Draw by Night is forking over all the sketches and drawings, masterpieces and doodles made on May 12th to us!

Well, not exactly to us, but Jordan and I will be the safe-keepers of them until our next *big* Arthritis Society Fundraiser – Rock Out With Your Socks Out!

(This is my second ever photoshop attempt. I'm more proud than a mom, er, even if you can't read it, I guess the mom equation works well, then).

At this event we will divide all art sales between The Arthritis Society and Draw by Night. Win-win-win, because if you bid $5 or more you may get to take home an original from a Vancouver artist who will rock the white right off of that bare wall of yours.

Anyone can come and draw too! That party puts the pen to the paper on May 12th, 6pm -9pm at the VFS Cafe, 390 W Hastings.

And of course, anyone can come rock out at the sock hop too. Even with your shoes on! You can find ‘Rock Out With Your Socks Out’ dance & auction info here.

And one last thing about tomorrow night, DJ Noble -all the way from Norway- has created a specific ‘Meat Legs’ themed song list.  You won’t know what got into that pen you’re holding until you hear the music!

Owww!

(Can ‘Meat Legs’ howl?)

They sure as heck can!

So, I’ve been thinking. About my glasses. And the fact that I sketch them each week and post the picture of that sketch along with one fact or idea about glasses.

And you know, there are a lot of cool blogs out there talking about glasses and even cooler blogs posting  sketches that have nothing to do with glasses but are amazing.

hmm.

Now, I know the whole point of my bad-art-is-good tag is to just get drawing no matter what and to reach my ultimate drawing dream-goal: to have a year or two’s worth of glasses sketches for a fat flip-book that goes from barely resembling my glasses to knock-out, wow, I could-take-those-off-the-page-and-put-em-on-my-face-for-20/20-vision-good. And to test the theory that if I draw my glasses every single day, I will get better at drawing them.

But here’s the thing about blogs, they’ve got to be interesting. And as I was sketching the picture below, I realized something.

I’m using the blogosphere as one gigantic fridge and sticking each sketch up as though it merits a magnet and a spot right by the door handle where you can see it just because I sketched it. I can remember having more grace  and less expectations than that with the drawings I made in kindergarten!  (Which were way better considering the cute element and the fact I kept drawing what I said were dogs in ball gowns).

So, I’ve decided to post one last sketch and glasses fact. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep drawing my  glasses and maybe in a year or two’s time, when I have that fat flipbook of  drawings, I will post again, but until then-

Did you know there is a patent for “Stud Spectacles“?

Which are, “Eyeglasses that don’t need a frame because they attach to body piercings on the face. Yeah”

Yeah!

and now thanks to a new event in Vancouver -held monthly at the Vancouver Film School Cafe – I ain’t afraid of drawing either.

Draw by Night was started by local artist Myron Campbell,notsosimpleton.com.

The idea behind this free event is to have “an ole-fashioned drawing party”,

with some new fashioned tools: you can draw with pencils, knitting needles, code or like me, with a tape recorder.

Think drawing is only for snobs, geniuses, prodigies and depressed teenagers in plaid?

Well, sure it is!  But it’s also for you too.

Campbell has set up an inclusive and creative environment, with DJ Noble infusing the room with songs,

communal paper and tons of pencil crayons and markers, that you will be delighting yourself with what you came up with in about the same time it takes to grab a coffee at the front door.

Another thing that struck me was having conversations with strangers;

across a slab of paper we were all drawing on.

I haven’t had that sort of freedom since the first week of kindergarten.

And it was just as much fun.

As well as being inclusive, Draw by Night is also quite relaxed.

mel nugent about to dive in

Nobody cared that my drawing skills stopped at grade three and not only that,

they encouraged me to add onto their opuses, which you can find curated by Campbell at this flickr site:
www.flickr.com/groups/drawbynight/pool/

(Another big supporter of dusting off your grade three pencil case and doodling is Mo Willems, award-winning artist and encourager extraordinaire).

Here are some of my own drawings…

ghost of a tapeworm

ghost of a keg stand

ghost of a stunted octopus

ghost of a chicken salad