Monthly Archives: October 2019

Carnivorous Plant Month teaser! With air-dry clay tips.

Carnivorous alien plants by Suzanne Forbes Oct 28 2019

Little Workshop of Horrors!

Carnivorous alien plants made of air dry clay WIP by Suzanne Forbes Oct 28 2019I‘m having a rest day so I‘m doing art that feels like play and gives me energy. I made a bunch of leaves using my fondant decoration orchid veiner and air drying DAS modelling clay, then painted them and glossed them with gel medium.

You can see me handling the teeny teeth with a wax rhinestone pick-up pencil in the video below. This is a craft/costumier tip I learned about from incredible head-dress maker @bubblesandfrown and damn it changed my decor game!!!

I‘m using a glue gun to apply this batch of teeth, stick in the tongues and clamshell the leaves together.

The gluegun glue is great because its fast setup lets me position the tongues and angle the openness of the mouths on the fly.

Carnivorous alien plants in process by Suzanne Forbes Oct 28 2019Fast-worker tip I learned: you can speed-dry air-dry clays and paperclays in the oven!

That is a GAME CHANGER if you are a fucking impatient person like me. However, that is not what I did here. Once I learned heat would speed up the drying without releasing any fumes, I just put ’em on the radiator. There are two modern radiators in our kitchen/my workroom, and they can be adjusted, so I put the leaves on there! Apparently these clays scorch easily so care is required when putting them in the oven, while the radiator top is visible from my worktable.

Air-drying clay is super-absorbent, so it sucks the paint right in.

I was able to coat and recoat these in a very short time. Then I coated everything with gel medium, for a creepy gloss. (I talk about sculpting materials and glossing substances here!) I’m not totally confident in the gel medium’s tack-free curing, so I may spray them all over with spray acrylic varnish later. But first the thick medium is getting another day to cure.

This is only the first iteration for what is gonna be Carnivorous Plant November around here!!!

Drawing Shine Louise Houston in Berlin!

Shine Louise Houston teaching film at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesA great regret from the Bay Area era of my documentary work was that I never got to draw film-maker Shine Louise Houston.

She is the powerhouse creative force behind revolutionary queer studios CrashPad Series and PinkLabelTV, and an amazing QPOC artist.

Shine Louise Houston teaching camera technique at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesYesterday I got to meet and draw Shine, and what a thrill!

Shine Louise Houston‘s camera work and film workshops are incredibly popular and sell out like lightning, but I was able to get in as a documentary artist and record her teaching the class.

Shine Louise Houston and students at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesShine started out with some gems about filming adult media that I never would have thought of!

I was absolutely fascinated to hear her talk about the secrets of a happy set and how to troubleshoot when things go sideways. Shine on IMDB here! You would not believe how much creative work she has done as a producer and director of sexy erotic cinema.

“There is power in creating images, and for a woman of color and a queer to take that power… I don’t find it exploitative; I think it’s necessary.” – Shine Louise Houston

Shine Louise Houston and Jiz Lee at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesHere’s Shine with Jiz Lee, demonstrating the concept of the 180-degree Line.

Although all I know about film-making is what I’ve seen on queer porn sets, I know this concept from my career as a comic-book penciller! I drew Jiz Lee often in the Oughts in the Bay, because we both donated lots of time to benefits for local sex-positive institutions like The Center for Sex and Culture. I keep up with them daily on twitter and Instagram, because Jiz is always on top of news and opportunities for sex-positive activism and education.

Jiz Lee at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesSeriously, if you want to be learning and growing about how to support trans and nonbinary folx and QPOC erotic cinema, Jiz Lee is your first stop.

They were the first out nonbinary person I knew IRL, and their clear voice is always educating me on how to be of use and of help. Step one: PAY FOR YOUR PORN!!!

Suzanne Forbes photographed by Jiz Lee at Shine Camera Work class Oct 26 2019

Jiz Lee took this cool over-the-shoulder shot of me drawing!

Shine Louise Houston teaching camera work at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesIt was a total treat that one of the demo models for Shine’s class was Bishop Black!

Always a pleasure to see that gentleman creative, who is one of the hardest working artists in Berlin’s incredibly rich queer life.

Shine Louise Houston teaching at Altes Finanzamt Oct 26 2019 by Suzanne ForbesPeople I know have been shooting with Shine Louise Houston forever!

Sadly my health got worse and worse in my last years in the Bay, and I never managed to be somewhere Shine was working. It was an honor to at last document her historic and powerful artistic presence. I loved hearing her talk about intuitive and spiritual approaches to cinema; even if you’re not a film-maker the class is so interesting and I highly recommend it!

These drawings are licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

That means they’re 100% FREE for all to share and enjoy! In addition, I release the copyright on each drawing to the performer shown and they may use the drawings for their own profit and pleeeasssure in any way they choose.

As a fat, queer, disabled artist, crowdfunded support is the only way I can make this work and release it for free. 

You can join my Patreon Patrons, for as little as a dollar/euro a month, to keep me making my documentary art of Queer Berlin as Free Art.