Monthly Archives: February 2018

February 2018 unterwegs, bonus round – video buds and listen to your elders!

Video game buds on the U1 by Suzanne Forbes Feb 25 2018These two little dudes, with their matching undercuts, were very excited about a game.

It was the hour of the day when the subways are full of kids taking the train home from school, as I used to do myself.

Advice giving on the U Bahn by Suzanne Forbes Feb 23 2018Now pay attention!

It was not at all clear that the two younger women knew the senior lady who was informing them of something very important. But they were listening seriously nonetheless.

Crowded Berlin bus by Suzanne Forbes Feb 23 2018Crowded bus standup drawing.

I made this in a seriously crowded bus, surrounded by all different people of Berlin, filled with gratitude for this place. As you can see the guy right next to me had his headphones on and paid me no attention at all.

You can see previous unterwegs here:

February 2018

January 2018 bonus round

January 2018 round 1

December 2017

November 2017

September 2017

July bonus round

July

June

May bonus round

May round one

April

March 2

March

January

December

November

Works in Process – drawing pastel clothing with pastels, yikes!

WIP VIva Lamour by Suzanne Forbes detail Feb 2018I’m working on these three pastel drawings from Dr. Sketchy’s Berlin veeeerrry slowly.

This first one is of the beautiful Viva Lamore, who wore a marvelous outfit with a cage hoop. Because the theme for this Dr. Sketchy’s was Broken Baroque, everyone was wearing ropes of pearls and masses of ruffles. Plus fluffy white cotton batting wigs.

WIP VIva Lamour by Suzanne Forbes Feb 2018I’m struggling to control the “dust sticks” as I call them and render some kind of believable volume with such pale colors.

I find it so hard to get any detail with pastels. Especially drawing things like pearls and lace. As you can see, for important areas like the models’ faces, I just cheat and use ink. I’m using both my beloved PITT brush pens and 50% grey scale markers here to add in darker values. For the pearls, I started using a white color pencil.

WIP Dr Sketchys Berlin by Suzanne Forbes Feb 2018As much as I’ve hated and ignored color pencils all my life, I can see how on paper this good, they can be a nice tool.

Each of these drawings is on a different shade of Mi Teintes paper, as I randomly chose from my pad of sepia, umber, and buff paper in order to provide “new experiences”. Mighta gone a little overboard on adding complicating factors there, as the effect of each color of pastel stick is startlingly different on light vs dark papers.

WIP Evilyn Frantic by Suzanne Forbes Feb 2018So I am working on them just a little bit at a time, trying not to set myself the overwhelming goal of “finishing” or “getting them right”.

You can see the drawings I’ve finished so far from this Dr. Sketchy’s here.

Thanks so very much to my Patrons on Patreon whose financial support makes it possible for me to explore new materials like this. You are the best.