ninajohansson.se

Model´s face

2009-10-12T21:39:00.001+02:00

Another week – another life drawing session. With rather poor results this time. The only thing I was remotely happy with was this – a fast sketch of the model´s face. Or half of it.

This is THE LAST of five double posts, posted both here and on my new website/blog, ninajohansson.se Please update your links and bookmarks and come on over - there will be no new posts here from now on!

16 x 15 cm, pencil on cartridge paper.

Life drawing

2009-10-06T20:24:00.003+02:00

I went to an open life drawing session yesterday with a friend. I felt a bit rusty, but it was ok after a few warm-up drawings. I like fast poses, it makes me relax in some strange way when I don´t even have a chance to get too caught up in details. All of these were three to four minute poses, except the one on the far left, which was probably around eight minutes.

This is no. 4 of five double posts, posted both here and on my new website/blog, ninajohansson.se Please update your links and bookmarks and come on over! After these five double posts there will be no more new posts here.

Each drawing is about 20-30 cm high, drawn in pencil on copier paper. Collage made in Photoshop.

Aspudden public bath - part II

2009-10-04T19:38:00.003+02:00

I wrote about Aspudden public bath here in Stockholm in an earlier post. In short, the local politicians want to tear it down, most of the people in Aspudden don´t.

A little update on the latest development: Since the 28th of September the bath has been occupied by people living in Aspudden, to guard the building from destruction. The pool is empty - a sad sight - but the bath is very much alive anyway. All kinds of folks from the neighborhood - adults, teenagers, children, parents, elderly - are there all day round. The door is open, the coffee is hot, and people come visit to show their support.

We´ll see what happens, so far the politicians have been very quiet.

This is no. 3 of five double posts, posted both here and on my new website/blog, ninajohansson.se Please update your links and bookmarks and come on over! After these five double posts there will be no more new posts here.

16 x 19 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Grey ink and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina 220 g printing paper.

People in airports

2009-09-29T16:59:00.004+02:00

It´s been quiet here for a while, I had to make an unplanned journey to my old hometown Umeå. Unfortunately I didn´t have much time for drawing up there, but waiting for flights at Arlanda and Umeå airports gave me some excellent opportunities to take the sketchbook out of the bag and get some People Practice. I need it badly...

This is no. 2 of five double posts, posted both here and on my new website/blog, ninajohansson.se Please update your links and bookmarks and come on over! After these five double posts there will be no more new posts here.

13 x 18 cm, Lamy Safari pens with Noodler´s Lexington Grey, Fox Red and Hunter´s Green ink on no-name sketchbook paper.

Fresh flowers

2009-09-20T20:28:00.004+02:00

I got a bunch of flowers from a very good friend this weekend. They have been standing in a vase on my kitchen table now for two days, mocking me with their impossible shapes. I couldn´t help giving them a try, even though I think flowers (and cars) are the most difficult subjects to draw.

This is no. 1 of five double posts, posted both here and on my new website/blog, ninajohansson.se Please update your links and bookmarks and come on over!

12,5 x 17 cm, Lamy Safaris with Noodler´s Lexington Gray and Fox Red ink, pencil and watercolours, on obscure brand of drawing paper in a sketchbook.

What´s with the silence?

2009-09-16T00:07:00.003+02:00

I´m moving house, that´s what the silence on this blog is about! I have been reading, coding, humming and trying to understand Wordpress and all it´s amazing abilities and strange ways, and I think I have finally landed in something that I quite like.

The door is open, please come on over to my new online place! :)

I will be posting on both blogs a few posts ahead, but please, dear Friends and Readers, update links and bookmarks and come on over. I don´t want to loose you on the way between Blogger and Wordpress!

11,5 x 16 cm, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on crappy sketchbook paper, and Photoshop for a digital touch.

Aspuddsbadet (Aspudden public bath)

2009-09-06T11:24:00.008+02:00

This place is within a stone´s throw of my home, and I went to draw it yesterday with sorrow in my heart. The old public bath in Aspudden in Stockholm will be torn down to give room for a new kindergarten. The City made the decision a few days ago, and many people (including myself) are incredibly upset about this. Built 1919, this bath is a pearl, a unique piece of history, offering bathing experiences that you don´t find anywhere else. Or how about a swim and a movie (shown on the wall above the pool), or an all ladies night with candles lit around the edge of the water? And, of course, since the pool is rather small and not so deep, this place is a favorite for families with young kids living in the area.

I don´t know if the last word is said yet about the demolition, the local organisation that runs the bath and the people who use it and love it have been fighting for this place for a long time, and the discussions are lively right now. We´ll see what happens...

Till Stockholmare och andra hugade som vill påverka: gå gärna in på Madeleine Sjöstedts (fp) blogg och tala om vad ni tycker om beslutet:
Kommentera rivningsbeslutet

(The above is a chance for people in Stockholm to comment on the political decision on a Swedish politician´s blog.)

26,5 x 19,5 cm, pencil, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours on Moleskine Watercolor Folio page.

Hötorgscity

2009-08-24T21:23:00.003+02:00

I finally got around to drawing this place - Hötorgscity in Stockholm, with the five skyscrapers and the fountain. This is the heart of the city, the shopping streets are centered around these blocks, and the Central Station is not far away.

If you are looking for city pulse, street performers, fashion shops and excitement, this is the place to be. For cozy cafés and warm atmosphere I would probably go somewhere else.

28 x 20 cm, pencil, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on Moleskine Watercolor Folio page.

2 in 1

2009-08-20T19:27:00.003+02:00

The last of the paintings I did during my vacation, a little experiment with two images. I am not sure it is finished yet, I have to put it aside and look at it again in a while, then I´ll know.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on 300 gsm (140 lb) watercolour paper.

The shed

2009-08-12T22:59:00.003+02:00

One more of the paintings I did on the island up north, the shed between our house and the neighbor´s. The grid pattern was painted using some kind of grating I found in the shed, don´t know what it´s been used for, I just thought it made a cool pattern. The surface was first printed with some old piece of wood, as I´ve shown in an earlier post, hence the uneven background behind the pattern.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on 300 gsm (140 lb) watercolour paper (Arches or Saunders Waterford, can´t remember which...)

Farewell Lövholmsbrinken

2009-08-06T22:00:00.003+02:00

This area in Stockholm will soon be torn down to give room for apartment buildings - something Stockholm is always short of. The area where I sit to draw this is a little harbour for private boats, a rough forgotten spot that I suspect will soon be exploited too.

28 x 17 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours in a Moleskine Watercolor Folio Sketchbook.

