Every month at A Comic Shop on 436 near University
Boulevard, there is a sketch session called Mystery Sketch Theater. The models are usually dressed as super
heroes or Henai characters. Quite honestly I seldom know who the model is
portraying. It is a great chance to loosen up and it is a luxury to have a
model pose for 5, 10 and sometimes 20 minutes at a time. I keep a small sketch journal for these quick
academic poses, but I can’t resist drawing the artists around me. About ten to
twenty artists gather each month. There always seems to be just enough artists
to fill the available art desks.
Towards the end of the evening the organizers ask the
artists to shout out a strange character or theme for the drawing. All the
drawings from that pose are then put on the model stand and the model picks her
favorite sketch. That artist then wins a prize which is usually a book about
comics or movies. I seldom win this fantasy sketch round since I’m usually
still working on my one overall sketch. I did win once, and I recall getting a
plastic cup with blinking lights in the base.