The cure for post-holiday bummers

Just a reminder that the last Dr. Sketchy of 2007 is set to happen Thursday, Dec. 27 (that'd be TONIGHT!) from 7-10pm at the good ol' Belmont. Huzzah! See you there!


(There, I posted something. Now I have an excuse to show you these sweet pastel drawings by Brian Ciupka!)

December Dr. Sketchy - This Time For Sure!

Nothing up my sleeve - presto! After much delay, Dr. Sketchy's Post-Christmas/Pre-New Year's burlesque art happenin' is finally scheduled for:

Thursday, December 27
7-10pm
The Belmont, Hamtramck

Slated to model are members of the celebrated Torch With A Twist cabaret troupe (as seen on the cover of Detroit's weekly Metro Times). Attention ophidiophobes: this evening may contain snakes!


We'll have a wealth of cool goodies to hand out too, and maybe some holiday music if you're not sick of it by then. Be sure to wear all your new scarves and sweaters so we can see what Santa/Aunt Whatsername got you this year, and we'll see you there! -Sean

(Photos by Ryan Keberly for Detroit Metro Times)

DS13: Hoop Screams

Thanks as always to everyone who came out for the Dr. Sketchy Halloween session last Thursday, especially the zombified remains of the Motor City Rah-Rahs! It was a packed house, and with four models trying to cheer and hoola-hoop on stage, quarters were close. But it looks like folks got a lot of good sketching in. Here's a couple by Matt Feazell:




And two more from Jim Anderson:




All sketchers were entered into a raffle for a foam core casket full of cool stuff - a book on vampires, a Jeffrey Brown graphic novel, a hairy styrofoam rat, a skeleton-hand chalice thingee, some rubber spiders, candy bars and best of all, a $50 gift certificate to Blick art supplies. Late in the evening some folks stopped by the Belmont in costume after attending a party. One was dressed as a blind hunter, complete with rifle and white cane - the perfect impartial name-drawer for the raffle! The winner: Agnes Domanska, our faithful photographer! (These pictures are from her.)





Added bonus for the night: Jim put together some sweet vinyl stickers featuring a poo-flinging art monkey and we distributed them liberally around the bar. The design was such a hit that t-shirts are in the works now too.



More art and photos as I get them. November's DS is in the works, though it probably won't happen until after Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

Dr. Sketchy No.13: Drawin' of the Dead!

Hello again boys and ghouls! Just a last-minute reminder that the October Dr. Sketchy is happening...

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25
7-10PM
@ THE BELMONT
10215 Jos. Campau (conveniently located just a few doors north of the Pope statue!)

ON STAGE: We got members of the fabulous MOTOR CITY RAH-RAHS, official cheerleading squad for the Detroit Derby Girls, posin' and cheerin' and hoola-hoopin' and, um... well, slowly decaying and becoming members of the living dead, I'm afraid. (Something about a radioactive meteor falling into the rink at the last derby event, I forget the details. In any case, you might want to wear a helmet. A mind is a terrible thing to taste. Er, waste.)

PLUS: we'll have Halloween treats (Good stuff! Chocolate!! Not raisins or some crap! Dr. Sketchy wouldn't do that to you!), scary-ass tunes and a chance for you to win a casketful of cool prizes, including a $50 gift certificate from Blick Art Supplies in Dearborn!! Costumes are welcome if you're so inclined (no pressure), and of course we'll have the usual cozy Belmont atmosphere (and booze) to enjoy.

Hold onto yer brains, folks, this is gonna be a wild one!

Shh! Secret Sketchy!

Well, what with all the art festivals and whatnot that needed tending to this last month, September almost got away from me. ALMOST. At the last minute, we wrangled together a stealth Sketchy session at Hamtramck's beloved Cafe 1923. It was a quieter, more Sunday brunchy sort of Sketchy, with the bunch of us assembled in the front room, nibbling Trader Joe's mini-quiches, digging the natural lighting and otherwise chilling out. We even had a purty autumn-colored bouquet to set the mood. Aww!



Also dig-worthy was Sophia, a veteran art-school model (I almost said art-school poser, but that's something else...) with a bottomless selection of costumes for us to draw. She went from fishnetted '60s Amazon to parasol-toting '50s-ish picnicker to mandolin-plucking cowgirl to full-on Renaissance wench over the course of the three hours. Her dramatic Greek features and consummate posing skillz make her a pleasure to sketch. (And, ohyeahshe'salsomywife...! Biased much?) Photos here from Agnes Domanska, who's pretty much our official photographer at his point - thanks again, Agnes!



