Tag Archives: traditional portraiture for alternative lifestyles

Another amazing evening of Disabilitease!

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Perfect Tyler for Disabilitease by Suzanne Forbes April 11 2021This is Perfect Tyler performing for Disabilitease!

What an incredible, iconic wheelchair burlesque piece! I looooove Perfect Tyler, find and follow them here! This performance was for the November 2020 edition of Disabilitease.

Kay Ulanday Barrett for Disabilitease Nov 2020 by Suzanne Forbes Jan 7 2022Updated Jan 25 2022 with writer Kay Ulanday Barrett!

I did these two drawings of NY based literary powerhouse Kay Ulanday Barrett as he performed a poem for this edition of Disabilitease. I liked the likenesses but wanted to add color, and it took me over a year! During which I have come to know and love their work.

Their insta is here and his website is here.

Little Peaches

Little Peaches is an international performer and producer and DisabiliTease is her baby. Several years ago, a serious flare up of several of her medical conditions left her unable to dance. Being the stubborn renegade stripper that she is, Little Peaches grabbed her wheelchair and re-trained herself to dance with wheels!

About booking performers with disabilities, she says:

Performers with disabilities are often overlooked for shows because they may need a little extra help when it comes to making the show accessible for them. That may be having wheelchair or walking aid access, assistance with travel, assistance to and from the stage to aid with visual impairments, BSL interpreters or a quiet space to retreat to if they are feeling overwhelmed. These little things can be surprisingly easy to put into place but more often than not, they aren’t.

Arielle Firecracker is the other half of the Disabilitease team!

Arielle is a gorgeous tattooed bombshell who burns up the stage! Here she is photographed by Veronika Marx.

Arielle Firecracker by Veronika Marx 2020

Arielle Firecracker by Veronika Marx 2020

I’m working on more drawings from this event.

Due to my own disability, it’s going slower than usual, but I will get them up eventually 🙂

Ebony Rose Dark for Digital Disabilitease by Suzanne-Forbes March 27 2023Edit March 27, 2023: MUCH slower than usual! BUT.

Finally finished! Gorgeous @ebony_rose_dark walking and talking in London for @disabilitease online show back in 2020.

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

As usual these drawings are licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) 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.

Live-drawing Hungry’s first ever live twitch stream!

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Hungry first twitchstream by Suzanne Forbes March 6 2021I am of course a huge fan of Berlin superstar Hungry.

I have drawn her from life, at Bushwig Berlin in 2019, and from her Insta Live.

So when she teased to her Patreon Patrons (I’ve been a Patron from the first day!) that she was gonna do a twitch stream for the first time, I had to draw it.

It is absolutely fascinating to watch Hungry do a face.

Hungry first twitchstream by Suzanne Forbes March 6 2021 detailThe way she uses organic forms and color to transform the planes and features of her beautiful, symmetrical face is mesmerizing.

I love the way she moves her eyes visually, with effects like this white eye-liner false waterline and lashes. She lays on areas of color or shadow and they become something totally unexpected!

Since twitch streams stay up for two weeks, you can watch the magic yourself- I highly recommend the experience!

However, I struggled with her likeness this time. I did an initial take on the structure of her face and felt I’d gotten it wrong. Of course, as I was drawing, Hungry’s features moved in and out of prominence, eyebrows glued down, lips being covered with foundation, and so on, but that wasn’t a problem last time.

This is the rough I discarded; looking at it now I think it was better than the structure from my second try!Hungry first twitchstream rough draft by Suzanne Forbes March 6 2021

But that’s portraiture; you do it and do it to get better, and you draw the same people over and over to learn how to draw them, and that’s the process.

As Sargent said, “A portrait is a picture with a little something wrong with the mouth.”

I was able to spend two hours on the twitch stream drawing and documenting this unique Queer Berlin artist because of my Patreon Patrons. Thank you, so much!