House 40

2009-08-04T12:10:00.003+02:00

Our place on the island where I spend parts of my summers.

33 x 33 cm, pencil and watercolours on 300 gsm (140 lb) Arches watercolour paper.

Mind the cable

2009-07-26T17:51:00.002+02:00

I went out to the cliffs on the northern tip of the island the other day, to paint this funny old cable tower. There´s an electricity cable going from this place to the next island, and on the tower there´s a sign saying "Mind the cable" to prevent boat owners from anchoring there. The tower has been worn and torn by sunshine and storms, and it´s decay is slightly worse every year, but it is still such a beautiful landmark.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper.

The stable - step by step

2009-07-22T13:30:00.013+02:00

This is a long post, be prepared! Someone asked for a step-by-step of a painting, and that sounded like fun, so here goes:

This is another painting of the stable in my last post, but from a slightly different angle. In this one I used some experimental techniques where I both print and paint the watercolours onto the paper. I like the unpredictable results of this, plus it takes away the fear of making mistakes on the expensive paper. The printing part is a bit uncontrollable so mistakes WILL occur, but they will probably not matter much in the end. Sort of a relaxing thought.

The first two pics show my setup and painting gear. This is NOT what I bring for sketching in my sketchbooks, since it is rather bulky stuff. I use this for paintings only.

I start out with a light pencil drawing of the building, just so I know where it goes in the painting. (Sometimes I start by "ruining" the paper with some printing, and THEN decide where the main motive will go.) I draw this either on location or from my own photos. I live very close to this place, so it´s easy to bring the paint board to draw on location.

This time I start with painting the sky, choosing a rather saturated blue - it will look much lighter when it´s dry, so I´m not too worried about using too much colour.

Then the fun begins: I choose a piece of wood (or masonite, or corrugated cardboard, or whatever I find lying around) and paint LOTS of wet colour onto it, then quickly turn it upside down and press it onto the paper. I lift it up, and if it looks good I go on to the next print, otherwise I might add more paint to this piece of wood, move it slightly sideways and print again.

When I´ve done two prints with two different wood pieces, I add some uneven strokes to the top of the print - giving a sense of grass or bushes.

When the first prints are dry, I find this very uneven piece of wood, which will probably give some interesting textures, so I print that on top of the other print, with a slightly darker colour. I also add a very light warm wash to the wall of the building.

I go on printing in layers, letting every layer dry before adding the next. If too much paint ends up in a puddle, I turn the paper to a standing position and hit the table with it to make the paint run off the paper downwards (or sideways). Makes the puddles go away, and leaves nice running marks, which I like a lot. I start building up some shadow under the edge of the roof.

Then it´s time to start painting the trees too, using both a sponge and a paintbrush. I don´t want to leave any surface of the paper blank until the end, I kind of want to be working on the whole surface the whole time. I think it´s easier to find balance in contrasts and colours working that way.

I start adding some details to the building, using paintbrushes. I deepen the shadow under the roof a little too. I like this contrast between splashy experimental style and detailed controlled painting.

Then I go on with more details on the house, adding the mirroring in the window panes and some details on the blue doors. I keep on working on the grass too, both printing and painting with an uneven paintbrush.

In the end I add some darker greens to the trees, and some shadow under them.

Pretty much finished. Here without the tape around the edges. You can see it leaked through a little on the left edge. No big deal, I think.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper.

Purple

2009-07-13T21:52:00.003+02:00

A little more experimental this time. This is part of the old stable by the Guesthouse in the last post. No horses on the island these days, they have a few hotel rooms and some other functions in this building now.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper.

The guesthouse

2009-07-10T13:28:00.006+02:00

The rain took a break day before yesterday, so I went out painting. I had to rush it a bit, since the wind was a bit too cold for my liking, but if felt good to get some work done.

The building is a guesthouse/restaurant nearby our summer house, it used to be the headquarters of the saw mill on the island during the first half of the 20th century.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper.

Västberga

2009-07-02T00:12:00.005+02:00

A few days ago I took the bike out to an industrial area not far from where we live, and sat down in the shadow behind a parked trailer to paint this old building. For once I had real painting gear with me, and a sheet of proper watercolour paper.

I find so much inspiration in this place, the old buildings, the dirt around them, big vehicles and strange constructions for industrial use... It never ends. And when a painting is done, you bike one block away and find the next fantastic sight to paint.

20 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper.

Värmland

2009-06-27T10:51:00.004+02:00

This is where we spent our two days in Värmland - in a small red cottage with white corners, the archetype of Swedishness. The weather was fantastic, Swedish summer at it´s best, and the only thing that disturbed the idyll was the fact that I can´t spend more than 24 hours in a place like this before my allergy goes berserk.

18 x 15 cm, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolour paper.

On the road

2009-06-27T10:46:00.004+02:00

We took a two-day trip to Värmland, in Western Sweden, towards the border of Norway, where my in-laws live. The road there isn´t too interesting if you have seen it a few times, but here and there it curves so nicely through the hills and the forests, like a soft ribbon, and I just had to try to capture it on paper.

13 x 10 cm, Pitt artist brush pens on Fabriano Artistico hot press watercolour paper.

Midsummer

2009-06-19T15:11:00.003+02:00

Midsummer Eve in Sweden. Everybody hopes to achieve total happiness and 100 % sunshine on this day, but I actually had a few drops of rain when I went out to draw just nearby where I live. The happiness level is ok, though. :)

12,5 x 17 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Volvo Ocean Race

2009-06-17T19:50:00.003+02:00

The boats from Volvo Ocean Race landed in Stockholm today, and the city has blocked of a whole quai (Skeppsbron) for the occasion, causing a few traffic jams here and there.
I love sailing, and even though I don´t like this kind of event very much (you know, a big stage with performing celebrities, a few stands selling beer and simple food, an inner sealed off area for the sailors and business people to mingle in, and loads of ordinary people watching the whole thing) I had to go see these boats in real life. My, our livingroom is narrower than these floating giants!

13 x 17 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Oldie

2009-06-09T20:46:00.003+02:00

Went drawing with a friend (actually, I draw and she takes photos) day before yesterday, and we both wanted to take a closer look at this church, Botkyrka kyrka, on the edge of the Southern suburbs of Stockholm. The largest part of this old building is from the 12th century, which is kind of overwhelming when you start to think of it. Just imagine all the people who visited this place through almost ninehundred years...

15 x 18, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Flowers from my dearies

2009-06-07T01:04:00.003+02:00

My third year-students finished school two days ago. They are a bunch of lovely young people, with intelligence and hearts enough to change at least a part of the world for the better, and I wish them all the luck from now on. Actually, I´m not too worried about them, I know they will do well. But I know Monday will be an empty day at work, now that they are gone...

