Dr Sketchy’s at the MCA

Dr Sketchy’s came to the MCA again a couple of weeks ago. Fabulous again!  The link above will take you to an image where you can see the setup  – we’re all in a big u-shape with three models to draw. That image is from last year, and you can see my drawings from last year here.

This year was related to the current exhibition of Yinka Shonibare so the models wore some interesting outfits. That exhibition finishes very soon, but if it comes to a place near you – don’t miss it!

Again, there were three models, so it was easy to see well, but I must say we were awfully close and that’s a challenge in itself.

These first two drawings were only two-minute ones, which were a lot better than the ones I did a year ago.

The next two drawings are 5-minute ones.  That’s not a nipple – it’s a flower stuck there.  I was happy enough with these two, but the ten-minute ones were not great.

After that,  I decided to be very daring for the 15-minute ones & just go for it with a pen!

I just scribbled & scribbled as fast as I could go, then dabbed on some watercolour- though my waterbrush wasn’t co-operating so well.

I was working in an old A4 sketchbook – leftover from college. Last year I did a myriad of ghastly one and two minute drawings in a ‘good ‘ sketchbook, so I decided not to make

that mistake again.

Dr Sketchy’s at the MCA – fast & furious fun.

Last night was the first ever Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was also my first Dr Sketchy’s. Such fun. We started with 2 minutes poses. My sketches from those were very dekooning-esqe, as were most other people’s. There were a lot of them (but they help to fill up my sketchbook) and then we had a burlesque performance, a break, and on to the five minute poses. My results from the 5-minute poses were a great improvement. That was when I saw that the practice with the Fast Sketching Techniques has all been worthwhile. We had two ten-minute poses and it was easy to get the drawings done in the time using this technique. These are from those poses.
The models were great, with fabulous costumes. There were three of them, and we were very close to them and had a great view. In the beginning that was a challenge itself, particularly as I was working in A5 size.

There were three models for three hours, two burlesque performances in all, a free drink (and the bar was open all evening), plus they kept one of the exhibitions open in case we wanted a break. There were competitions with terrific prizes as welll. The best thing was that it was very friendly. All for $20.

MCA rocks!