I saw the post in another thread by SketchinGuy about how he started going to strip clubs. I did not want to hijack that thread so here's a new one.
To SketchinGuy - It was interested to hear that you were turned away at several clubs. I guess I can understand why for the same reasons cameras aren't allowed.
I've only ever seen one guy in a club doing what you do. He was hit of the party. Had every pretty girl at his table.
Really made me wish I could draw more than just stick figures.
Not a strip club but 30+ years ago there was one that hung out in Hussong's Cantina, Ensenada, MX. His drawings were covering the walls of the bar.
Motorhead - I didn't think that was gonna attract attention in here! But yeah, I got turned away often. In one place (I think it was Jaguar's but don't remember now) a manager confiscated my sketchbook. He gave it back later, though--I wouldn't leave until I got it back. This was in Vegas...most of the clubs there are uptight about anyone walking in with pen & paper. Those which were cool were always the smaller ones. It was managers & security who didn't go for it; the girls almost always did. Thus your seeing 8s+ gather around that guy's table. That's happened to me, too. ;-)
Too bad we're not in the same town...I'd meet you at a SC with a pad & marker for you & show you the rope, get you started.
Am thinking of writing an article about it...
motorhead, consider Toulouse-Lautrec, the artist who sketched dancers at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. That was in the 1890's when the Moulin Rouge and similar cabarets were the strip clubs of the time. You could interact with the dancers and take them back to your pied-a-terre--for a price. Today the Moulin Rouge is an over-priced tourist trap where you have no chance of bagging a dancer.
In London there is a monthly life drawing class at The White Horse, Shoreditch, where a closed off part of the venue is taken over by artists drawing pole dancers in action. The drawing bit is not my cup of tea but I think it is great that the striptease industry is reaching out to a different audience.
"Come and draw from actual live pole-dancers while they perform at The White Horse, Shoreditch, Hackney's first strip club to open it's doors to artists, illustrators, painters, sketchers, doodlers, and anyone else who would like to have a go at drawing from life... in a unique setting! The dancers at The White Horse are among the best in London, and will be showing off their skills on the pole. We are inviting a whole new audience of visual artists to come and draw these amazing performers as they do their thing. All levels are welcome, same for gender. Materials will be provided, and we are very privileged to announce that tuition will be given, by Liz Ranken, associate artist at the Royal Shakespeare Company. £12 per person per class, £10 for students. Limited spaces available."
Edgar Degas also did much the same in the salons of Paris, etc. His work shows mainly ballet dancers, but in his day they were considered women of ill repute...as strippers are sometimes viewed now. Yeah, we've been doing this for a while now!
Tonester just gave me a reason to go to London. Normally I wouldn't set foot in that city...too much public surveillance.
I hate chalk outlines in the strip club never a good sign