Anyway, I thought I´d draw some of the flowers in the beautiful bouquet they gave me, just to keep that memory in my sketchbook...

12 x 17 cm, Copic Multiliner SP and Kremer watercolours on sketchbook page.

Happy strings

2009-05-25T22:53:00.003+02:00

This is not a deformed guitar, it´s a (deformed) ukulele, the craziest instrument on the planet. Bring one of these to any situation with people in it, and everybody starts smiling. No one can stay sour in the same room as a ukulele, and you can be sure they will want to try to play.

Ukuleles are totally un-threatening, gentle, fun, a little goofy - and STILL completely possible to play serious music on. It´s small, fits into almost any bag. Weighs nothing. Costs almost nothing. Easy to learn a few chords on to get started. In short - the perfect companion. Every human being should own one, it would make the world a softer place. :)

14 x 11 cm, pencil, Copic markers and black ink pen on bleedproof marker paper.

More drawing time, please

2009-05-24T00:13:00.003+02:00

Nope, I didn´t disappear. Work just got a little hectic, so I let the blog rest for a while. Soon time for a long vacation, though, so I don´t worry too much about it.

I´ve been playing around with these impossible but funny Copic markers for a bit. You know how markers are always impossible because they bleed through the paper? Well, get the right kind of paper and you´ll have good fun with them! I bought a pad of really smooth and bleedproof marker paper, and now I am learning some tricks with these fantastic pens.

For example: don´t draw black lines and then try to colour them in (as I almost always do with other techniques) - the markers will solve the black ink and everything will be a mess. Black lines go on as a last detail.
And: even if you don´t draw over the black pen, you can still make a mess - as in this drawing of a Swedish table classic (Bregott butter). I can´t really control these fellas, and I kind of like it. They keep surprising me. :)

15 x 11 cm, pencil, Copic markers and black pen on bleedproof marker paper.

First of May

2009-05-01T16:33:00.003+02:00

Two posts on the same day! Not a usual habit of mine, but I thought I´d post this fresh on the right day.

It´s the first of May today, and in Stockholm the International Worker´s day is celebrated with several street demonstrations organized by the political parties to the left. I took a bike ride through town, passing by three different demonstrations. It must be a logistic nightmare for the people who draw the maps for these marches - they all take place simultaneously, and they all want to be close to the city center. The whole town is like a huge street festival with orchestras, drums, red flags, demonstration signs and people shouting, singing, marching.

I sat on a little doorstep on Kungsgatan drawing this while the Social Democratic party marched by.

13 x 17 cm, Lamy Safari with Lexington gray ink and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Café window view

2009-05-01T10:26:00.002+02:00

The view out the window in the same café as in the last post.

10 x 15,5 cm, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Thank you thank you thank you

2009-04-23T21:56:00.003+02:00

Thank you all so much for your comments on my three exhibited paintings, they are all very much appreciated! There is no way I will have time to answer each and every one of your comments, since they are so many, but please know that I have read them all and I am very grateful for your encouragement. Thank you.

The drawing is from Wayne´s coffee in my hometown Umeå in northern Sweden. I spent the Easter holidays there, and had a really good time visiting family and friends.

13 x 15,5 cm, Copic Multiliner SP and watercolours on sketchbook page.

Exhibition piece no.3

2009-04-20T20:01:00.002+02:00

The third and last of the paintings in the exhibition at Edsviks konsthall.

20 x 20 cm, watercolours on Arches 300 g watercolour paper.

Exhibition piece no.2

2009-04-19T19:09:00.002+02:00

This is the second painting from the exhibition (see the previous post). All the images are inspired by the island in Northern Sweden where I spend much of my summers, though they are not exact depictions of the place. I figured that if I choose a subject that I know well, I can concentrate on the watercolours and experiment around this theme.

20 x 20 cm, watercolours on Arches 300 g watercolour paper.

Exhibition piece no.1

2009-04-18T17:34:00.004+02:00

I wrote in an old post some time ago that I had made some small paintings that I didn´t want to show just yet, since I had some plans for them. I thought I´d tell you now that what I did was to send three of them into a juried watercolour exhibition, and they were all accepted! So now they are all up at the National Watercolour Salon at Edsviks Konsthall, just north of Stockholm. (I would put a link here, but their site seems to be down today for some reason.)

This is my first serious try to exhibit any of my work, so I´m thrilled that it all worked out. I´ll post the other two paintings in the next two days.

20 x 20 cm, watercolours on Arches 300 g watercolour paper.

Drawing bones

2009-04-17T18:17:00.003+02:00

Drawing a skeleton together with my students. I find the details intriguing, can´t believe that´s the way we all look inside...

13 x 17 cm, pencil on sketchbook page.

Sketchcrawl #22

2009-04-12T22:47:00.006+02:00

This time the Stockholm crowd (of three) decided to hit Arlanda Airport for our Sketchcrawl day. A big airport is great for drawing people and strange technical stuff, and we had a great day with lots of drawing challenges. And coffee.

(Curious about why we had a sketchcrawl on the 4th of April instead of the official 11th? Well, us Swedes celebrate Easter (and Christmas, and just about every other big holiday) on the Eve before the actual Day, and the 11th of April was the day when all Swedes went to their relatives to eat eggs. No one had time to go on a Sketchcrawl then, so we sneakily changed the date...)

13 x 18 cm, except the last drawing, 13 x 7 cm. Copic Multiliner SP on sketchbook pages.

Crayon play

2009-03-30T17:30:00.004+02:00

Playing around with the crayons again. Thick crayons are more like painting than drawing, really. Fun and difficult. Used myself as a model in front of a mirror, though the beige image isn´t me at all... I think it´s hilarious the way I seem to have a horn in my forehead in the top drawing - it fits my angry frown. :)

13.x 17,5 cm, watercolour wash and Caran d´Ache Neocolor I crayons on sketchbook pages.

New toys

2009-03-26T22:34:00.002+01:00

I forgot to post this - a bit of play with some new wax crayons. I´ve been wanting some real quality wax crayons for a while, and I finally invested in (or wasted money on, depends on how you look at it) a box of Caran d´Ache Neocolor I a few weeks ago. This drawing is me comparing the Neocolor crayons with the really old cheapo crayons I had before (cheapo on the left, Neocolor on the right).

The difference isn´t so much in the image as in my wrist. The left image was really hard work, the cheapos don´t really want to leave colour on the paper - probably because they´re mostly wax and not so much pigment - while the Neocolors just smeared on like butter. Wonderful!

