Lana's back!

See? It's Lana's back, by DS regular Matt Feazell.

Dr. Sketchy 5: In Color!

Jim was so inspired he went home and colored up the sketch posted below. Here's the new version. Daaaaaaang!!



Also, Sparkly Devil emailed with a link to photos of the release party in New York for Molly Crabapple's Dr. Sketchy Rainy Day Coloring Book, including this one of Molly getting friendly with an ersatz Sparkly:



Check this link for more on the release festivities and coverage of the event from the definitely "not safe for work" Fleshbot site.

Shakin' all over!

(And not just because it was freezin' freakin' cold, either...)

Wow wow wow!! Another great turnout at the Belmont for Dr. Sketchy Detroit last night! We were packed in tight for a chance to draw the beautiful Lana, whose bellydance moves were lovely and inspiring even in freeze-frame mode. And when she graced us with a short performance after the last pose, well... let's just say everyone got their five dollar's worth last night and then some! DS regulars Jim and John both said it was the best session yet. Here's a few of Jim's sketches:


...and a couple of John's...


...and heck, one of my own too.

Swag Faerie Katherine was on the case, too, scrutinizing our work and doling out the goodies howsoever her capricious nature and impeccable taste should dictate. (Uh, sorry I forgot to pick you up, SF. Don't put the whammy on me! Thanks again for the assist with delivering her to the event, Suzanne!) We had a Christmas-themed contest, natch, and an animal-themed one too, since Lana's an animal rights advocate as well as a dancer. More of those drawings as they come in.

Some folks were interested in the cool modern bellydance-y CD Lana brought to play during the session. It's called "Arabesque," it's on Gut Records, and if you can't find it at your local independently-owned neighborhood record store (hint hint...) you can find it on Amazon here.

Many thanks to everyone who came, most especially Lana, and I'll post more art and photos when I get them. Check back here for info on the January session, and on how to score a copy of DS founder Molly Crabapple's Dr. Sketchy coloring book, several copies of which are winging their way to me as I type.

In other news: long-time Dr. Sketchy participants will remember our very first model, Sparkly Devil. She's moved to San Jose to take an editorial job at a weekly paper there, and to continue her burlesque career. Her final column for the Metro Times (written in her mild-mannered Sarah Klein guise) is on the stands now, or online here. Dr. Sketchy Detroit is in her debt for hooking us up with a lot of cool models. Wish her luck!

And while I'm here, let me just say "Happy Holidays!" to everyone who's turned out over the last few months and made Dr. Sketchy Detroit such a big hit. Obviously it wouldn't be the same without all you ink and graphite-smeared artsy fartsy types, so many many thanks, Happy Merry Etc., and we'll see you all in the new year!

-Sean

Belly up to the bar...

...for the next Dr. Sketchy, featuring the fabulous Lana of Detroit Bellydance! According to her web site:

"Lana teaches and performs throughout the U.S. and overseas and
educates hundreds of students throughout metro-Detroit - from those
wanting to have fun and get fit to more "serious" students who take to
the stage."

I'd have posted a photo here, but I can't pick from the many on her site, so go see for yourself. Hm, we may have to do a few more longer poses this time, those costumes are really ornate!

If you're interested in attending, do me a favor and respond here or email me at themanwhojaped@comcast.net so I can get a head count. See you there!

Dr. Sketchy December

We have a date: Thursday, December 7th - yes, Pearl Harbor Day. (Must... fight... urge... to think up... tasteless... contests!)

We'll start at the Belmont at 7:30 (but show up a little earlier to get a jump on your drinking and get first crack at the jukebox) and go until 10:30. Model TBA...

Working on it...

...a date for the next Sketchy, that is. As soon as I can get hold of our man at the Belmont, we'll set something up for December. Last week at the Motor City Art Expo in the Emerald Theater, several folks expressed interest in joining us, so hopefully the next session will be another packed house with some new faces.

Until then, to tide you over, Wolfgang has sufficiently recovered from his brush with death to send some photos from the last two sessions with Beth and Tim TV.

Choking Hazard

Guess we should have worked Beth's payment out ahead of time to avoid these, uh, misunderstandings. A round-robin drawing of our fiesty model throttling hapless photographer Wolfgang Lilly. Drawing by Michael Carroll, Bob Corby, Suzanne Baumann and Yers Trooly. Bob puts together his own excellent annual small press comics show in Columbus, OH called SPACE, check it out.

