"I love the idea of an artist muse," Dita Von Teese purred yesterday afternoon, while a few dozen downtown New York art-scene heavyweights—Will Cotton, Inka Essenhigh, and Duncan Hannah among them—prepared to sketch the burlesque star in the nude. "I'm not one of those girls at the party with her tits out," Von Teese said about when and where she reveals herself. Really? Could've fooled us. She went on: "But I feel totally comfortable posing in the nude. It's up to me to decide what's appropriate." The sketching session, organized by the New York Academy of Art in conjunction with tonight's annual Take Home a Nude benefit, had the feel of an after-school art class, with Cotton, the event's unofficial den father, joking with friends and fiddling with the red velvet draped indolently over the Dita-destined divan. "Honestly, I never would have thought I could get Dita to pose," Cotton admitted, whose regular models often moonlight as burlesque dancers at the Slipper Club. "It's a three-hour opportunity to do something I've been thinking about doing for a really long time," he continued. "So I hope I'm on my game." Yesterday's sketches will be displayed at tonight's benefit, showing Ms. Von Teese in various stages of dishabille—"It'll be a three-hour long strip tease," Cotton said, as he and Von Teese discussed her outfit options—and some will be up for auction. Just who will go home with a nude Dita is yet to be determined, but Cotton was certain about how to get his subject in a bid-worthy mood. "No Marilyn Manson," the artist deadpanned about the songs he'd loaded onto his iPod. Good call, Will.