17 x 13 cm, Faber Castell Smart crayons and Caran d´Ache Neocolor I crayons on sketchbook page.

Life drawing

2009-03-23T23:06:00.002+01:00

I went to a life drawing session with two friends tonight, and it´s been a loooong time since I did this. Out of twenty drawings, one was decent enough to show. Will have to practice some more soon...

15 x 19 cm, pencil on copier paper

Watercolour sketch

2009-03-09T20:49:00.003+01:00

I am playing around with watercolours a lot these days, just trying things out, letting the colours and the water get really messy on the paper. I found this paper the other day, a very odd kind with a surface that reminds me of canvas, and I had to try it out. This is the result of about an hour of play with watercolours and various odd objects I found at work.

I started with the yellowish frame - I put some very wet colour onto an actual metal frame I found lying around at work, and then quickly (otherwise the colour will run off) threw it down on the paper. I leaned the paper a bit, letting the yellow run around inside the frame. Then I went on with printing some textures onto the paper with various materials (cellular plastic, wood boards, cardboard) and painting the rest. I like the surprising textures you get from printing with watercolours - it is of course impossible to control a print like that, and they always end up completely different than you expected.

This sketch gave me some ideas for several new paintings, so I´m going on experimenting...

16,5 x 25 cm, watercolours and pencil on some strange Hahnemüle watercolour paper.

A new site to follow

2009-03-07T21:50:00.003+01:00

I have been interviewed on Bill Turner´s new site The Tools Artists Use. As the name says, it is a site dedicated to the tools that creative folks use, and Bill interviews different artists about their habits and art gear. Check it out, put a bookmark there, and keep following his site in the future - it should be pretty interesting!

Las Palmas #4, last one

2009-03-05T17:42:00.004+01:00

These are the last two sketchbook pages from Las Palmas, and they are not from Las Palmas at all. They are from a little village called Puerto de Mogán by the southeast coast of Gran Canaria. A very picturesque place, a tad too many tourists hanging around the harbour and beach, but otherwise a still alive fishing village, with incredible steep narrow alleys between the houses climbing up the mountainside.

This is the place where the most people came up to talk to me while I was drawing. Some Germans, one or two Frenchmen, an English couple, three young Canarian boys, a man from the Netherlands, and the waitress at the café where I drew this rose and sugar castor - they all came up and asked if they could see what I was doing (or simply looked over my shoulder) and commented on my work (all in very kind words) and talked for a little while. It´s like I´ve always said: drawing IS a contact sport. It´s even better than babies and dogs.

13 x 18,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink and watercolours on sketchbook pages.

Las Palmas #3

2009-03-04T18:34:00.003+01:00

Two more pages from Las Palmas, though the colored one below is from Playa del Curo on the south side of the island. We took a bus down there just to see what the tourist playas looked like, and we came to the conclusion that we made the right choice to go to Las Palmas. Playa del Ingles is just not my cup of tea...

13 x 18,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Gray ink, and Copic multiliner and watercolours on sketchbook pages.

Las Palmas #2

2009-03-02T19:14:00.002+01:00

One quick and one slightly more elaborated sketchbook page from Las Palmas (actually the top line drawing is from a little town called Teror up in the mountains). The one below has already been up on Urban Sketchers, some of you may have seen it already.

I love the houses in Las Palmas, they are incredibly inspiring to draw. There are all kinds of buildings in this city; industrial sites, luxurious villas, huge apartment complexes and glossy store fronts, but the houses I like best are the ones with this worn look, with little shops or minimercados in them. They are somewhere between two and six storeys high, and full of signs of life - drying laundry, people going in and out, dogs walking by, someone shouting something from a window. The traffic in these streets is vivid, and there´s always something going on around the next corner.

13,5 x 18,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on sketchbook pages.

Las Palmas

2009-03-01T12:25:00.004+01:00

We´ve been on a week´s vacation to Las Palmas (Gran Canaria). LP a great place to be - not too many tourists, great weather (i.e. not too hot and never cold), lots to see and do and great environments to sketch in. The city is a bit dirty and worn, and full of interesting people. Just the way I like it when I´m drawing. I´ll be posting a few of my sketchbook pages during next week.

13,5 x 18,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on sketchbook pages.

Pile of bones

2009-02-19T22:51:00.006+01:00

I went to the Swedish Museum of National History with a friend thursday evening and made some sketches. I have drawn this first fella once before, but from another angle. I like him a lot, he´s got such a personality. I had a lot of fun, and I just know I´ll have to stop by this museum again some time, there´s about a billion things left in there that I didn´t have time to draw this time...

13 x 18 cm, drawing 1: Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink, drawing 2: Copic Multiliner SP, both on sketchbook pages.

One more

2009-02-18T18:36:00.004+01:00

Another little watercolour experiment. It´s great fun to do these tiny try-outs, they often end up completely different than I thought they would. That´s what is so great about watercolours - if you stop trying to control them, they will perform wonderful tricks for you!

The principle I had here was trying to get that paint onto the paper without necessarily using a brush. Try it - grab anything that you think could possibly move paint from your palette to the paper, and don´t give up too soon! This took me about two hours, where most of the time was spent waiting for paint layers to dry.

12 x 12 cm, watercolours on Arches 300 gsm watercolour paper (cold pressed, I think).

Experimenting

2009-02-16T22:12:00.002+01:00

The reason I haven´t been posting so many drawings lately, is that I´ve been painting instead. I´m not posting the paintings I´ve done so far, I have a cunning plan for them and if it works out you´ll see them here later on. (If it doesn´t work out you´ll see them earlier...)

Meanwhile, I´m posting these experiments I did tonight. Sort of sketches or try-outs for bigger paintings. None of these are good enough for larger works, though, but they´re fun to make and I´m learning a lot as I go along.

12 x 12 cm, watercolours on Arches 300 gsm watercolour paper.

Pens up to here

2009-02-12T21:50:00.006+01:00

Thank you so much for all your get-well-wishes, I appreciated each and every one of them! I´ve been invisible for a while, I know, but not because the cold defeated me. I was actually drowning in pens! Man, I had too many pens! I never thought I´d say that, but it´s true. I didn´t even use half of them. Went through some drawers full of them, and threw out 93 pens. I kid you not. 93! And it´s not like I don´t have any pens left now... Doesn´t that seem just a wee bit... obsessive to you?

In the process of clearing out pens I found a Pilot V5 Grip that will stay on for a few more days before I toss it out. It´s nice on this bad paper I´m using right now, but I don´t like the way it skips a line now and then, and I don´t like the fact that it´s not waterproof. It messes up the watercolours.

