Spotlight: Arkady Roytman

Howdy, y'all. This is a drawing of my good friend Arkady Roytman. This is a quick sketch (no more than 5 minutes) done at a session of the New York Society of Illustrators bi-weekly "Jazz and Sketch Night". Twice per week, this great organization hosts a night of nude or semi-nude figure drawing, complete with a bar and live music. It's an incredibly fun time where you can practice honing your life-drawing skills (and I love to occasionally cheat and draw the other artists!)

Anyway, the live sketch night is usually moderated by Arkady. He's only hosting a part-time now, but he still attends at least once per week and is a big part of helping the Society run from week-to-week. Arkady is a great guy, and watching him paint is sweeter than the jazz in the air. His watercolors are both subtle and entergetic, capturing the pose with a loose and wonderful palette.

Arkady has two blogs: One is for personal work, including illustration, commissions, concept art, fantasy art, figure drawing and more. He is an amazingly rounded artist and inspires me with his life drawings like no one else.

His other blog is just that: nude figure drawings. It's called "Nude of the Day." Arkady paints plenty of nude figures, and he offers these paintings fresh, daily. You can dig through hundreds of amazing paintings. Trust me, I've seen him create them... they are more beautiful in person, and you should consider investing in a nice original.

Lastly, Arkady has compiled a "best-of" book for his first year of daily nude sketches, which you can pick up pretty cheap! Why not swing over to his blog and get Arkady's book. I have one here at my house and I look at it frequently. Check it out and let Arkady know what you think of his work --

I think it's great.

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