This was Cherokee Rose’s first session posing for Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore, though not her first for Dr. Sketchy’s. She certainly knew what she was doing.
Understandably, new folks always make us nervous. What if they get lost coming to the Windup? What if they’re a robot built by a rival Dr. Sketchy’s branch intent on a hostile takeover? What if the model doesn’t even exist and we’re being pranked by a T-Rex with an internet connection and someone willing to type for it?* <– [see comments]
It can be stressful.
Cherokee was amazing – at no point did she transform into a boombox and try to steal our energon cubes nor did anyone get eaten. Just a whole lot of Super Sexy.
We had a bunch of drawing contests, with one lucky winner getting the latest issue of Retro Lovely from Atomic Books, another getting Autumn’s Come Undone by Shag from Baby Tattoo Books, and two poor souls getting some mystery concoction from Russell behind the bar.
Thank you to Craig Hankin, Kat Parker, Fred Oakes, Hallsi Rose Killian, Jennifer A Stark, John Schloman, and Tim Kelly, who all sent in drawings, which you can see in the gallery below.
Super duper thanks to Cherokee Rose for being our muse that evening; thanks to our sponsors Atomic Books and Baby Tattoo Books; thanks to Russell for slinging booze and tunes; thanks to Jeff for the photos you see above; thanks to Styger for helping me shove furniture around and run the door; and thanks to Alexis for holding the mic down.
Our next session is SATURDAY, July 21st, at the Windup during Artscape with Valeria Voxx! It’s a special two hour session with a “pay what you want” at the door, minimum of a dollar. There’ll be cold beer, cold air conditioning, and some great drawing. You should come.
So, at the end of the last session with Reverend Valentine, three different people proclaimed, “THIS WAS THE BEST SESSION EVER OF DR. SKETCHY’S BALTMORE!” That’s paraphrased by the way—-not all of them screamed it, as the all-caps imply (though one did). I don’t think anyone said “Baltimore” either since, you know, the context made it pretty clear they weren’t including sessions in the Philippines or Waco, Texas or whatnot.
Suffice it to say, Reverend Valentine was good. Real good.
We’d love to take credit for the session be amazing, but in the end, all we did was see her perform a couple times and think, “Wow, she’d make a great model for Dr. Sketchy’s.”
We were right.
I’m sure having one of the funniest burlesque routines we’ve ever seen didn’t hurt either.
There was a short break for folks to aquire cocktails and dispose of the previous, and then it was time for the 5-minute poses, the first of which was AN ATTACK BY A GIANT DINOSAUR!!!!
Okay, it wasn’t. It was the non-dominant hand contest where [deep breath] if you’re right-handed you draw with your left, if you’re left-handed you draw with your right, and if you’re ambidextrous you cheat and make everyone else look like a bunch of drunken whatsits.
Want to know a secret? There was a wee bit of confusion here that shows just how awesome Reverend Valentine is. We accidentally gave her the impression that she was going to do her routine before the 5-minute poses, not after. So she held all four poses while hiding the true nature of her costume. That’s downright amazing, and as far as I know, no one noticed.
True nature, you ask?
Well, everything is not quite what it seems in the above photos because the Reverend is mere moment from performing one of the best routines of all time. I’ve never in three years heard the crowd of Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore laugh so hard. People were starting to hyperventilate and shit.
Here’s an itty-bitty video clip to give you an idea.
Quick aside—the quality of this video sucks. Why? Because 1) the tripod dumped the camera on the floor ten seconds beforehand because, well, frankly, I didn’t understand what one of the levers did. Luckily, Jeff fixed the thing using his mad camera skills, so hopefully that will never happen again, and 2) the lights were probably a tad too low for shooting.
Anyway, enough hemming and hawing.
We then dived into the 10-minutes. Rev didn’t even take a break, though we offered! How damn amazing is she?
The second ten-minute pose was the random noun contest, in which your hosts forget to think of a contest and so turn to the audience for help, in the form of suggestions of whatever person, place, or thing comes to the minds of the artists. “Armadillo” won out, so everyone was asked to incorporate this creature into their drawings. The prize? It was either a mini-Munny, or a copy of Sparrow, vol. 4: Shane Glines—time and alcohol have made our memories hazy. Either way, these prizes were donated by the always awesome and generous Atomic Books of Hampden.
