Tag Archives: Suzanne Forbes

Dandy Wellington Black Apparel Arts Challenge: Black Trans Lives Matter!

Leave a reply

Dandy Wellington Black Apparel Arts challenge by Suzanne Forbes June 8 2020I first saw the work of Dandy Wellington, a vintage apparel icon and bandleader, through the Amplify Melanated Voices Challenge.

The challenge was created by Jessica Wilson MS. RD and Alishia McCullough aka BlackandEmbodied to encourage white voices to shut up about themselves and reflect on ideas like The Seven Circles of Whiteness, while working to amplify Black voices.

White costume and reenactment women I follow posted about the Black members of their community, and I saw the Insta feed of Mr. Wellington, among many others! I have been stanning #CosplayingwhileBlack for a long time, but there are lot of Black Cosplayers I didn’t know about. I am now a Patron of Cheyenne Jaz Wise who is so great and a huge Starfire fan! This is actually my favorite casual Starfire cosplay EVER.

And I am a total fan of vintage powerhouse Dandy Wellington!

Mr. Wellington’s challenge to artists is to create art that resembles vintage fashion illustrations and ads, but with #VintageStyleNOTVintageValues!! He wrote,

When I first started getting into vintage and classic menswear, I looked to two major resources for inspiration: photographs and apparel arts illustrations. Both mediums were rewarding but apparel arts was shockingly lacking in diversity. Sure there was a porter or maid but they weren’t the subject of the piece. So I’m challenging all the artist out there to create #BlackApparelArts illustrations. Representation matters and your work could inspire some budding historical fashion lover or cosplayer to see their style potential.

Dandy Wellington InstagramI was instantly so excited and fired up!

He included Leyendecker in the examples, which just made me wild. I commented and asked if I could draw him with a Black trans woman in vintage attire, and he said “Sure!”. So I made this drawing. The gentleman on the right is inspired by the picture above of Mr. Wellington, taken by Anne Hugus Photography.

Dandy Wellington challenge by Suzanne Forbes June 8 2020 detailBefore I posted the drawing I contacted one of my muses who is Black and nonbinary and asked them if they would do a sensitivity check.

To make sure I hadn’t done anything stupid or created harmful iconography despite my good intentions. I offered to pay them for the check, since doing a sensitivity check exposes the viewer to potential harm. We agreed on a trade for a drawing of them I did two years ago. And the picture went up! I am so grateful for this wonderful challenge. I release all copyright to the drawing, and it may be used and shared freely.

You can find all of Mr. Wellington’s links here.

He has a band he is the bandleader of, a Youtube channel, a Patreon, a shop with CHARMING merch, classes, events and more!

I am so grateful to my Patrons on Patreon, whose monthly financial support makes it possible for me to stay home and work safely.

 

From the archives: Hands and Feet.

Leave a reply

Hands acrylic on paper horizontal prob fall 1989 or early 1990 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesDrawing and painting so many, for so long.

People have a hard time with hands when they start drawing, because hands are very complex. There are a lot of techniques and instruction on how to draw hands – here’s mine– but actually just doing it is the biggest part of learning.

Hands 2 acrylic on paper horizontal prob fall 1989 or early 1990 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesThese paintings are from my first year at MCAD, winter 1990, I think.

Multicolor hands study by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes fall 1990From Fall 1991 at MCAD, I believe.

Sketchbook Winter 1990 Minneapolis hands 6 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesFrom early 1990, found in a sketchbook. 

Sketchbook Winter 1990 Minneapolis hands 4 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes1990, a class assignment – probably to draw hands using volume created by light and dark.

Sketchbook Winter 1990 Minneapolis hands 3 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes1990. Always gotta draw all kinds of hand positions, not just flat.

Sketchbook Winter 1990 Minneapolis hand by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes1990. A strong light source helps to understand the structures.

Seriously, I put everything I know about hand structures into this tutorial on how “Thumbs ruin everything.“

Sketchbook Winter 1990 Minneapolis hands 1 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes1990. Gotta draw foreshortened poses, too. 

Fist studies prob 1985 by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne ForbesComic class notes, probably around 1985.

I was searching for the image above for this post, knowing I had scanned and edited it, knowing it had “fist” in the filename, and let me tell you, well, most of the drawings with “fist” in the filename in my archives are quite different. My comic teachers often said the superhero fist resembles a Dixie cup from many angles. A reference which probably dates me! 

I tell you this: if you are struggling with drawing hands, read all the books, watch all the Youtube videos, but most of all, draw your hands. It’s free, and they’re there.

Foot study drawing by Rachel Ketchum aka Suzanne Forbes circa 1985And feet. Gotta draw feet nearly as much as hands.

These are from the late 80s I think, and they’re definitely my chunky little feet. I’m sure more will turn up as I archive. While feet have less moving parts than hands, they are still complexly structured. Because they receive so much impact, they change shape dramatically as a person moves. So you need to understand the bones and the tissue volumes underneath.

footstudy by Suzanne Forbes 2016In 2016 I made some studies of the basic volumes and shapes that make up the feet for my drawing students.

None of these drawings had ever 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.