Canvas Club // Dr Sketchys

Canvas club and Dr Sketchy's Anti Art School Leeds are both run by my good pals Terri and Steve, they are some wild drawing events.

Dr Sketchy's is alternative/ burlesque life drawing 'class' / club / event - everyone is welcome, at any drawing ability and there's basically no rules - you can win some sweet prizes for churning out some wild art too. Also there is usually a burlesque performance which is always good fun.

Canvas Club is a drawing club focused around music as a stimulus - with different themes (Hip Hop, Woodstock, Anime etc). It's a pretty fun time.

I helped out my pals by drawing up a design for a flyer/poster which is now on the Belgrave website and all around the bar, it's weird seeing your own drawings in public, I kinda like it.

Here are some of my initial sketches for the canvas club flyer - I toyed with mimicking a Fight Club type thing but decided it would be best to try and not rip off any big names yet. (but one day I will). After I got the go ahead I made a slightly neater version of the design - though looking back on it now I  would have liked to have tidied it up more and had some smoother more defined lines on it. 

Edgar Allan Poe

Birth: 19th January 1809
Death: 7th October 1849

Considering Poe because I am a goth cliché and would like to make some spooky drawings based on spooky writings.

Notable works include: The Raven (of course), The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, Annabel Lee, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Masque of Red Death
- A large body of work including poems and short stories - considered one of the pioneers of the short story.
- Common themes of Death and Loss - Very Macabre
- Considered the inventor of detective fiction & contributed to the science fiction genre.
- First well known American writer to earn a living through writing alone - He was real poor a lot of the time.

A lot of his actual life is a mystery due to the time he lived and the fact that after his death he was subject to a lot of slander due to the enemies he made when writing reviews for the "Southern Literary Messenger". Basically he was the original starving artist, attempting to live with some alcohol problems and with not a lot of money.

- married his cousin Virginia Clem in 1935.
- Previously may have been engaged to another, but she left him for another man while he was attempting University.
- had a bus load of drinking problems
- Died in 1949 - the cause is still a mystery.
- Jules Verne wanted to be buddies - I know this from a Kate Beaton comic

- A lot of writers love the Poe. Arthur Conan Doyle described him as "the supreme original short story writer of all time" 

About his works:
The Raven :
-Spooky and Atmospheric - I am about that life
Why was he so obsessed with death and loss? - Something to investigate.

Mad Max Fury Road

Mad Max was great - saw it 4 times. 

Like most feminists I enjoyed seeing a lot of female characters who had substance and diversity and were main characters rather than backgrounds or just love interests. (Plus Tom Hardy is in it and who doesn't love Tom Hardy ay?). 

Another thing about the film I really fixated on were the colour schemes. Lots of contrasting blue and orange and such - very pleasing to the eye. 

Anyway I did a lot of fan art here it is: 

I was just messing about with brusho and thought these backgrounds would make great "my name is max my world is fire and blood" kind of drawings, so I did some terrible scribbles over them and I love them.

Angela Carter

Born: May 7th 1940
Died: February 16th 1992 (Lung Cancer)

Well known for The Bloody Chamber - most people think it is feminist or adult interpretations of fairy tales when Angela says the stories are new tales made from the latent content of fairytales - which can be very dark and sexual. (I have a book of fairytales and they are all terrifying - almost definitely meant to scare children)

- She was drawn to "gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal directly with the imagery of the unconscious"
- Deals with heterosexual female sexuality - told from a heterosexual female viewpoint. In 1979 this was unusual but has also been criticised for not breaking more boundaries (from what I saw after this means - not being gay enough)
- "The short story is not minimalist, its rococo" - quote from Angela showing that even though sort stories are… well… short they are not empty. They are full of life and imagination and such.
- Concerned with the pentacle of Virginity (though I am not entirely sure what this is)
- Work contains images of "meat, naked flesh, fur, snow, menstruation, mirrors and roses" - Up front sexual themes also backed up by more subtle metaphors.

Since I find themes of female sexuality interesting I am intrigued by Angela Carters work. Although it's been a while since the 70's, the Bloody Chamber still shocks people, is it due to the female sexuality or the fact that it's hard not to associate the tales with the well known fairy tales intended for children?