Next up: A spooky Sketchy back at the Belmont on Thursday, October 25, featuring (if all goes according to evil plan) some zombified cheerleaders! If you're thinking... of missing... the next Dr. Sketchy... DON'T!!

One last look...

...before we move on, of Dr. Sketchy #11, from sketcher Kathy Bailey (sorry to sit on these for so long, Kathy!)

More from DS11

More art and photos. First, some great, moody shots of geisha Muana, bathed in red light, from Charlene Gilbert.





Next, more beautiful sketchbook pages from Doug Blanchard.






Thanks, you two!

Paper anniversary

For first anniversaries it's traditional to give gifts of paper. These drawings were emailed to me, but they were at least drawn on paper originally. Close enough.


Kevin Hsieh's TJ Hooker is standing tall, ready to kick some perp ass.


Demonique poses imperiously.


Later the art monkeys compare notes.

Now some sweet sketches from DS fixture Jim Anderson:


Demonique broods.


Muana shows off her historically-inaccurate-but-awesome-nonetheless geisha footwear.

More to come...

Happy Birthday Dr. Sketchy!

Dr. Sketchy Detroit turned one with a bang last Thursday, with not one but four sexy burlesque models, the always-great T63 on the turntables, a nice little art exhibit, better prizes than ever and freebies for all, cake, and NO curfew, so we drew late into the night. Whew! Here are some of my snapshots of the evening, but hopefully better shots are on their way. (Forgive any misspellings of stage names, models, please!)


Okay, look, it was my first cake decorating gig, be nice!


Model TJ Hooker naturally inspired a cop-show themed contest. (As you can guess from the pose, cavity search gags abounded in the sketches!)


Next: the dark, delicious Demonique, seen here surveying our larger-than-usual crowd of entranced art monkeys. (It pays to advertise, and get listed in the local alt-weekly's calendar of events.)


Last up was lovely returning model Muana, stunning under the red lights in full geisha gear.

A couple sketchers have sent me samples from the evening's work, which I'll post asap. Thanks to everyone who came out, new and old, and to everyone who has made DS such a hit in Detroit this last year!

Dr. Sketchy: Year One

One week to go before Dr. Sketchy Detroit celebrates it's one-years-old birthday bash! I just picked up a buttload of goodies from our sponsors, Dick Blick art supplies, Green Brain Comics and Stormy Records, so there'll be prizes galore. Causing a Scene is putting their dance routines together for the evening's entertainment, and there're a few other surprises in the works too. Expect new faces and old friends as well to be posing on stage.

I'm actually distributing some postcards to promote the event this time, we'll see if they bring in any newbies. But it's all you veteran art monkeys that I'd really like to see turn out - DS wouldn't be here without you!

So: next session is THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 7-10pm (or later?) at teh good ol' Belmont. See you there!

Read all about it

Here's something new: Hatch guy Richard Kolbusz Jr. joined us at the last Sketchy, and though he doesn't draw, he did write a stream-of-consciousness play-by-play of the evening. It's the next best thing to being there. Here's a link to the pdf version of his essay. (Although I think he believes Swag Faerie Katherine is my wife, which isn't the case. Just FYI.)

More art from DS:X

DS stalwart John Nagridge checks in with some sweet black-background sketches from the last session.

Much better photos...

...of Christopher and Jessica, from July's session, courtesy Agnes Domanska. Jessica is part of the local fire-breathing performance troupe Fire Fabulon. Read all about them in Sarah "Sparkly Devil" Klein's Metro Times article from last year.

Having your cake and sketches too

So anyway: What could make three hours of drinking and socializing and drawing beautiful costumed burlesque dancers and digging DJ T63's eclectic mix even better? My wife found something - cake! One of the members of her Greek dancing group had a birthday and she called to ask if she should bring the leftover half-a-cake. Um... yeah? Cake? Hells yeah! So that's where that came from.

Got some art to share from last night's session, from regular Jim Anderson:



...two from Sketchy newbie Francis Vallejo:



...and two more from another first-timer, Kathy Bailey:



More, more! Send more art, everyone. And remember, if you have art or photos you'd like to display at the Belmont for next month's session please let me know!