Last Thursday night, something sketchy went on at the new Allovus office in Bellevue. Allovus hosted The Sketch Pistols—a group of artists who meet twice per month to sketch.  Dave Adams, the founder of the Seattle branch of the Sketch Pistols is also an Allovus employee.

“When I lived in San Francisco, I co-founded The Sketch Pistols there,” Dave said. “But then I moved to Seattle in 2002. A friend and I started going out into the city to sketch together. We added a few more people along the way. About 2 ½ years ago, we were looking for a way to organize our group, and decided to create a group on Facebook, and it really took off. Our gang went from 4 people per event to 12 people, and now we are looking to expand to more.”

What kind of people come to your events? “We have cartoonists, designers, character designers for video games, and graphic designers—lots of different kinds of artists.

What made you decide to sketch at the new Allovus office? “I saw the newsletter with an article on Steve Godfrey. Steve and I knew each other from San Francisco. The newsletter called for people to submit any kind of events folks might be interested in. So, I thought, why not have a Sketch Pistols event at Allovus? The Allovus get-together was by far the largest event the Sketch Pistols have had to date.”

What is the main purpose for The Sketch Pistols? “Basically, it’s to take art out of the studio and into the streets. But you have to abide by one rule when you come; you have to make art.”

What’s the most interesting or funny thing that happened during one of your sketching events? “Something weird and funny always happens when we get together! You never know what’s going to transpire. When we sketch in bars, we’ll attract the attention of other bar patrons. The people watching us sketch want to get involved—and sometimes they ask if we can draw them too. But one night we were in a bar called The Lookout on Capitol Hill. I planned the event there because I knew it had a great view and some of our members would want to sketch it. What I didn’t realize is that it was Karaoke Night. It was fun because we could get at least 5 minutes of time to sketch the people who sang. To my surprise, one of our members, Marianne Giesemann, got up and sang. We were astonished—she had the voice of an angel!

Check out Dave’s Sketch Pistol Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/daveadamsartguy/sketch-pistols-dave-adams/

© by MARTINA DALTON, Designer, Allovus Design