This past week was a special Sketch Night at Society of Illustrators featuring Military Working Dogs and their handlers.  As one would expect – although the dogs didn’t “pose” in the traditional sense – they are extremely well trained so the handlers knew how to get them to hold or return to certain positions long enough for us to sketch them.

Digital sketch of MWD MMcGreevy and his handler, Navy Petty Officer Scully.

Pencil sketch of MWD KKrusty and his handler, Air Force Staff Sergeant Shenton.

Marker drawings of MWD KKira and her handler: (top) pen and marker; (bottom) marker over pencil.

Here are a few sketches from Life Drawing at Anyone Comics.

Anyone Comics in Crown Heights, Brooklyn not only hosts wonderful Life Drawing sessions on a regular basis, they now stock several of my Origami Comics for sale. These include: Pandora’s Box and its companion minicomic Origins of Origami  Comics; Schrodinger’s Cat; Unfolded Tales; and Bonetti’s Defense.

Some recent sketches.

Marker sketch of “Pirate” cosplayer at Anyone Comics Life Drawing.

Marker sketch from “Fashion Sketch Nigh”t at Society of Illustrators

Watercolor sketch from “1960s Fashion Sketch Night” at Society of Illustrators

Digital sketch from Drink & Draw NYC (July)

Ink and wash sketch from Sketch Night at Society of Illustrators. On Tuesday nights at SOI, nude models are accompanied by live music and this musician graciously gave me permission to sketch him while he was playing.

Here are a few sketches from June.

Market and pencil sketch from drink-n-draw at The Way Station.

Marker and ink drawing on toned tan paper from burlesque sketch night at Society of Illustrators.

Pencil sketch on toned tan paper from sketch night at Drink & Draw NYC.

Some sketches from various life drawing events around NYC this month.

“General Leia Organa” (pencil) from “Star Wars: May The Fourth” session at The Way Station Artists Lounge

Sketch from WinC’s “Drink, Draw, Pole”

Sketch from WinC’s “Drink, Draw, Pole”

“Satyr” (ink and wash) from Dr. Sketchy’s

“MissFit_Shida” (markers, pencil on toned tan paper) from Drink & Draw NYC

Art & Design High School in NYC holds its Draw-a-Thon (day-long life drawing event) in the Spring and Fall of each year. These are some of my favorite sketches from this spring’s Draw-a-Thon 9.

“Satyress” pencil sketches

“Carnival Dancer at Rest” – watercolors, marker, pencil

“Dora Milaje” pencil sketches

In all the hubbub surrounding MoCCAFest, I forgot to post some of my recent sketches.

“Uhura” – watercolor over red pencil

“Lt. Cmdr. Data” – markers and pencil

First, a pair of sketches from a Sketch Night held at the Society of Illustrators just prior to MoCCAFest. The theme that night was “Star Trek First Contact Day”

Next up, some sketches of model Amy Hope from this month’s Drink & Draw NYC.

Quick sketches (left to right): pen and markers; pencils; pencil

“Cat Glasses” – Pencil and markers

“Catwoman” – Markers, ink, and pencil on toned gray paper

Here are photos of some of my MoCCA Festival “Speed Sketching” customers with their commissions.

20-minute sketch

10-minute sketch

40min40sec

40-minute sketch

Fun  commissions not pictured (because I forgot to ask customers for photos): “Portrait of a Young Boy Stomping Godzilla,” “Black Panther Jumping Over a Log,” and  “Wonder Woman Working at IT Desk” among others.

I was overall very pleased with how my “Speed Sketching” experiment worked out: it increased the total number of commissions requested; I was satisfied with the quality of sketches given the time allotted and my customers seemed happy as well; and it attracted attention/curiosity. The experience also gave me some good ideas for how to tweak and improve my technique and showmanship for next time.

If you didn’t get a chance to stop by and chat with me about my comics during MoCCA Festival, here’s the next best thing: an interview recorded with podcaster Jimmy Aquino for his Comic News Insider – Episode 840 (follow the link for a free download or find it on iTunes)! This episode also includes Jimmy’s MoCCA Fest interviews with John Leguizamo (Ghetto Known), Robin Ha (Cook Korean!), and Alisa Harris (Cooking Up Comics).