On a recent Saturday afternoon, nearly 20 people wielding multicolored pencils hunkered down over sketchpads in a dimly lit hole-in-the-wall bar in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Their eyes shifted every few seconds, darting up to process the image of a buxom, platinum-blonde diva striking a languorous pose.

The blonde, dubbed "Clams Casino," sports bright red lips and a passive demeanor. She wears sequined red panties, tasseled pasties, and impossibly high heels. Within The Lucky Cat's crimson-hued walls, Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School life drawing salon is a scene within a scene, a bawdy bi-monthly sketching party and the progeny of Molly Crabapple, a 23-year-old artist, illustrator and burlesque performer. Students at Dr. Sketchy's don't draw classical nudes; they draw glamorous burlesque performers decked out in spangled outfits, ostrich plumes, and heavy makeup.

PLAYING KURD

Crabapple, the daughter of a children's book illustrator, grew up as Jen Caban and began drawing at the age of two. Her formative years sound like Peter Pan meets Anais Nin in a bordello -- a flashy, fleshy escapade through the bohemian underworld.

The artist cultivated her drawing skills in a Paris bookstore (Shakespeare & Co.) where she lived at age 17, developing a finely honed style that blends Victorianna with French Rococo. She took herself around the world, traveling through Morocco and Kurdistan and posed for a photographer as a Kurdish girl. "I apparently can pass as a Kurd," she says.

There was a brief stint in a Turkish jail.

ART SCHOOL DROPOUT

She spent three years studying art at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology before dropping out because she was frustrated by traditional approaches to drawing. While a student, she turned to nude art modeling to support herself.

The modeling eventually led to performing in burlesque and cabaret acts and Crabapple also began illustrating posters to promote New York's thriving burlesque scene. She found the performers appealing as potential life drawing subjects and soon hatched the idea for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. "I thought, 'Why should life drawing be so boring?'" The idea for the salon grew out of all the dull drawing classes she had experienced as an art student.

Throughout all her adventures, drawing has remained a constant in Crabapple's life. After dropping out of "stuffy old art school," she began racking up commissions making a name for herself as an illustrator and artist working for a diverse roster of publications including The New York Times, Playgirl magazine, and SF Weekly, along with Web sites and blogs. Her whimsical, erotically charged style features cleavage-heaving corseted women, bodacious goddesses accented with pasties and plenty of zaftig painted ladies. With her Playgirl assignments she says it's fun "objectifying men once in a while."

"DR. SKETCHY'S OFFICIAL RAINY DAY COLOURING BOOK"

On this day, Crabapple, (functioning on just four hours of sleep) percheed on a bar stool in a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Art Monkey." She conducted an interview about the release of her first book, "Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book," with a pair of students holding video cameras.

The book is a romp through the world of cabaret life drawing courtesy of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. Doe-eyes rimmed in a heavy black kohl, fake eyelashes jutting like porcupines, the pint-sized artist positions her year-old salon as a rollicking concoction of sketching and socializing, burlesque models, drinking games and wacky contests. It's a venue for former art students, illustrators, designers and anyone trying to keep up their drawing skills to gather in a fun, relaxed atmosphere with music and drink. The book, which she and co-author John Leavitt wrote in two months of 12-hour days, began as a tutorial on how to start a Dr. Sketchy's salon.

Crabapple presides over the sessions along with Leavitt, tossing out bits of lascivious black humor during model breaks. She awards prizes, like the one on this day, for a drawing of the best original reindeer modeled after a pose by Ms. Casino.

TAKE OVER THE WORLD NOTEBOOK

A self-described "morning person," Crabapple starts each day with three extra-large iced coffees and makes a detailed list of everything she has to do in a special "Take Over The World" notebook. The rest of her day consists of responding to copious amounts of e-mail, "drawing while lying on my living room floor, sending out events listings and yapping on the phone with my mom while I ink pictures of writhing men for Playgirl." Crabapple professes a fondness for Hookah bars, biographies and libraries.

Crabapple is currently at work on illustrations for two sex books for Avalon Publishing -- "S-E-X" by Heather Corinna -- and "The M Word," about female masturbation, by Jamye Waxman. In February, she embarks on a book tour with Amber Ray, one of her favorite burlesque performers. Earlier this month (January), Trinity Gallery in Philadelphia staged a solo show of her work.

Meanwhile, "Dr. Sketchy's," published by Sepulculture Books, is packed with her illustrations, paper doll cut-outs and instructions on how to start a Dr. Sketchy's chapter; there are now 16 including branches in Detroit, London, Los Angeles, Denmark, and Australia. The book serves up tips such as "How to draw (breasts) the Dr. Sketchy way" and the "History of Depraved Life Drawing." Photos of burlesque models in lascivious poses, word riddles and recipes for aptly named drinks like the French Whore are interspersed among a welter of colorful personal anecdotes.

Cocoa Mae, the 21-year-old organizer of Dr. Sketchy's London branch, calls the book "A proper dirty little fairytale book" and sees Dr. Sketchy's as a movement: "If there's anyone who can achieve world domination, it's (Molly)," Mae says.

NO STARVING NECESSARY

As a former artist's model, Crabapple sees to it that the models receive fair pay and adequate breaks; she recalls hours of back-breaking work with few, if any, breaks. "Nude modeling is really hard. I once did a backbend for five minutes as a naked model and held it."

Crabapple sees herself primarily as an artist, not a nude model or businesswoman or brand franchise. "I'm (just) a geeky, workaholic girl who loves coffee and spends a lot of time sending out listings" to promote Dr. Sketchy's classes, book signings, her shows and performances, and other events," she says. "I love to draw. I think burlesque is fun, but it's not where my real talent lies."

"I feel incredibly blessed to be making a living doing art. Artists should realize that once you reach a modicum of skill, the rest is really promotion," Crabapple explains. In fact, for her next project she's looking to do a book on marketing for artists; "there's no reason they should starve."

Next up for Dr. Sketchy's? "Maybe a branch in Antarctica," she offers playfully.

See the photo gallery here.

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Tobi Elkin is a writer in New York.

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