Dr. Sketchy's Anti -Art School has been around in Manila for about a year an a half now (at least about as long as the Urban Sketchers). I'd been meaning to join their events but I'd been putting it off due to general laziness and a lack of interest in the burlesque/goth themes that usually permeate their events. Nothing wrong with that of course, it's just not my visual cup of tea. The one time they had a different theme, "Arabian Nights", it completely slipped my radar. Being Halloween themed, this month's event was still kind of gothy, but since it fit the spirit of the season and my brother in law asked me to accompany him I went along. It was a great visual workout for me, and I learned some key things about myself. When sketching a single figure I'm happiest with a time limit of around 15 minutes. In fact it was one of my 15 minute sketches (above, right) that caught the eye of our model and scored me an "art monkey" T-shirt.
5 minutes is a little too loose for me, although that's probably because I was using my brush pen directly, and was nervous about making mistakes. With a pencil I'm sure I would have been much more comfortable with this time limit. I'm not even showing my 30 minute sketch here because I think it's the worst of the bunch. I was overthinking and overanalyzing each stroke, and the sketch ended up looking really stiff.
I'll definitely be checking out Dr. Sketchy's again soon, though I do hope that they expand their collection of themes. For example, I'd love to see a 70s scifi theme (miniskirts and bubble helmets), maybe pulp fantasy along the lines of Conan the Barbarian. Straight up fantasy like Game of Thrones would be great too, but the outfits would be a little difficult. Maybe more modern themes like "Breaking Bad" (men in hazmat suits) or near future stuff like the characters in "Mirror's Edge". In fact I'd go so far as to say that one of Dr. Sketchy's models/organizers, Jowein, would be perfect as Faith.
