My First Dr. Sketchy's

I finally went to my first Dr. Sketchy's event here in Cleveland. It was located nice and close at the Beachland Ballroom.

For those of you who aren't hip to the good Doctor, Dr. Sketchy is kind of an anti-art school live model drawing event. usually sprinkled with some music and adult beverages. I've wanted to go for a while, but this was the first one that didn't conflict with some other excitement.

It was a lot of fun. It's not all rigid and intense like some life drawing classes are. The people there are there to have fun as well as to draw. They had a contest where, on a ten minute pose, you got to work on the drawing for five minutes and then hand it to a buddy to finish. Then the assembled artists got to choose their favorite and the winner won some prizes. I'm proud to say that my finishes over my new friend Mark's drawings got us some wonderful grease pencils and much needed kneaded erasers. (Sadly, it's the one drawing I don't have from the night, as it was in Marks sketchbook, so he got to take it.)

The model was a Pittsburgh performer and jazz singer, Phat Man Dee. She's the subject of my sketches here. Obviously she's not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think of an art school model, but you have to draw people of all shapes and sizes, and everything's got its own set of drawing problems to be solved and lessons to be learned. She was no exception. She even sang for us, which was a treat.

It's interesting, too, the things you work on in life drawing. I was taken with the way her hand splayed on her hip in one pose, so I did a couple different studies of that. It's moments of focus like that which make these events so good for one's development as an artist. You can always get better, and this is how it happens.

I had a good time there, made a couple new acquaintenances, and who knows, maybe even lined up a new gig. They haven't announced the next Dr. Sketchy's event, but if I can, I'm going to be there.

And, as always, click to embiggen any of these sketches.

Play Ball!

Today's Opening Day of baseball season, so no gloomy face here. Well, maybe just a little. The Cleveland Indians are playing the Texas Rangers in Texas today. As regular blog readers now, I've got a good friend down there, and I've gone down there to do some work for his company and managed to schedule it around Rangers Opening Day. I've actually been to more Rangers Opening Days than Indians. (Well, I haven't been to any Indians ones.) Jesse and I always joked about "what if the Rangers opened against the Indians?" Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, we couldn't make it happen this year.

This year, too, it's supposed to snow here in Cleveland. And, as much fun as Rangers baseball is, it's even more fun to call up my friends in Ohio when I'm sitting in shorts and a t-shirt in the Arlington son and ask "Hey, how's the weather?" It's only going to be 58 degrees in Arlington today, but that's still much warmer than here.

Oh, well, there's always next year. Besides, as an Indians fan, I'm used to having to say that anyway. Now, if we could just get Major League Baseball to re-balance the schedule so that we played Texas and other warm weather teams more…

And hey! I drew page five of Love and Capes #11. The Quest for the Dress continues. I wasn't thrilled with the jokes in this sequence, although I think they work okay. This is one of those plot-heavy pages where the jokes come second. Interestingly, the joke in page four was originally supposed to be delivered by Abby, but I realized it was funnier if Charlotte said it.

I swear, Charlotte's becoming funnier. Paris has been good for her.