Dr. Sketchy’s Official Rainy Day Colouring Book by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt
Sepulculture Books, 192 pages, $20
By Kate Rockwood
Published: March 19th, 2007 | 12:06pm
Slowly it dawned on me that I could cobble together the jagged fragments of my life into one glittering pastiche,” Molly Crabapple writes in Dr. Sketchy’s Official Rainy Day Colouring Book, co-written by John Leavitt. She’s speaking of her evolution from art school–nude photography model to the creator of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, a life drawing class where average Joes and Janes come together to sip drinks and sketch buxom models. But she could just as easily be describing the book itself: a glittering, fragmented ode to all things boozy, busty, and burlesque.
Offered as a cure-all for boredom and apathy, the book is one part DIY handbook for creating your own Dr. Sketchy’s, one part activity book for irreverent adults — complete with curvaceous paper dolls, a Lost Gin maze, and step-by-step guide to making invisible ink — and one part personal history. It’s packed with saucy photos and Crabapple’s playful illustrations, as well as interviews, cutout pasties, drink recipes, and a handful of “bad ideas.” While the dismembered female body parts that let you hinge together your own posable model gave this feminist pause, there is much here — from the fierce, fleshy models to the DIY spirit — to celebrate.
Issue #34
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