dr sketchy’s anti-art school birmingham | reviewed

Not so long ago, I asked ‘how much fun can you have with burlesque, beer and a pencil?‘. A shedload, as it happens.

Now, time to ‘fess up. I’d never done a life drawing session before. In the pre-event beer-up, I was instantly shamed by Alex and Antonio’s immense amounts of equipment. That’s artists’ equipment, before you start. Paraphernalia and gadgets galore: graphics tablet, ink pens, dip thangs, big zips (yes…big zips), coloured cornucopia, etc. And me….. I was Mrs Six Pencils. Oh wait…. and a putty rubber. Ooh, hang on – nearly forgot my sharpener. Hardcore, I is.

Set in the Victoria Pub, a rather adorable joint in a nook of a cranny of Birmingham city centre, Dr. Sketchy’s coyly batted its eyelashes and watched a very friendly throng be drawn into its luscious lair. Such a lovely setting, good company and a lashing of cider to oil the joints kicked off the first of, what will hopefully be, one of many Brum Sketchy’s.

Now, there are a number of things about life drawing sessions you’d normally be fairly sure of. One such supposition may involve thinking that you’re going to be presented with the people you see every day in your local supermarket sans kit for your visual-scribbly pleasure. Another is that you’ll be sitting with a load of chin-scratchers who’ll be blethering on about the deeply intrinsic values of the human form on blah, blah blah…. yep, boring me too. Now, take those suppositions and discard them in a dramatic fashion.

Now, let’s have a little looky-see at the delectable subjects:

Crimson Skye

Cherry Fox

Emerald Ace

Nope. Definitely don’t recall seeing anyone like this in the 10-items-or-less checkout at Sainsbury’s lately. And fabulous they were. Not only did they have to sit still and brace the ache of sitting in poses, but they gave the crowd a fabulous ‘tease beforehand. The atmosphere was fantastic and super-friendly which really helped to put the pencil-punters at ease.

Above: Three approaches to one pose (L-R: mine, Alex and Antonio’s)

Watching how three artists tackled each pose was fascinating. Alex’s style shone through his pieces, Antonio’s pieces often incorporated colour and mine were just hacked at with a pencil. It wasn’t until the final pose that I felt I was really getting anywhere like I’d hoped, but it’s part of the process. You start off a bit tentative and you get a bit more fluid the more you get into it.

Somehow, I managed to bag a prize for one of ‘em – the one which I thought was probably the worst of my sketches! Anyway, here they are:

And, the final sketch, where I started to find my feet:

Check out Alex’s and Antonio’s work.

There was some really fantastic work throughout the group and I hope everyone had as great a time as I did. Considering it was the first event of its kind in Brum, the orgnaisers should be applauded for getting it spot on!

Finally, a mention has to go to the lovely Candice. Candice is the first person who’s ever come up to me in a non-blogmeet environment and asked “Are you graphiquillan?”, which made me chuckle! You have my email address, Candice. You know to give me a nod if you want a scribbly beer bud for the next event. ;)

Next one’s coming up in January. For more information, see the Dr. Sketchy’s Birmingham myspace page.