Next Dr. Sketchy's is Monday, February 8th with an Italian-themed life drawing session featuring "Baltimore's Sicilian Queen", Maria Bella of Gilded Lily Burlesque! The last time Maria posed for us, way back in the ride-a-dinosaur-to-work days of 2014, was one of our all-time favorite sessions. Take a look—BTW, keep an eye out for one of the best drawings of feet I've ever seen someone do at a session. Maria has a whole stocking full of new stuff for y'all this time around—this is going to be a good'un. Maria's sessions are always some of the best we have. Here's a bit of Maria's bio. *************** "Baltimore's Sicilian Queen", Maria Bella, is founder of Gilded Lily Burlesque. She is a producer, trumpet player and burlesque performer whose acts are a mix of classic, cabaret and neo-burlesque. She uses cultural imagery, exotic flair, fantasy and world dance technique to bring clever concepts to the stage. Her dance background includes erotica, latin, modern, jazz and world dance. She is also a model with experience in pinup, fashion, festish, concept and alternative modeling. Her musical background includes jazz, cabaret, classical, blues and soul. She has performed in various festivals around the US and internationally, including The Baltimore PRIDE Festival, The Ashevillle Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, The Great Southern Exposure, The Purrrlesque Burlesque Festival, The Texas Burlesque Festival, The Show-Me Burlesque Festival, The New York Burlesque Festival and the Toronto Burlesque Festival. Maria Bella has been photographed and interviewed by such magazines as Java's Bachelor Pad Magazine, Retro Lovely Magazine, Alt Noir Magazine, Council Magazine and Retro Lovely Taboo, as well as appearances in various print and websites by clothing designers such as Gothfox Designs, Sugar Kitty Corsets, Cameo Intimates, Karen Von Oppen, Scarlet Bliss, Hello Dolly Latex, Berit New York, Collective Chaos Designs, Blu Zombie Designs, Krypta Kouture, Poison Candy Fashions and many others. She has also made headlines in the Baltimore City Paper and The Urbanite and has performed on the mainstage at Baltimore PRIDE and at the GLCCB Walter's Art Gallery event. Maria Bella has also appeared in such books as The Kiss Book Project , TKE Expressions Pinup Book, 666 Photography Photo Book, For the Troops and the 2007 and 2008 Pinups for Pitbulls Calendar. *************** There’ll be contests with prizes from Blick Art Materials and Pond5, not to mention adult beverages and the like. Doors at 6, start at 7.  18+ to draw, 21+ to drink.  Show up early to get a good seat. $12 at the door, $10 if you buy by midnight the night before.   http://bit.ly/1TkSbkE No photography or messy paints, please (watercolors are fine). Like our page for the latest updates: http://www.facebook.com/DrSketchysBaltimore Photo of Maria Bella by Frank de Blase.