Oh SNAP!: Dr. Sketchy 4

Many thanks to Suzanne Baumann and Dan & Katie at Green Brain Comics for coordinating the latest Dr. Sketchy session, held last Saturday in Al Matta Hall in Dearborn after the SNAP! comics expo. By the time I joined everyone after my niece's wedding, the jukebox was blaring and a combination of post-expo cartoonists and assorted innocent bystanders were busy sketching away at lovely model Beth, who reclined as gracefully as possible across a barroom table.

Minutes later, it was Beth's turn to SNAP, and she wrapped her hands around photographer Wolfgang's throat! But ha ha - no worries, t'was all in good fun!! I'm pretty sure...

Drawings by Sketchy regular Michelangelo, more to come.

"Motor City Manet"??

I could regale y'all with a lot of reasons why you should immediately purchase a copy of Molly Crabapple's latest effort, Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book, not least of which would be her interview with me and her drawing of Sparkly Devil.

But the reviewer at Eros Zine is a lot more facile with the adjectives than I am, so read his review instead, and then go snag yerself a copy! (Geez, do I really drawl?)

Snap, Sketchy. Sketchy, Snap.

Okay, it's confirmed - the next Dr. Sketchy will for sure be happening THIS SATURDAY, Nov. 4, from 7-10pm, after the SNAP! comics expo in Dearborn, MI! The Al Matta Hall will make its bar available to us sketchers, so drink up (coffee is fine, just spend some money while you're there!)

Our model is Beth from the fabulous Causing A Scene burlesque troupe, of which Sparkly Devil is also a member.

Speaking of SD, sad (for us) to say she's moving to California soon to help helm a new alternative weekly paper starting up out there. Her help getting DS:MCD off the ground, with venue advice, posing and model wrangling, has been invaluable. Thanks again for everything, Sparkly, we'll miss you!

A Very Special Episode of Dr. Sketchy

Here's the gossip on Dr. Sketchy Detroit #4: After talking to DS founder Molly Crabapple at the Small Press Expo recently, Dan and Katie Merritt, owners of the best comic book shop in the metro area, Green Brain Comics, have volunteered to host the next Sketchy session at their own indy comics convention, SNAP!, on November 4th in the Al Matta Hall, Dearborn, MI. Check out their web site for details on the con, and stay tuned for details!

Okay, I ran out of TV puns...

...but not out of Tim TV drawings. Feast yer eyebulbs on these beautifully dynamic sketches by illustrator and animator Tom Dow!

Must See TV

More art, this time from Sketchy characters Michelangelo Cicerone (b&w) and John Nagridge (color). Gotta tell ya, Tim has an awesome collection of footwear (not to mention some fancy velvet pants...).



Tim's nickname inspired one of our contests, and Mike and John rose to the occassion.

Dr. Sketchy 3: I Want My Tim TV!

Again with the late update... oy. Anyway, thanks as always to the many sketchers, new and returning participants alike, who turned out to the latest Dr. Sketchy Detroit last Thursday, despite my last-minute organizing. Thankfully word is getting out via channels other than me, like the Belmont's calendar of events, the people at Hatch and some other web sites that have heard the news and passed it around.

Our model was the amazing Tim TV of the Fire Fabulon troupe, and while it proved way too chilly outside for any flame-throwing fun, Tim made up for it by providing us with plenty to look at and fill our sketchbooks with. He claims to have never done this art modeling thing before, but you could've fooled us (although my wife, an artists' model with 20 years of experience, did take a minute to give him some pointers on making those long poses a little easier to bear...!).

Here are two of my sketches, more to come.

Next session: Thursday, Oct. 12, 7-10pm!

Again with the late notice (sorry, I was out of the country in Greece* for almost 2 1/2 weeks, and I'm still trying to catch up with everything), but yes, we'll be doing it again at The Belmont in Hamtown next week. Sparkly has wrangled us a model from local fire-juggling troupe Fire Fabulon, and there's talk of a demonstration on the patio after the sun goes down, so you know it'll be... interesting! Hope to see you there!

*No really, I was! In fact, here's a picture of some of the results of the "Dr. Sculpty" session we held there.

Photos from Sketchy 2

Sorry to be so long with these great pictures of last month's model Michiee, shot by Dr. Sketchy's good friend Wolfgang Lilly.




Man, don't ya hate it when you go to a life drawing class and the model spends the whole session just sitting there reading a book? ;)

Sketchies!

Here's a few drawings from our last session by mini-comics great Matt Feazell, creator of the "Amazing Cynicalman."



And here's a couple more from Sketchy newbie Leah Chamblee

Dr. Sketchy 2: Electric Boogaloo

Just a quick note to say the second Detroit Dr. Sketchy session was a big hit! Many thanks to the fantastic Michiee DeVale, who was a whole lot of fun to draw, and thanks also to Sparkly Devil for recruiting her.

