These are a few quick sketches from New York’s Dr. Sketchy’s Dia de los Muertos themed event this past weekend. Most of the portraits were 10 minute poses. The last one or two portraits (not the gestures) were 20 minutes each, but I still did it/them in about 10 because I scrapped the first drawing. The first drawing(s) were terrible.

I was pretty rusty, as evidenced by the gestures at the end. We also arrived an hour late (first time at this branch!) so we missed all of the warm up poses. So add that to the rust and you have very stiff, rusty sketches!

I focused on the face since getting there late, I had a bad seat and was too short to see over the crowd. Also, because how often do you get to see and draw gorgeous Dia de los Muertos makeup? I can sketch the entire figure any time.

I love how Day of the Dead themed skull makeup always gives the wearer a sardonic look. I think it’s how heavy it makes the lids seem.

Edit: Sooo getting there early next time. Being short (comparatively) and having poor eyesight makes it really difficult to see the shapes and details! I need a good seat. The bright side is it prevents me from being too anal about the details. I hope that’s a bright side.