Suzanne Forbes, a New Yorker thriving in Berlin. Crowdfunded documentary art made possible by the generous support of her Patrons. https://www.patreon.com/SuzanneForbes.
I started seriously drawing in cafes or coffee shops in 1990.
I finally got into the habit of having a sketchbook with me at all times, not just most of the time, once I had a car!
And I had a teacher at MCAD who said the best way to draw the figure confidently was to draw “in situ“, constantly.
Good advice! Seriously, look at the foot of that little girl.
I drew everywhere I went.
And as a person in early sobriety, it was the perfect way to be comfortable in social situations.
The Day by Day Cafe!
Such a part of sober life in St. Paul back then. And even now, I think? Also, as indicated in this drawing, a total cruising spot for me and all my gay friends 🙂
I lived near Dunn Bros, worked at Dunn Bros, hung out at Dunn Bros.
The coffee was incredible. This is from 1991.
This homage to Degas is one of my favorite cafe drawings ever.
Dunn Bros, 1990.
There were other sober hangouts, like the Music City Cafe.
This is my friend Denise and her daughter Zora there, 1994. Children have never been my specialty!
I also did a whole series of drawings of musicians in cafes during this time, like this one at Music City Cafe.
You can see some more of them here on flickr, in my Musicians album. Later coffee shop drawings are here.
Most of these drawings had never been scanned or uploaded; until now, no online record of them existed – if we had a fire or flood they would just be gone forever.
I am so grateful to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me to take time to document my art archives.
And I had sketchbooks around, of course, since I was going to be an artist, either a children’s book illustrator or a fashion illustrator.
So soon enough I was trying to draw my loved ones. Above is a picture of me, left, and my bestie Gilly, as I imagined us when we were the age I am now. (If you had told me I would be fifty-five and fat, and fine with it, I would have snarled in your face!) Drawn/attempted to paint in either late 1981 or early 1982. Abandoned in frustration with the watercolors, like many drawings then.
This is the companion, drawn around the same time, of us as we were when I was fifteen and Gilly seventeen.
(More self-portraits from the 80’s here. ) It’s actually a good likeness of Gilly!
The one above is my friend Jenny, made around early 1982. For some reason I drew her all dressed up, but again, abandoned the effort.
Below, my boyfriend Ben, who left Stuyvesant and moved up to his mom’s in Maine, summer 1982.
It is actually quite a good drawing of Ben, getting his proportions just right, but the colors made me miserable.
Below is a picture that tried to capture some of my boyfriends to date, in 1982. Not that they would ever have lounged around like that, of course, that was just my fantasy 🙂
For this I tried using the Design markers that I, like all graffiti artists, kept around. They were just as frustrating as the watercolors.
The notes I made for the colors as I wanted them to look remind me of later on leaving notes for the inker and colorist, when I worked in comics.
When I worked as acourtroom artist, I used markers and a little bit of colored pencil, and I hated it. I had to have color, and markers were neater than the pastels others used. Plus they let me treat the drawings as colored line art, a daily practice for the career in comics I wanted so much. But I did not like coloring the drawings, and I did not like the effect of the markers at all.
It’s a miracle, and thanks to the support of my Patrons on Patreon, that I ever started making color portrait drawings again.
Using Rapidographs for the initial line drawing was part of the problem!
I tried to draw Jenny with my 000 refograph, in 1982.
Trust me when I say this looks nothing like her. Yes, I was probably drunk and high, but still.
The most successful of my early portraits are just pencil.
My friend Cecile and her son Jason, in 1984.
This is actually an exceptionally good likeness of Cile, harder to say about Jason. Babies have never been my wheelhouse.
My friend Chris, in Sheep’s Meadow.
Spring 1984. Again, this is actually a very good likeness; anyone who saw it recognized him. I was starting to get the hang of portraits a little bit.
This is my boyfriend Stefan, in early 1984, when I was seventeen.
Funny story, Stef was applying to RISD for college, and needed to draw a self-portrait. But he was not a figurative kind of drawer.
So I drew him, at our local laundromat on 8th Ave between 20th and 21st.
I feel like this drawing of Stef was one of those moments you have as an artist, when you flash ahead to the future of your work.
Maybe you access a level of ability you won’t have consistently for another year, or decade.
Maybe you have insight into a way of working that will eventually become the core of your work.
This is a known phenomenon among visual artists (I can’t speak for other kinds, but I bet it’s the same) – the flashforward into your future artistic self. Drawing Stef in the laundromat was definitely a wormhole into what became my life’s work and vocation, portraiture from life.
Most of these drawings had never been photographed; until now, no record of them existed – if we had a fire or flood they would just be gone forever.
I am so grateful to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me to take time to document my art archives.