Even more thanks to Darren at the Belmont for letting someone he'd never met until the night of the gig make use of his bar. The Belmont's stage area proved to be ideal for Dr. Sketchy - cozy but roomy enough, airy with the patio door open (so not too smoky) and lots of colorful stage lighting to draw by. (Bonus points from Yers Trooly for having Fuller's London Pride and O'Hara's Stout on tap... mmm, good beer!)

Still more thanks to: Katherine, our duly appointed Swag Faerie, for coming up with some creative criteria for handing out prizes; to Wolfgang for shooting plenty of photos; and to our sketchers, especially all the newcomers who bravely turned up after hearing about DS at Hatch's table at the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival. Drawings and photos to come soon (if you attended, be sure to scan and email me some of your art! Click on my profile at left to find my email address).

This weekend, Hatch is setting up a table at the legendary Dally In The Alley to recruit even more folks to our artsy cause, so stop by and say "hi."

The return of Dr. Sketchy!

The next edition of Dr. Sketchy:MCD is finally planned, and it's coming up quick: Thursday, September 7, from 7-10pm at The Belmont, at 10215 Joseph Campau in Hamtramck, across from Polish Market. No charge at the door, and still only $5 to draw! Our model is still TBA, but last month's model, the estimable Sparkly Devil, is on the case and is sure to recruit someone fun (last I talked to her she mentioned something about faerie wings. Hmm...).

Those who've been to the Belmont before will know it's a nice friendly space for an event like this, so I predict another fun evening for artists and spectators alike. More info soon.

PS: The Hatch Hamtramck Art Collective web site is up and running full steam, so check it out. Browse the member galleries and download the podcast for a 360-degree look at the world-reknowned backyard folk art installation Hamtramck Disneyland!

More great sketches

Suzanne sent a couple of her drawings in to be bloggamafied. Lovely, lots of energy in these!

Photographic evidence

More fabulous Sparkly Devil shots, courtesy Chris Schneider from Hatch.

That's Hatch member and cartoonist Suzanne Baumann at work in that last photo. Check out her comics here.

Art from another Sketchy character

John Nagridge won the "most devilish" contest with this drawing. (The judge was swayed by those evocative cloven hooves.)

Also, here's one of the four-way collaborative drawings described below. We were all pretty fascinated by the results of these!

I even got to draw a little...

...when I wasn't, y'know, coordinatin' * stuff, 'n'... stuff.





*drinking

And they're off!

And I don't mean the model's clothes. Well, okay, I do mean the model's clothes, but mainly I mean we're off — the folks who made possible the first Dr. Sketchy: MCD life drawing session in the gritty, artsy, eclectic little village of Hamtramck, Michigan (a town 2 1/2 miles square and almost completely surrounded by Detroit).

On Thursday, August 10 from 9pm-midnight, about 15 or 16 artists (some of whom weren't even close friends of mine or anything...) gathered on the cozy, loungy second floor of Mephisto's, ordered themselves drinks, lit up their smokes and set to work.


Our subject for the evening: fabulous local burlesque diva Sparkly Devil! Sparkly gamely jumped up on an improvised platform (4 milk crates and a piece of plywood, covered in a blanket and a papasan cushion) and wowwed us with her feather fans, vintage costumes and ear-splitting belches. Er, I mean, lively banter! Seriously, Sparkly's enthusiasm, good humor and mix CD really made the evening a blast (and besides that, she set up our MySpace page and has already lined up at least one future model). I'm greatly indebted to her for all her help.

The artists were in good spirits too, and the contests had some fun and funny results. We tried to make Sparkly live up to her name by drawing her as devilish-looking as possible. Then we name-checked Samuel Jackson's upcoming flick with a "Snakes On The Model" contest (Jim Anderson did the "snake in a bottle" version shown here, as well as the smoky portrait above).


The last contest, a sort of sketchbook "round robin" affair, might have been the most fun for everyone. It was a 20-minute pose. Everyone drew in their own sketchbook for five minutes, then dropped it, shifted one seat to the left, picked up their neighbor's sketchbook and worked for the next five minutes on that drawing, and so on. The result was several amazing four-artist collaborations that everyone ran around excitedly signing afterwards! Some of those drawings ended up being the best of the night.

This was the first event sponsored by Hatch, a newly formed artists' collective in Hamtramck. Our web site is still getting assembled, but we have more events and announcements in the works, so keep an eye on the link in the sidebar!

I'll post more art and photos as I receive them. The upshot is: Dr. Sketchy is a big hit in Detroit, and we'll certainly be having more sessions in the future. Stay tuned!

-Sean