Tag Archives: urban sketching

For the archives: OUTDOORS?!?

Sketchbook Winter 1991 Minneapolis ink landscape by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesYes, it seems that on a few occasions in my life, I actually drew a picture outdoors.

With no people in it. Yes, I am as surprised as you are. This is from April 4 1990, in Como Park, Minnesota, ink on paper. I think I drew it because my friend Tom was bouldering and I was bored?

Sketchbook Fall 1990 St. Paul by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesPicture of a building!

A house on Summit Ave in St. Paul, fall 1990 I believe.

Sketchbook Fall 1990 St. Paul by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesPicture of a street!

Almost no people anyway! September 2, 1990, Portland st., St. Paul, graphite on paper.

Sketchbook Fall 1990 Minneapolis by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes

Picture of a house!

Fall 1990, graphite on paper. I can’t believe how bad my cars were. This was when I was just barely learning to drive – and note I failed the driving test twice before I passed it on the third go. I just didn’t understand cars!

Sketchbook Fall 1989 St Paul Cafe Latte by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesPicture of a street, around 1990!

The cars were so frustrating I abandoned it.

Sketchbook Fall 1989 St Paul Cafe Latte by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesOutside, from inside!

Grand Avenue seen from inside Cafe Latte in St. Paul, Fall 1989. Cafe Latte still exists!

Sketchbook Fall 1989 or winter 1990 Minneapolis by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesI loved this church I drew in 1989 or ’90 so much I actually got married there, in .. 1995 I think?

I used to pass it on my way home from Cafe Latte to my first apartment, “the Batcave”. I would stop and sit in the little entry house. It was a symbol of how pretty and peaceful St. Paul was to me. Although i have no religious affiliation, I got married to my first ex-husband there.

The writing on this drawing reads “It’s just that I feel- sometimes I feel like I’ve been arguing with the benign politics of light and shadow for so long, questioning their logical procedures; and the darkness of a wheel-well mocks me –”

A comment about the struggle of creating value in drawing, not metaphorical light and darkness!

These drawings had been scanned, but never edited or published, and were buried many folders deep on an old hard drive – I had completely, utterly forgotten they existed.

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.

The horror of the Pencil Cleanse continues! A visit to the Australian Embassy, and one to Impala Coffee.

Australian Embassy Comics Event Feb 17 2020 by Suzanne ForbesI was invited to the Australian Embassy this month.

It was for an Australian comics event, and I had never been to an embassy, so I went! Of course I ran into someone I knew, because English-speaking Berlin is small 🙂 Since I was drawing civilians rather than performers, I decided to take a chance and start my Pencil Cleanse that night. Above, the Australian Ambassador to Berlin introduces the panel.

Impala Coffee Pencil Cleanse Leap Year Drawing Feb 29 2020 by Suzanne ForbesI was at the Schöneberg branch of Impala Coffee, the excellent indie Berlin chain, today.

For a long time! Because my foggy anxious brain (I am in the high-risk group for COVID-19 vulnerability) got me there two hours early to meet my friend. So I made this Pencil Cleanse drawing.

It’s so hard, and takes so long, to go back to pencil only!

Pencil cleanse WIP second state Suzanne ForbesI also worked on the pencil unterwegs, for a whole nother bus ride, though you’d never know it!

Can you even tell the difference after another forty minutes of work? (Today is on the right, previous on the left!)

Pencil Cleanse Unterwegs WIP Suzanne Forbes Feb 2020It is more accurate, with more precisely judged perspective and scale, than anything I’ve done in ages, and I feel like I’m forced to observe so carefully, yet I can’t record with the same authority I can with ink. I know I keep correcting the angles, keep checking the perspective, and that it is good for my draftsmanship to draw this way. But dangit, it’s HARD!