room before returning to the nude room.

The model I had been sketching earlier was gone and two models were posing together on that platform.  The guy was so tall and skinny that I really had trouble with his body proportions. The woman had a lot of tattoos which were fun to draw.

I had gone in with my friend, Suzala and we lasted from about 11 - 5 ... not a bad day of sketching.

Swag Bags and On to the Draw-A-Thon Part 1

I know some of you were wondering what we got in our swag bags from Blick. Let me just say that they were prepared with about 100 bags in case we had a big turnout. Some of the merchandise was from the store itself but Caran d'Ache had their own little bags for us filled with art treasures. I arranged everything we received on my kitchen table this morning. My hubby was impressed with what I came home with. This includes the extras that Caran d'Ache gave us too.

In addition all customers coming into the store had the chance to spin a prize wheel and get a gift ranging from gift cards, paints, sketchbooks, aprons, etc. I got a small set of some kind of acrylic paints that I will gift to some artist that will use them.

After lunch I won a watercolor pad and a set of koi watercolor paints. We shopped at the store for a while and I'm sure they made money off of us since everyone I know that was there bought several things. lol (We never do seem to have enough supplies.) All I know was that my backpack weighed a ton and I had to carry it into the city.

From Brooklyn many of us headed into Manhattan to the Draw-A-Thon at the High School of Art and Design on 56th St. This is one of their big fundraisers. You pay a fee to enter and there are two big rooms with models posing from around 9am until 6pm. One room is strictly nudes and there are 4 areas set up. Two are for long poses and the same pose is held all day long. In the third area the model does mostly quick gesture poses that last from 2 - 10 minutes. The last area the model poses for about 10 minutes each time. I went to that area and sketched for about an hour and a half.

During a short break I started sketching the woman to the left of me who was sketching with her legs resting on a chair. I sketched the model when she posed again but at one point she was down on the platform and I couldn't see her from where I was sitting, so I went back to sketching some of the other people sketching in the room.

When I got tired of the nude models I went to the other room which was much more fun...but that's for tomorrow.