The bedside table drawing was inspired by Michael Nobbs who draws a lot of stuff around his house. Check him out, you just gotta love his drawings!

12,5 x 17 cm, Pilot V5 Grip on some unknown sketchbook paper.

Anti-inflammatory

2009-01-28T21:32:00.002+01:00

I´m having a cold. Stayed home from work yesterday and slept the whole day. Alvedon is my friend.

13 x 13 cm, Copic Multiliners and watercolours on sketchbook paper of unknown brand.

Hiding inside

2009-01-25T13:36:00.002+01:00

The weather is extremely grey in Stockholm right now, with a drizzling rain making it impossible to draw outside. I sat in a café yesterday, and the view out the windows was so dreary I drew the coffee cup instead. The coffee turned cold before I remembered to drink it, I was a bit caught up in the drawing...

10 x 14,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar black ink, and gouache on crappy brown paper (because I forgot my real sketchbook at home - can you believe that?!).

A gray day

2009-01-18T21:20:00.004+01:00

It´s been an extremely gray day in Stockholm today, so I made a gray drawing out the window of a little café I had never been to before. I like the contrast between these two buildings, one new(ish) and very strict and one old with odd angles and windows.

12,5 x 13 cm, Lamy Safari with Lexington gray ink and watercolours on some sketchbook paper.

21st sketchcrawl

2009-01-10T22:15:00.004+01:00

Today was the 21st international sketchcrawl (check here if you haven´t heard of it before), and for the first time the Stockholm crawl had more than two participants. Yay! There were ten of us sketching at Kulturhuset, a huge building full of theaters, restaurants, libraries and other cultural activities, situated in the heart of the city. While we were sketching, a huge anti-war demonstration took place on the square below us, we had full view of the mass of people down there.

Most of the participants in today´s sketchcrawl were new acquaintances to me, and I´m so happy there are people in my own city that love sketching, just like me. Thank you guys, for making my day!

Top drawing: 12,5 x 17,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours. Second drawing: same measures, Lamy Safari witn Noodler´s Polar Black ink. Both on a rather crappy sketchbook paper.

...and a Happy New Year

2008-12-31T18:43:00.003+01:00

One last drawing before the year ends. Our kitchen view again, this time in a cold winter light. The snow disappeared before Christmas, but the winter weather is smashingly beautiful anyway, with bright sunlight and a few degrees below zero.

I want to thank all of you who followed this blog during 2008, your comments and emails have meant a lot to me, you all make blogging well worth the time it takes. You are all a great source of inspiration to me.

Happy new year to all, and may your 2009 be a year filled with sugar and just enough salt to make life interesting!

Love,
/Nina

Merry christmas!

2008-12-24T11:50:00.002+01:00

A window paper star in a Stockholm café brings my best Christmas wishes to you all. No snow where I am, but I'm sure Christmas will come anyway.

Week 47

2008-11-30T19:20:00.002+01:00

I decided to try different themes on my weekly drawings, just to get some variation. Last week I went for Jan Vermeer van Delft. I like the light in his paintings, usually coming from a window on one side of the scene. He captures it so beautifully, and trying to translate it into ink hatchings was not really doable, but a fun challenge.

Week 48 didn´t get a weekly drawing, I have had so many other things to do. I don´t want these weeklies to become a chore, so I just skipped it this week.

26 x 17,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink and watercolours on unknown sketchbook paper.

After the storm

2008-11-24T21:35:00.002+01:00

The whole eastern part of Sweden had a snow storm last night, and it kept snowing most of the day today. Everything sounds muffled outside, the gray gloom of autumn suddenly turned bright white and everything is so beautiful. And of course, since this is Stockholm, the traffic is total chaos.

The first drawing is the view from my office at work, suddenly a very aesthetic and clean image. The second is the view from our kitchen window a little later in the afternoon. You´ve got to love winter when it shows itself from it´s best like this. After the storm, that is.

15 x 10,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar black ink and Faber Castell coloured pencils on some crappy brown paper.

Week 46

2008-11-20T21:55:00.002+01:00

This week´s drawing took me a week and a half to finish. I´ve realized my weeks contain pretty much the same things, same habits, so I´m finding it hard to find new stuff to draw that interests me. I´ll be trying some themes for my weekly drawings for a while, to get some variation in them. We´ll see where that leads...

26 x 17 cm, Deleter Neopiko fineliner and Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink on some paper I don´t know the name of.

Week 45

2008-11-09T22:31:00.003+01:00

Another week gone by, and a sepia pen gave up on me already on the first half of this spread.

With this, the sketchbook is full. Oh joy, now I can go choose a new one! I have a few waiting... :)

26 x 12,5 cm, Deleter Neopiko fineliners on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Week 44

2008-11-05T23:13:00.003+01:00

Tried not to be so colourful this time. ;)

26 x 12,5 cm, Deleter Neopiko fineliner and Pitt brush pen on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Week 43

2008-11-01T23:46:00.003+01:00

I´m a bit behind on posting my weekly drawings, don´t know where that came from... Last week I was working with brightly coloured Staedtler triplus fineliners the whole week, trying to avoid the darkest darks as much as possible.

26 x 15,5 cm, Staedtler Triplus fineliners on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Sketchcrawl no 20

2008-10-26T12:56:00.004+01:00

I did my second sketchcrawl yesterday, and this time I had the pleasure of having company on my crawl. I met up with a gal named Tine in Gustavsberg just outside Stockholm, and we did a cold but fun sketchcrawl. Gustavsberg, where I haven´t been much before, turned out to be full of interesting environments to draw, and if our fingers had not turned stiff with cold after the second drawing, we would probably still have been sitting there trying to capture it all.

18 x 20 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink, Deleter Neopiko fineliner, and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Autumn means café drawings

2008-10-22T19:25:00.003+02:00

I took a long walk last Saturday, enjoying not so much the autumn weather outside as the warmth and the perfect coffee at this place, Kaffe och Drömmar (Coffee and dreams), at Södermalm in Stockholm.

I don´t know about this drawing... the composition is non existing, and there´s not really a subject to capture (I was hoping someone would sit down in that window, but no). I´m pretty happy with the back of that gray car out there, though - it actually looks like the Volvo it was. Unfortunately the red one does not look like a Saab, but hey, you can´t get it right every time.

12.5 x 15 cm, Neopico fineliner and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Week 42

2008-10-18T23:19:00.002+02:00

I went for grayscale this week, thought it would make a nice contrast to last week´s pink, green and blue.