After another break, it was time for the first 20-minute pose which was also a contest. This time, we asked the audience for a random verb, and thus came about the Best Incorporation of “Sparkle” contest, for the remaining Atomic Book prize.
There was one last 20-minute pose of the evening, along with one last contest, which was a tribute to the B-movie director, Ed Wood, whose birthday was that day. The winner got to take home a copy of Karen Hsiao’s Rubber Duck, generously donated by Baby Tattoo Books, who also runs the Los Angeles branch of Dr. Sketchy’s.
Thanks to Reverend Valentine inspiring everyone’s sketches with her sheer awesomeness; thanks to our wonderful sponsors Atomic Books, Flying Dog Brewery, and Baby Tattoo Books; thanks to Russell for slinging drinks and tunes; thanks to Jeff for the photos you see above and learning me on proper tripod use; thanks to Styger for manning the door and setup; thanks to Fred for lending a hand; and thanks to Alexis for her slick microphone wrangling.
So, what’s next?
It’s our special Day of the Dead themed session with Nona Narcisse of Slow Burn Burlesque in New Orleans in honor of Halloween!
We’ve been looking forward to this session for MONTHS. It’s going to be a doozy and I’m not just blowing up hot air up your thingamajob. Check the Facebook event—a LOT of people have been waiting impatiently for her to pose for awhile now. People are coming from OTHER STATES to draw her.
Want to know more? Read the blog post below this one. Who knows when, or if, Nona will ever make it to Baltimore again. You’re really only going to one chance at this.
Hide your children and lock your windows, folks, it’s the “Day of the Dead” themed session of Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore with New Orleans native Nona Narcisse!
Is it even possible to top last year’s Halloween session? You bet your ass it is. I will bet the life of Jeff’s first born that you have NEVER gotten the opportunity to draw anything like this. Ever. And if you lie and say you have, I swear to God Alexis will smack the sass right out of you. RIGHT. OUT. You’ll have to catch the Circulator to Mt. Vernon to find it.
Alexis and I have traveled all over the country, and sometimes out of it, over the last three years catching every burlesque performance we could. I say this without the slightest bit of exaggeration or hyperbole – Nona Narcisse is one of the best performers we’ve ever seen. She very well may have my favorite routine of all time too, period. When you see her Day of the Dead routine & costume, you are going to collectively lose your beautiful, artistic minds. To be honest, I’m kind of scared. You may not be able handle this much sexy, this much gorgeousness, this much bone-chilling terror.
The next day you’ll be telling your half-cousin in Boise, “Yeah, it was the best Dr. Sketchy’s ever! Nona was the best model I’ve ever drawn! It was amazing! Well – right until those idiot Dr. Sketchy folks meddled with forces they didn’t understand and accidentally summoned the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead, onto the stage and she bit off Russell’s head! Dude, it was awesome! Shame about the Windup Space going out like that though.”
If you ever pay attention to anything I ever write, heed this: 1) bring your “A” game, Nona is one of a kind, 2) if you’re on heart medication, for God’s sake take it beforehand, 3) don’t tell your loved ones where you’re going. If we accidentally open a gate to Hell in Russell’s bar, it’s better for them to think you were the victim of some random serial killer instead of being devoured alive by some Aztec god.
There will be delicious Flying Dog beer, delicious Flying Dog beer prizes(!), a pretty rocking prize you can win from Atomic Books, and a book from Baby Tattoo too!
Doors will be at 6, goddamn awesome drawing at 7! This very well might be the best session we ever do – don’t be late! Show up early and stake a claim on your seat.
Obligatory Disclaimers : Neither Dr. Sketchy’s nor its affiliates are any shape or form responsible if your drawings come alive at some later date and eat your children.
$8 at the door, and you must be 18+ to attend, and 21+ to drink. No photography or messy paints (watercolors are fine).
Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore 