Sketch Night, Society of Illustrators

Been meaning to attend a sketch night at the Society of Illustrators on the Upper East Side ever since I visited the place with my mom and sis last spring. (It's hard to do it when I'm on a job because they begin at 6:30pm; it's hard to get anywhere by 6:30pm when I'm working, let alone a place on the Upper East Side.)

Finally did it last night. It was a "Sherlock Holmes" theme night. The models were in costume (the male model wore tattered suits: I reckon you don't actually need a full suit if you're just posing). I arrived about 6:15pm and a fair number of people had already settled in and secured prime real estate. I was encouraged seeing there were at least TWO other people using their iPad Pros as sketchbooks.

So... I've been doing more drawing since I got my iPad this past autumn, but the last time I sketched a live model was probably back in high school Art Class.

You have to... work FAST.

They started out with a bunch of 2 minute poses and I could barely get anything down. They gradually get up to 10 minute poses.

As the night wore on, I started to get a better system down. Then it became more about focusing on specific aspects.

Here's a progression of my sketches over the course of the evening:


It was interesting and frustrating. The woman was empirically attractive and yet when I tried to render her face onto the page, she would come out... distorted.


I know, I know. It's a skill you build, "practice", etceteras. I just thought I'd be better out of the gate.

I'll probably try a few more sketch nights since I have no life.