Black+White

If you enjoy drawing from life, last night was probably the place to be at Dr. Sketchy’s event in Stockholm, Sweden: wonderful models, great atmosphere, a room full of like-minded people and drinks. My experience with croquis/sketching sessions has been painfully limited as of late since most of my attention has been focused on exploring digital media such as digital painting, tattoo & game design, photography, and my somewhat recent music adventure, WILDEBEEST, so last night was a perfect opportunity to reconnect with my original medium: graphite pencils on paper.

It is odd how sometimes we don’t realize how much we miss something until we try it again. The physicality of working on paper is so different from using a tablet, even though I’m most definitely happily addicted to my Wacom board. There is a subtle difference in almost every aspect of using real pencils vs. digital tools: the immediacy of creating textural variations with the tilt of your hand and controlling them in the moment rather than picking out digital simulations for different techniques, the give and feel of the paper, even the scratchy sounds of pencil against surface. Subtle, but important.

The session consisted of 3 themes with breaks in between: Pussy Riot, the (cross-dressing) princess and the (blue-haired) frog and the story of Jeanne d’Arc. Engaging poses, great lighting, and around 10 minutes for each pose kept up the pace and interest. About halfway through the evening we were presented with a challenge – to draw the princess as a zombie. I’m happy to be picked out as one of 2 winners of free tickets to a kickass Halloween event tomorrow evening -yay! Below are some of the sketches from last night.

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