26 x 15,5 cm, Pitt pens on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Week drawings

2008-10-11T20:21:00.003+02:00

We all know drawing can´t be on the bottom of the priority list, right? That will just make you a grumpy and dull person. This is the reason I have come up with a new cunning plan to get some drawing done even when I have too much work to do and there seems to be no time for drawing. I am going to make a weekly spread in my sketchbook from now on. I start Mondays, mark a spread with week number and year, and then I just draw on the same spread throughout the week.

I think it´s a super plan; a spread isn´t that hard to fill in a week (depending on your sketchbook size...), I have no pressure to finish every sketch I start, no need to stick to a certain technique, and no need to rush anything. I will still have the feeling of accomplishment when the week is done and I sit there with a spread of fresh new drawings, plus I will have the benefit of NOT becoming that grumpy person due to lack of drawing. :)

I tried it this week, and it works like a charm. Of course, this will not be the only drawing I do from now on, but this will be the minimum in a week. Even busy weeks.

So... are there any followers out there? Huh? Weekly drawings, anyone? Aw, come on, you know you want to do it!

26 x 15 cm, PITT brush pens, Neopico fineliners and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Maestro Masur

2008-10-06T21:27:00.003+02:00

An unfinished sketch from another classical concert this weekend. The conductor, Kurt Masur, was amazing to watch. He had such a subtle way of communicating with the orchestra. He had none of the vivid gestures I´ve seen with other conductors, but he was oh so clear with his soft gestures and facial expressions. He had the complete scores of the two symphonies in his head (I´m sure there were many more in there too), no need for papers. I got the feeling he was playing the whole orchestra as an instrument. Pure magic.

12.5 x 14 cm, mechanical pencil on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Berwaldhallen

2008-09-21T22:33:00.004+02:00

I went to a classical concert yesterday, at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, and made a couple of sketches both before and during the concert. I sat slightly above, to the left of, the orchestra, and saw the solo pianist from behind. He played very vividly, and it was interesting to try to capture his posture while he was moving. The second drawing is of some of the faces in the orchestra. Stage lighting gives an interesting play with shadows on people´s faces, with sometimes extreme contrasts. Hard to draw but very intriguing.

I like how musicians in a big orchestra look at each other and at the conductor all the time, the interaction between all those people up on the stage is fantastic. It seems like they all have total control, they all know where they fit in, they just need to check with the others to make sure that they get it perfectly right... Amazing. Watching symphony orchestras is one of the few things that can actually make me wish I was a musician instead of good at drawing. The experience of playing music together with others - especially with so many others - must be pure happiness.

Both images: 12,5 x 15,5 cm, Staedtler Triplus Fineliners on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Rainy sketch

2008-09-17T22:40:00.003+02:00

I went hiking with some colleagues and students for two days, and tried to make a quick watercolour sketch on site. We had a lot of rain during these two days, and of course in the middle of my sketch it came pouring down. The paper took forever to dry, and the background got rained on, so the contrasts disappeared. The "quickness" of it all got lost in waiting for my washes to dry. It´s a funny thing that water can be such a disaster for watercolours.

19,5 x 14,5 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Me again

2008-09-08T22:50:00.003+02:00

Used unusual tools for me here - mechanical pencil and eraser. I don´t often make serious drawings with pencils, don´t know why. I love pencil, really. I´ve just abandoned it, somehow.
I worked rather roughly here, I like it when you can see the hatching and alternative lines here and there, I don´t usually go for pencil work smudged into hazy smooth gray surfaces...

12,5 x 15,5 cm, pencil on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Me and some earphones

2008-09-04T21:46:00.003+02:00

I can´t seem to fit my whole head into these drawings - the papers are too small!

12,5 x 15,5 cm, Staedtler triplus fineliners and water on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Runaway eye

2008-09-02T21:16:00.003+02:00

Oops, another self portrait! I sat very close to the mirror here, drawing myself slightly from underneath, and only afterwards did I see that the left eye ended up in the wrong place. I like the drawing anyway, mainly because of the technique. I discovered that Staedtler triplus fineliners are very fun to dissolve with water. The colours turn into crazily intense hues and once dried you can keep drawing on the washes.

12.5 x 15.5 cm, Staedtler triplus fineliners and water on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Self portrait

2008-09-01T22:03:00.002+02:00

Time for an update. I fell in love with my Staedtler triplus fineliners again, took them out for a spin on paper this evening. Self portraits are always disasters, aren´t they... I can´t ever seem to get the mouth right. Among other things. Anyhow, here I am. Or some sort of version of me.

12.5 x 15.5 cm, Staedtler triplus fineliners on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Last working man

2008-08-23T22:34:00.003+02:00

I´ve been drawing these working men now for a week, as I set out to do, so this is the last one. At least for now.

The gray in this image is mixed from Permanent Carmine and Winsor Green (blue shade). I like this mix, both of the colours will come out here and there as themselves, refusing to be gray together - a great little effect, impossible to control.

10 x 15 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper, rough grain.

Working man #7

2008-08-22T21:25:00.003+02:00

Today´s worker. Feels good to work in a series like this, I seldom do. I discover little things every day; other ways of doing the folds in the clothes, how to work with the shadows in the faces... I should probably do this more often, with other subjects.

10 x 15 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper, rough grain.

Working man #6, step by step

2008-08-21T20:48:00.011+02:00

For once I thought of taking some photos while I was painting, so here it is - a little step by step of how I paint these guys. Click the images to see them in a larger size.

1. I start with the first light washes, very diluted, making sure to leave white areas white. Everything that´s not supposed to be white in the end gets this first wash.

2. After the first wash dries, I go on with slightly darker washes. In cases like this, when I´m working at home, I help the washes to dry with a hair dryer. I´m too impatient to wait for them to dry...

3. I keep adding darker washes, trying to keep in mind that the light in the image comes from above, so the man´s shoulders and the top of his hat should be slightly lighter than the rest. I found some of the darker marks got a bit too dark here, so I softened them with a brush with clean water after I took this photo. The spattering happens sometimes when I lift a very wet brush a little too hastily so the tip kind of throws some colour off. It´s easy to avoid by taking it a bit slower, but I kind of like those little accidents.

4. In the end I add some more darks and details, trying to find some kind of balance in the picture. This is pretty much the finished state.

5. I don´t like working with tiny brushes, it´s so easy to get caught up in details if you do. Here are the two brushes I use for these working men series, the smaller one is a Winsor & Newton Sceptre Gold II no.9, the larger one is an all time favourite, an old Kolinsky sable brush. I´ve had it for at least ten years and all the writing on it is gone, so I don´t know what size it is. I only use the smaller one towards the end, for tweaking details, I try to do as much as I can with the bigger brush.
The image is 10 x 15 cm (3.9 x 5.9 inch) wide, for comparison.

10 x 15 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper, rough grain.

Working man #5

2008-08-20T20:48:00.002+02:00

A new colour scheme today - isn´t it fun? You never know what colour they´re going to be! ;)

10 x 15 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Working man #4

2008-08-19T22:24:00.002+02:00

I avoided drawing in ink today, thought I´d try to get a softer feel in the painting. I think I was too harsh with the values, though, so it´s still a bit too much contrast in the face.
Oh, well, I´ll try again tomorrow...

10 x 15 cm, pencil and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Working man #3

2008-08-18T22:16:00.003+02:00

Another working man from Skäret (see previous post).

10 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink and watercolours on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Working men

2008-08-17T16:56:00.003+02:00

There used to be a saw mill on the island where we have our summer house. It started around 1900 and closed in 1952. There are a lot of old photos from that era, and I love looking at them, seeing how the island looked in those days, what people were wearing, the interiors of their homes and how life was organized around the saw mill.

There are, among others, some group photos of the workers. I can´t help but noticing how proud they all look, from the thirteen year-old boys to the oldest men. Their lives must have been quite tough, the work was hard, but they were still considered lucky to be working in a place with good housing for the workers and a lot of advantages that workers in those days usually didn´t have, such as free fire wood and electricity.

These drawings are from one of those group photos. They aren´t portraits, the faces in the photo are too small to see each one clearly, but I tried to capture those proud expressions on their faces and their clothes. I´ll be doing some more of these in the next few days, since I think they´re so interesting. Plus, it gets me drawing again. I´ve been kind of lazy lately.

20 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Boat love

2008-08-13T21:45:00.003+02:00

I am not a motor boat person, I´m a sailor. But as it is, I don´t have a sailing boat, I have part of a motor boat. It can´t beat sailing, but I have to confess that it´s still quite lovely to be able to go wherever you want on the water.

This boat of ours comes with a new feature compared to our old one - you can actually maneuver it to exactly where you want to go. That sounds stupid, I know - how hard can it be to steer a motor boat with a propeller in the back?! - but I assure you that with the wrong boat and narrow circumstances it is perfectly possible to make a complete ass of yourself EVERY TIME you´re trying to fit your boat into your assigned spot by the dock. Ask me, I know...

It may not be a beauty in the boat world, but it´s safe and I don´t feel worried driving it by myself, so I love it.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safaris with Lexington grey and Noodler´s Black ink on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Kalmarn

2008-07-31T10:38:00.002+02:00

Another "cliffs-in-the-sun-painting". Can´t help it. It´s just so lovely. :)

Hus 42

2008-07-29T23:03:00.003+02:00

On the island where we have our summer house, everyone introduces themselves to new people with the house number: "Hi, my name is this´n´that, house 42". That´s funny, it´s as if that number is part of one´s identity there. I´d never introduce myself that way at home, with my name and address. The house number is almost like a membership id, and if someone else too introduces himself with a house number, you know that oh, he´s one of us. No further explanations needed. Sort of like a secret hand shake.

A day by the sea

2008-07-18T22:34:00.002+02:00

Spent a few hours by the sea, and brought my pen and watercolours with me. Don´t you just love lying on the cliffs by the sea on a sunny day? It must be one of the best things you can do on a day like this...

21 x 16 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on Canson Montval paper in a handbound sketchbook.

Lund

2008-07-10T11:54:00.003+02:00

After the marbling class (see previous post) I got a few hours in a nearby city called Lund before catching a train. It´s a beautiful old town, with lots to see. I took a break from walking in a little café called Ariman, where this was part of the view outside the window.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Paper class

2008-07-05T13:49:00.011+02:00

Last weekend I and my two friends Anne and Christina took a paper technique class with this wonderful couple, Per and Kerstin Nilsson, just outside of Lund in southern Sweden. This post is (although it´s long) a short summary of the incredibly inspiring class we took. If you are interested in marbling, or in the classes Per and Kerstin give, check towards the end of this post for more info.

I don´t remember the last time I learned so much in just two days - Per and Kerstin are fantastic teachers. The class included a lot - three different marbling techniques, building paper folders and portfolios, the history behind marbled papers, printing titles on books, and some more.

Kerstin took care of the marbling techniques. We tried our hand at suminagashi (a Japanese technique with ink on water), oil colours on water and oil colours on Tylose ground. She taught us how to mix colours to the right consistency to make them work well on the ground, and how to make marbled patterns with different combs and sticks.
We marbled everything from papers to textiles to shoes, we were so into it that when the evening came, our dear teachers had to tear us away from the marbling trays. Once you get started on marbling, you just can´t stop...

There is an endless amount of knowledge to pick up around marbling. The Tylose ground was a new acquaintance to me, and the four different trays we used behaved a little differently depending on temperature, colours used, the consistency of the colours... The reactions of the colours change depending on in what order you drip them into the tray. Every little change you make in the process gives a new result on the paper (or textile). Once you´ve tried one thing, you discover something new that you want to try next, which is why this is so addictive. There is a lot of experimenting involved in these techniques, and the possibilities are never ending.

Per taught us how to make a big portfolio to hold our large sheets of marbled papers, and A4 size folders dressed with marbled paper.

He showed us a lot of useful tips and tricks about paper folding, gluing and how to make your work flow more effective, a lot of which I will use next time I bind a new sketchbook. I finally learned how to make those professional-looking beautiful corners on books - my next sketchbook will be sooo purty! ;)

Per also showed us how to print letters and patterns on book cloth (for example on book spines), so we all tried our hand at printing our names in gold on the A4 folders. I never knew how that was done, it was a bit tricky to learn how to do it right, but it turned out well in the end.

During the whole weekend, Per and Kerstin shared their vast knowledge about the history of paper and marbling with us, along with anecdotes from all their journeys and exhibitions. We got to see samples of papers from all over the world. An incredibly inspiring weekend for a paper freak like me.

If you want to know more about Per and Kerstin´s classes, don´t hesitate to call them: 046-24 93 10. (If you don´t speak Swedish, I think French or English would do just fine.)
For those of you who read Swedish, Per and Kerstin Nilsson are the authors of Sweden´s best book about marbling, "Marmorera och dekorera med papper och färg" (ISBN 91-7136-460-9). If you have any interest whatsoever in marbling, get the book!

