When I flew into Portland for RailsConf I walked down to Dante's to get some pizza and beer right after checking into my hotel. When I walked into the mostly empty early evening bar I noticed a spotlight on a mannequin holding a hula hoop. While waiting for my pizza slice I realized it wasn't a mannequin, it was a semi nude model surround by a handful of artists with sketch pads. Turned out that they were selling pads and pencils at the door for $5. Since I had a few hours to kill and had never tried figure drawing before I decided to give it a shot.

The first one is really crappy, but after 90 minutes (and a few beers) I think I showed a lot of improvement. Yes, still not good, but come on, look at that first one! I think that's they key with people who are good sketchers: it's not that there is necessarily some natural talent that one either has or doesn't have, it's that they do it all the time and just get better and better at it.

By the way, those are feathers on her pasties, not tassels (some folks I showed these to were confused by that).