models – Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore

November 30, 2013

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”

We’re a little behind. Obviously.

If you didn’t know, Alexis and I got married in September and, well, the six months leading up to the wedding got pretty damn hectic. It may not look like it, but these blogs can take a little bit of time to put together, what with the photos to edit, videos to assemble, and, you know, fancy schmancy word poems to, I dunno, glue together. We were able to keep the actual sessions on track, and the videos (we had to—our computers only have so much memory), but sadly, the blogs took the hit.

But as I write this, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’ve got a belly full of turkey and some time on my hands, so let’s see if we can catch up.

Sucre à la Crème.

Her session back in March was one of the best Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore has ever had. I’m going to take a risk and say it honestly might be the best. I won’t say it outright, I don’t want to get knifed by a model when I step off a train back into Baltimore in a few days, but, well, it might just be. Her Legend of Zelda routine is also one of my all time favorites.

If you haven’t watched the video sometime in the last few months, take a look.

One thing I can say for sure: that is the best video we have of a session. A bazillion different things contributed to that, some of which was luck, but when someone asks what a session is like, this is one of the videos we show them.

Paco Fish was originally supposed to model for this session, but at the last minute, he offered to give his session up for Sucre, who was visiting Baltimore from Montreal (which has its own amazing branch, by the way). I don’t think you can quite spot him in the video, but Paco was there at the bar shooting the breeze with us while folks were drawing. A week after that, he set off across the country on tour, which, unless he’s been arrested in the last twenty-four hours or so, he’s still on.

Anyway, we’re pretty damn jealous of Montreal. If they hadn’t taken us out for beers when we were up there a year or two ago, we’d probably be plotting to kill them right now.

We had some drawing contests for weird shots from Russell and a book from our generous sponsor, Baby Tattoo Books out in LA, who runs their own Sketchy’s out there as well.

Since a bit of time has rolled past, our memories are a little hazy, but we’ll do our best to thank everyone involved. Special thanks to Sucre à la Crème who, I’m sure you can see, did an absolutely stunning job; thanks to Paco Fish for recommending her and for keeping us company that night; thanks to Russell of the Windup Space for slinging drinks and tunes; thanks to old door hand Styger who happened to be in town and helped us do set up and breakdown; thanks to Maeve for helping with door and all that set up and breakdown stuff too; thanks to our generous sponsor Baby Tattoo Books; and of course thanks to Alexis for the beautiful photos you see below and for helming the ship on stage that night.

By the way, you can see the sketches folks sent in from that night in the video above.

February 7, 2013February 18, 2013

Let’s have a KiKi.

KiKi Allure was the last model of 2012 and she was absolutely amazing. I’d never heard “Let’s Have A KiKi” by the Scissor Sisters before, but it might be one of my favorite songs now. Well, this month anyway. I wanted to use it in the video below, but figured it wasn’t worth getting us sued out of existence.

We had contests with prizes from our sponsors Atomic Books and Dupenny. I don’t know if you know this, but Atomic Books has been our sponsor for four years, which is almost from the very beginning. This was their last session sponsoring Dr. Sketchy’s and I just wanted to say it’s been an honor working with them, not only because they’re amazing people, but because we consider it a feather in our cap to be sponsored by what, in our opinion, might very well be the best indie bookstore in the country. If you haven’t visited them yet (they’re on the corner of Falls Rd and the Avenue in Hampden), you should. It’s like a toy store for grown-ups and is about as addictive as heroin.

Dupenny was a new sponsor for this session, and donated a snazzy burlesque-themed plate for us to give away as a prize. They design and produce exquisite wallpaper, beautiful homewares and fine ceramics with a refreshing twist. You should check them out. I think we’re going to get some coffee mugs. 🙂

This was also our last Saturday session for the foreseeable future. For most of our 4 1/2 years of doing Sketchy’s, we’ve traditionally had our sessions on Monday evening, the thinking being that there weren’t many other events to compete with and folks were often free. Over the years, a lot of interest was expressed in doing a Saturday afternoon session, so we gave it a shot for a few months. Unfortunately, the attendance just wasn’t as good as Monday with all the various interesting things going on in Baltimore on a Saturday afternoon, like, umm, hangovers and whatnot. Not only that, but Sketchy’s take so much time to set up and take down, that in the end, it basically equated to everyone involved only getting one day off that week, which made pastimes like going to the bookie, finding misplaced cars from Friday’s late night shenanigans, and hunting rabid nutria along backstreets of Fells with .357’s and a bottle of Jack EXTREMELY difficult.

Not impossible, but difficult.

Also, no more Saturday sessions unless there’s a special event going on that calls for it. We’re also reducing our sessions to once a month in 2013, versus the previous twice a month format. An individual session requires a lot of work on the front and backends to put on, to the point where we were finding it impossible to find time to improve things. Basically, our time was going to keeping the machine running with nothing to spare to make each individual session better and better. Plus, Alexis & I are getting married this year, and we need time to plan that monster out. 🙂

So, no more Saturdays, and only once a month from here on out, unless something special comes along (it always does).

Thanks to Kimberly Keyes Stark, Daniel Govar, Stephanie Burgee, Christian Tribastone, and Brandon Peavey for sending in the sketches below.

Special thanks to KiKi Allure for being our artistic muse of the evening, thanks to our sponsors Atomic Books & Dupenny, Zack & Russell of the Windup Space, Maeve for holding down the door and helping set up and take down, Alexis for hosting; and to all you folks who showed up to draw.

December 24, 2012August 4, 2017

Boom goes the dynamite.

Photo by Alexis de la Rosa

When I put together the Dr. Sketchy’s videos, after I’m done with all the pretty sexy stuff and the clips of folks drawing, and after I’ve tacked on all the logos and whatnot at the end, if I can, I’ll dig through the footage for something funny or weird to stick on the end of the thing. Valeria Voxx’s session? Jesus Christ, there must have been twenty minutes of stuff I could have thrown in.

Not only was Valeria Voxx of Black Tassel Boolesque bursting at the seams with amazing poses, not only did she put on a sexy and hilarious performance for the halfway point, but she managed, between her, Alexis, & Russell, to generate enough hilarious footage that I was in tears by the time I finished sorting through all of it. Obviously, I couldn’t use all of it in the little recap clip, but it’ll end up in the documentary or something before all’s said and done I expect.

Valeria put on a doozy of a session, folks—not only that, but a lot of Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore sessions would be like wrasslin’ a big ol’ den of rabid badgers if she didn’t exist. She’s also pretty damn good at dragging passed-out bartenders away from the prying-eyes of the po-po in a pinch—but shhhh, I didn’t tell you that bit.

Atomic Books sponsored this session with some amazing prizes for our contests. They’re our favorite independent bookstore – check them out on Falls Road right off the Avenue in Hampden.

Thank you to the artists who sent in their drawings: Darcie Brook, Tim Kelly, and John Schloman

Thank you to Valeria Voxx for being her glamorous self for our drawing pleasure (and a bad-ass performance!); thank you to our generous sponsor Atomic Books; thank you to Jeff Schock for many of the great photos you see below; thank you to Russell of the Windup Space for slinging the booze and tunes for us; and thank you to Alexis keeping a hold of the mic so it didn’t get loose and maul anybody in the front row.