Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School – November, 2014

by | Nov 16, 2014 | Sketchbook History Tour | 0 comments

 

Figure Drawing

Ever since I was 17 and still in High School I have been figure drawing (yes, that means naked people).  I also taught it for quite some time during the 80s and 90s.

Often times artists don’t really want to take a class in figure drawing, they just want to draw the figure.  To fill that need around the country at art centers and museums and schools they have open figure drawing sessions. You pay a certain amount to cover the cost of paying the model, and then you just draw.  They have someone in charge of hiring the models and keeping time, but that is about it.

 

Zaira Amar 5

Zaira Amar – 3 minute pose

 

It’s Not What You Think

Most of the time these sessions are very staid and mundane. I don’t mean there aren’t great models and drawings being done but, opposite of the popular imagination, they aren’t lascivious bastions of libertine men and scarlet women indulging in pornographic excess.  They are models, male and female, with bodies of all sorts posing in academic poses that aren’t presented as sexual or titillating.

 

Zaira Amar - 3 minute pose

Zaira Amar – 3 minute pose

 

Dr. Sketchy

About 10 years ago a burlesque dancer in San Francisco, Molly Crabapple, decided to try something different to shake up this way of figure drawing.  She founded the Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. It really isn’t a school at all, it’s just a fun, recurring event that combines performance, modeling, drinking and drawing.

 

Zaira Amar 3

Zaira Amar – 10 minute pose

 

Lot6 Art Bar

Last night (11/15/14) was the first Dr. Sketchy event in Tulsa in many years.  I had wanted to go to it back when it was last active, in 2010, but never got around to it.  But I had an opportunity last night to go.  These are the drawings that resulted.  Nothing fancy or profound, just some fun drawings.  It took place at a very cool Art Bar close to downtown Tulsa called Lot6.

 

Zaira Amar 2

Zaira Amar – 5 minute pose

 

The Belly Dancer 

The model you see here, Zaira Amar, first did a belly dance, then sat for a total of 5 drawings, ranging in time from 3 to 20 minutes in length.  I can tell you, it’s not a lot of time when a model is nude, but put her or him in a costume with textures and baubles and jewelry and yards of fabric and it’s really not a lot of time! 

 

 

Zaira Amar 1

Zaira Amar – 20 minute pose

 

Scimitar

She had a giant scimitar sword that she held for a few of her poses.  I was worried she would drop it or cut herself somehow, but she obviously knew what she was doing with it having danced with it many time I think.

 

The Belly Dancer and the Wolf

 

Here’s the finished drawing, completed a few weeks later. Here’s a link to a short story illustrated with this image. 

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Comedy Included

 

In between the dancing and modeling there also was a stand up comedian, Drew Welcher. She was pretty funny, mostly self-deprecating about her sexuality and her body.  She got a bit raunchy, but I was busy drawing her and was actually only paying so much attention to her routine.   

 

Drew Welcher 1

Drew Welcher – Stand-up Comedian

 

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The Burlesque Dancer

 

The other model for the night was Afsana Rose, a burlesque dancer.  She did a very cool feathered fan dance, then modeled for times ranging from 3 to 20 minutes just as Zaira did.

 

Afsana Rose 2

Afsana Rose – 3 minute pose

 

While I was drawing, Hilton Price, the MC for the evening, took this photo of me drawing Afsana for future publicity.

 

medrawingafsana

 

Draw What It Is Doing, Not What It Is

I got a drawing lesson many decades ago from a great professor of mine, Michael Mazur.  He said, “make your hand do what the thing you are drawing is doing.”  In other words, if the thing is solid and rectalinear, then make your drawing hand make those solid and rectilinear movements.  And if your subject is a feather fan, then make your hand make the movement a feather makes.  That’s easier said than done of course, but that is what I kept in mind as I drew her feather fan in these two drawings.

 

Afsana Rose 3

Afsana Rose – 5 minute pose

 

Tattoos

Afsana had a many tattoos, most of which I was not able to capture in the short time I had. One tattoo I had noticed and was glad I was able to capture was a spider web in her underarm.  All I could think about was how much it had to hurt to get it done!

 

 

Afsana Rose 4

Afsana Rose – 10 minute pose

 

Frilly

Afsana changed costumes a few times. She wore a frilly sheer polka dotted light covering over a 50s style white push up bra in the pose above. Once again, trying to capture the action of that frilly outer garment was the key to the drawing.

 

Afsana Rose 1

Afsana Rose – 20 minute pose

 

Boa

In her final pose she was in what seemed like a pretty classic burlesque outfit. The preeminent feature was the very big feather boa.  But it wasn’t feathery in the same way as the fan. The feathers were blocky and squared off at the end, so I made that sort of movement with my hand as I drew it.  She also had long gloves on that weren’t too different in color from the boa so I had to make sure their texture and lines were sufficiently different enough to stand out.

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Award

At the end of the session the artists can submit drawings to be judged by the models. Each model, and the comedian, decide which drawing they like best and that artist gets a small prize. In my case I received a little sketchbook, something you all know I will use!  I also got free admittance to the next Dr. Sketchy, so that’s cool as well.

It was a cool and different figure drawing experience.  I made a number of new friends and had a great time drawing.

I might work on some of the drawings a little bit more. I am tempted to finish some, add color to others. We shall see and I will let you know!

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Linda on our Eighth Anniversary – Sketchbook History Tour

by | Nov 14, 2014 | Sketchbook History Tour | 2 comments

 

My wife of 8 years, Linda, and I spent our 8th anniversary at the hospital.  We were married on 11/11/06 at 11am.

 

linda in the hospital

 

She had already been sick for 9 days at this point so I already knew we weren’t going to be doing a big night out. I was expecting to cook something up, something easy. But instead the xray from the day before came back and her bronchitis had turned into Pneumonia. Her Dr. requested we go get a ‘breathing treatment’ at whatever ER we wanted to go to.  That trip turned into a 2 day stay at the hospital and that is a good thing. She was able to get breathing treatments and IV antibiotics. 

We had Pei Wei take out for our anniversary dinner while watching TV.  That is what she is doing in this drawing, though she says it looks like she is calling to heaven to be taken away!  I told her not quite yet.  She said ok.

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Drawing by Marty Coleman

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What to Know – Love #3

by | Nov 10, 2014 | Love - 2014 | 0 comments

 

What to Know - love #3 2014

 

Not Hate

We often hear about the terrible domestic tragedy where a wife is slaughtered by a hate-filled spouse.  It happens way, way too often (once is too often).  At least one of that couple had a deep deep hatred for the other. It was a hatred harsh and bitter enough to lead someone to murder.  It always astounds me to imagine someone actually doing that, but it happens all the time.

Not Anything

But while those violent acts get the attention, the vast majority of relationships that break up don’t end in hatred and violence in the long term. They end in indifference.  The end with a ‘meh’.  When we cease to love someone what usually happens is we jettison the feeling. We temporarily have other feelings, including hate, for the person we are breaking up with.  But long term we end up shutting down the love and replacing with nothing. No feelings, no emotions, no travails.  That is why people say it is hard to love again, because they’ve hardened themselves with indifference.

Outside of a Relationship

The danger isn’t that we reel in a bit after a relationship. It’s that we may reel in all our feelings for everything.  For our neighbors, our friends, and our city. For our society, for our culture, for nation.  We just don’t care much anymore because caring, and the loving that comes from that caring, is too hard a task. It has too many dangers, too many risks.  

Cocoon

As a result we stay in a cocoon of protection. At least it seems like we are protected. But in truth we endanger ourselves.  Just like the person who thinks if they do no physical exercise then they won’t get an injury.  That is likely true, they wont get an injury.  But they will atrophy. And guaranteed atrophy is much more dangerous than a possible injury.

Watch out for wrapping your love into too big of a cocoon. We all have been hurt, but those who heal and go back out onto the field are the ones who will keep their strength, and their love, strong.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman

Quote by Elie Wiesel, 1928 – not dead yet, Jewish writer and activist. Holocaust survivor

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Who To Be – Love #2

by | Nov 6, 2014 | Love - 2014, Quentin Crisp | 0 comments

 

 

love #2 2014

 

For Your Better

There’s part of me that disagrees with this.  After all, don’t we want to be in a relationship where the other person is encouraging us to be better than we are, to change for the better?  I know I am not perfect and could be better so why not have someone who wants that for me as well?  Don’t I want to be in that sort of relationship?

For Their Better

But we know this is not what this quote is talking about, don’t we.  This quote is warning against, not the person who wants the best for you, but the person who wants the best for them.  They don’t want you to change for the better because it’s your desire. They want you to change to meet their desire.  They want you to be prettier, or have bigger boobs, or make more money, or be more of a do-it-yourselfer, or more religious, or a million other things.  But they want it to make their life what they want, not what you want for your own life.. They want the hot wife or husband, or the bigger house or the greater religious reputation.  Maybe they want life to be easier for themselves and it would be if you didn’t annoy them so much with your hobbies or your style or your habits or, or, or….the list goes on.

Who to Avoid

If someone see and hears from you that you want to be this or that in the future, then of course we want that person to be supportive and encouraging about that change.  But when we don’t initiate it, but it comes from their desire to control you and turn you into who they want? That is the person to avoid at all costs.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman

Quote by Quentin Crisp, 1908 – 1999, English raconteur.   He lived a very interesting and unique life, well worth reading up on if you are worried about your individuality being too ‘individual’. 

 

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