WONDERLAND

Tonight! At our studio starting 18hrs - Dr.Sketchy's Helsinki presents: Wonderland! Come and draw and enjoy the nice setting, music and atmosphere.

Photo by Neil Kendall.

HALLOWEEN FUN, TODAY!

What to do today?
Let me help you with that:

Come to Sture 21 for a set of Dr. Sketchy's and then in the evening join the best, most sparkling and craziest Halloweenn party in town, when we throw our RubiesKlubit: MÖRKÖKLUBI Halloween burlesque show.
Booooh!

DR.SKETCHY'S : COSMOS. AND SOME MORE SPACE STUFF.

Last Sunday we turned our studio into interstellar space -or intergalactic if you so like- they way it would look if an, umm, elementary school or some kind of vaudevillian basement theatre put up a play about space. We really wanted it to look adorably crappy on one hand with our small self made planets and things hanging by the help of string and clothes pins but on the other hand still keep it on the right side of being deliberately camp (the way we like it) as well as to function as the optional drawing detail or background inspiration.

The navigators of the ship with the brave cosmonaut.
(Our space aesthethics always tend to be rather b-movie retrotastic.)

So as you know from what I've written before, Dr.Sketchy's is a worldwide concept of  "alternative" live model drawing. There have been Dr.Sketchy events in Finland for a decade now, and last autumn Tinker Bell and I revived the Helsinki branch.

We make sure our Sketchy-playlists suit the themes as well and this time we had Bowie and Star Wars scores and such, the usual songs about space that you'd expect, but also the Nasa space recordings of planets for ecample (the ones where the electromagnetic radio waves of the planets are converted into sound waves. Space oooout man!-stuff. You can find those on Spotify too.) Some sound rather "mechanical" and eerie sounding and others sound like some new age meditation stuff or the chill out room at a trance party in 2001. (They probably still sound like that, the chill out rooms, but as we all know I don't go to those anymore. Phew.).

And while we're at it: did you know that they wanted to put The Beatles' Here Comes The Sun on the golden record(s) that are on the Voyager satellites but the record company declined? The internet has told me so. Among many other things*

Johnny posing and attendees drawing.


*) I'm a big space fan; a nightly reader of all things space.
Me: So have you seen this video where my favourite astronaut-
Johnny: Wait, you have a favourite astronaut?
Tinker: Of course she does
Some part of me will obviously always be an 11-year old kid.

(Altough, to be honest, it's more about space time and gravity and trying to grasp the endlessness, about philosophical views on cosmos fas well as random weird facts for me, rather than space ships and astronauts, Star Trek and scifi. I like reading about things I have a hard time comprehending, like quantum physics for example. But space ships and astronauts can be worth some night time googling too; and I happen to think this space water here is cool (wash my hair in space though
.)

Ok so one more space-thing, because this bothered and freaked me out as a kid (and, ehrm, perhaps at some moments in my adult life too), but: no astronaut has ever fallen off a space ship and drifted off for eternity into space. You can sleep at night now, you're welcome!
(But your fingernails might come off though. Aaaaa!)

But back to our own little cosmos in Helsinki now.

Drawing by Minka Lindfors.

Thanks to Johnny and everyone who attended! The next Helsinki Sketchy will be July 8, and that one we'll have at Mascot (and when night falls we'll continue the evening with our summer's Rubies Klubit event)! Don't miss that one.

SPACE OUT WITH US / DR. SKETCHY'S HELSINKI 23.4

It's time for the next Dr.Sketchy's Helsinki! This time we create you a little mini cosmos over at our studio, where the drawing takes place.

Dr.Sketchy's is an "anti-art school", a so called 'cabaret drawing'- event, where attendants can draw and paint croquis with a little different setting than the one you might be used to from art school. Usually with a specific theme, styled and set up according to that, and with great music.

Photos by Asko Rantanen, whose alter ego Johnny Moth also will serve as our model.
The space shuttle will be navigated by Tinker Bell and yours truly.

So, Sunday 23rd from 4pm onwards. Bring pencils papers and cash and see you at Shangri-La!

RED WINE, PENCILS AND HOURS OF GOOD MUSIC / DR.SKETCHY WENT SWINGING SIXTIES

Last Saturday we hosted the latest Dr.Sketchy Anti-Art School night at our studio, this time with a 1960's theme.

Tinker Bell and I are the hosts for Dr.Sketchy's Helsinki nights.
Picture by Aiju.


We wanted to give the night some extra psychedelic vibes so we fixed a projection with some 1969 Joshua Light show that started looping in the background when the evening turned darker, letting the music turn from sixties pop to psychedelia.







Tinker Bell drawing behind the curtains.


Dr.Sketchy has been on a hiatus in Helsinki, the first one after the break being the Marie Antoinette themed night last June. We plan to keep another evening during autumn still, so follow the Facebook page for updates, or check our studio's page. You will obviously here about any future nights here as well.

A couple of drawings from the evening by Janne Korsumäki.

And a few by Kerttu Jaatinen. (We used our red-and-white striped screen in the beginning of the night and I was happy to see it being used in the sketches as well).

After the night was over we still had the projections , some red wine and The Doors (of which the two later definitely bringing memories from my year studying painting back in 2001...) which called for some regular after work chill. Or grooving, which ever way you see it.

You can see an instagram video of one of the longer drawing sessions here, and at our studio's instagram account @studioshangrila (which you should of course follow in any case!)

DR.SKETCHY'S HELSINKI: MARIE ANTOINETTE

The other week I posed for DrSketchy's Anti-Art School Marie Antoinette-themed night that was held at our studio!



Vegan cupcakes, pastels, lots of fluff and rosy cheeks.

You may remember I used to go quite a lot to the cabaret-live-drawing evenings of Dr.Sketchy's before, but then I ran out of time and so did Tinker and Aiju who were organising them in Helsinki - this was the first night in a few years. And while we were at it we decided with Tinker Bell to start producing them over here again (Dr.sketchy Finland has mainly been active in Tampere only during the Helsinki hiatus). So be prepared for more nights of good music, some wine and most of all drawing fabulous models in fun themes!

Here are a couple of paintings from the night by Anna Kainulainen:

You can follow Dr.Sketchy's Anti-Art School Finland via blogger or on Facebook!

Read more about Dr.Sketchy's here.