Tag Archives: pastel drawing

Drawing an artist friend in my neighborhood!

Puck the Hare posing at Adenaurplatz August 26 by Suzanne ForbesGood heavens it was glorious to spend two hours with Beloved Friend-Muse-Patron Puck on Adenauerplatz yesterday.

She arrived clad in iridescent holographic fetish bunny wear and literally lit up the plaza like a beam of cosmic light.

Puck the Hare posing at Adenaurplatz August 26 by Suzanne Forbes work in progressPure joy to have this quality time together.

I hadn’t seen Puck in person since I drew her dancing at Torture Garden Berlin on February 28, 2020! I knew it would be a dream to work with her though, as she is both a professional photographer and photography model. Plus a genius with outfits!

Above, you can see the drawing as it was after our two hours sitting outside Graffiti on Adenauerplatz.

Since we were going to be seated at a table, I brought my pastels and watercolor pens. I wore my prescription goggles and two FFP2 masks, and I felt really pretty comfortable and safe enough.

Puck the Hare posing at Adenaurplatz August 26 by Suzanne Forbes faceIt’s quite hard to capture the actual brightness of these pastel mixed-media drawings.

These details were taken outside, where the pigments can really spark.

Puck the Hare posing at Adenaurplatz August 26 by Suzanne Forbes bootsLoved drawing this colorful look while spending time with an artist friend!

Here is Puck through the camera lens!

So grateful to Puck and to all my other Patreon Patrons, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me to continue making art as a vaccinated but Covid-vulnerable disabled person.

With your support, I can work from home or safely outside and keep telling the stories of Berlin.

Drawing NYC fire performer Sage Sovereign at last!

Sage Sovereign for Distanced Drawing by Suzanne Forbes Jan 15 2021 flowersI met Sage Sovereign on the street outside a nightclub in East Berlin.

It was a couple years ago; we were both crossing Warschauerstrasse from Monster Ronson’s to the U1 station and landed on the curb simultaneously. Then I stared at her, because she is one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. We looked at each other, recognizing some deep New Yorker affinity and a clear aesthetic convergence.

I babbled, as I do when I first see someone I desperately want to draw, introducing myself, asking her name, offering my card. We agreed we should certainly collaborate the next time she was in Berlin (I think she was off to do fire performance on a glacier in Iceland, right then).

Sage Sovereign for Distanced Drawing by Suzanne Forbes Jan 15 2021 gobletWe got connected on Instagram and I saw pictures of her amazing performances.

She came back to Berlin at least twice, but we couldn’t sort out the scheduling. And then the pandemic began, and I tried to draw her during a video stream of an extraordinary performance piece she did at twilight early last summer. But the video quality just didn’t give me enough visual information. So when she messaged me to let me know she was modelling for terrific woman-run NYC life drawing group Distanced Drawing, I was thrilled!

I still long to draw her in person, but this was a wonderful opportunity to begin collaborating. I am so grateful to Sage for her fantastic modelling work and to Distanced Drawing for making it viewable to me in the middle of the night in Berlin!

You can follow Sage on Instagram here and her website is here.

I am incredibly grateful to my Patreon Patrons, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me work safely at home, documenting amazing performers.