Spring shadows

2008-06-27T10:18:00.004+02:00

Posting a slightly older painting today. I was browsing back through my sketchbook and found this one, and discovered how much the sun has changed it´s course since the beginning of May. I can see these windows from my home, and this particular wall doesn´t have any tree shadows on it anymore, it´s in the shade almost all day now. Funny how the light changes slowly slowly over the year.

12.5 x 15 cm, watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Sketchcrawl #19

2008-06-21T23:14:00.006+02:00

Today was the 19th International Sketchcrawl (if you haven´t heard of it, check it out here). I didn´t have company for the day, so I went on a solo sketchcrawl. We had showers of rain all day today, so I sketched in the car (which is surprisingly inconvenient if you´re in the driver´s seat, I only sketched as a passenger before).

I drove to an industrial area not too far away from where we live, and since today is a holiday in Sweden (Midsummer´s day) the area was deserted, almost eerie in places.

I find lots of inspiration for drawing in areas like this, odd buildings and vehicles, strange formations of pipes and machinery - if you just move slowly through a place like this, you find things to draw every fifty meters!

I had a great few hours of drawing, in spite of the rain and the lack of company. I´ll definitely try to do next sketchcrawl too. Check out the forums over at www.sketchcrawl.com to see the results of other crawls all over the world!

The drawings are of different sizes, drawn with a Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Gray ink and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Sketchbook project #2

2008-06-18T00:05:00.005+02:00

The second sketchbook project I participate in, the Maruman Exchange, is getting off to a good start, and I am really looking forward to having four Maruman folded sketchbooks landing in my mailbox in the next few months.

The participants are Anita Davies in England, Jennifer Lawson and Margaret Storer-Roche in the US, and me in Sweden. We chose to work with the Japanese Maruman accordeon sketchbooks, since they have a neat format and a paper quality we all could agree on would work. We will each fill ten pages in each other´s Marumans, and we´ll be posting scans from our books on the MarumanX blog.

What you see above is two of the first four and a half pages in my own book. I re-opened my box of Kremer pigment watercolours recently, and I used them for these particular pages. These colours are very unlike any other watercolours I´ve worked with, and the first time I tried them I put them away after a while, because I didn´t like the fact that some of the colours are very opaque. I decided to give them a second chance, though, because I like their incredibly strong and saturated pigments, and after doing a few colour mixing charts and tests with them, I am slowly beginning to get the hang of them.

Many of the Kremer watercolours have some mischievous behaviours that I like, such as granulation and biting around the edges of the paint, things you can´t really predict but that brings a lot of movement and life to the paper surface.

I won´t give up on my Winsor & Newtons and Schminckes any time soon, but the Kremer paints are really beautiful, and if you like experimenting with watercolours, these paints will be your Friends.

Good old pencil

2008-06-13T23:55:00.002+02:00

It´s been a long time since I picked up a pencil to draw with. I usually go for ink or possibly a light pencil sketch and then watercolours, but yesterday I found one of those cheapo plastic mechanical pencils laying around in the kitchen and got the urge to draw with it. I have this old one-legged doll that my father found under a barn near our summer house years and years ago, a perfect subject for a little evening pencil sketch.

These old dolls are kind of creepy with their eyes closed...

12.5 x 15 cm, pencil on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Archipelago

2008-06-12T18:32:00.002+02:00

I went on a short work related trip on a cruise ship across the Baltic sea a few days ago, and managed to capture a glimpse of the Stockholm archipelago in my sketchbook. It was extremely windy, my drawing tools almost blew away, but the view from the sun deck of this enormous ship was amazing, so I had to give it a try.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Gray ink and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Look, it´s a car!

2008-06-10T17:42:00.002+02:00

I am getting more and more time for sketching now (since the summer holidays start in a few days from now), which probably means more frequent posting on this blog too. The last few weeks I have been incredibly busy with work, but now, slowly, a great Calm is beginning to find it´s way into my mind.

Anyway. Cars. I´m still practicing drawing cars every now and then, and this time I think I almost got it. I tried hard with this one not to think that I was drawing a Toyota, I just compared lines and lengths and angles as I do with any other subject I draw, and I think it turned out pretty well. Now I just need to make some more successful car drawings, so I don´t have to draw the conclusion that this was just beginner´s luck...

12 x 12 cm, Micron pen on Fabriano artistico hot press paper.

Sketchbook project #1

2008-06-01T23:17:00.003+02:00

I am part of two new exciting sketchbook projects this spring and summer, involving artists from many corners of the world. The first project, Flying Pictures, has just had it´s lift-off during this week. The second one is about to begin, I will tell you more about it as soon as it has started.

In the Flying Pictures project, seven handmade concertina sketchbooks has been sent from their owners/makers to travel around the world. They will make seven stops along the way, where the participating artists will fill the books with more pages and their own artwork. This way, the books will grow along the way, and hopefully take on a form of their own. I have no idea what my book will look like when it returns to me, which is of course what makes this whole project so thrilling to participate in.

My book, called Polychromatic Behaviour (front cover and part of first page posted here), left home this weekend, and so I have joined the other participants in worrying about what will happen to the book along the way. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I´m not at all worried about the time it will spend with the other artists involved, but rather what will happen to it in the hands of the postal services of all the countries it will pass on it´s way...

Staying awake...

2008-05-27T22:47:00.002+02:00

I had to watch over some students taking a test today, which means sitting still doing nothing for two hours - just about the worst thing anyone could ask me to do at work. Since I became a teacher, I forgot how to sit still and be quiet. I´m used to running around helping people with things, or talking to students or standing in front of a class teaching. Being active. Sitting still with nothing to do makes my brain shut off - I am the one who´s head starts nodding after a while during meetings if I have nothing to say...

There´s nothing better than pen and paper to stay awake at times like this. I had filled a sketchbook page before the two hours came to an end. Added the colours at home in the evening, I figured I´d probably be thrown out if I started painting as well while the students were concentrating on their tests...

12.5 x 15 cm, Micron pen and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

New paintbox

2008-05-20T22:33:00.006+02:00

A longer post today, for the paintbox nerds out there! :)

I´ve been looking for years for the perfect outdoor sketching watercolour box, but either the boxes are too big or the mixing surfaces are too small. I always end up modifying my boxes a lot, but they still don´t really work the way I want them to. So I decided to go for it and order a handmade Pocket box from the Paintbox Company in England.

Now, to me this is a very expensive paintbox, I really thought twice before placing my order, but I figured it would be worth it since I probably wouldn´t have to buy another box EVER. The description of this box on the homepage sounded just like the thing I was looking for - small but not too tiny to hold in a steady grip, with room for the luxury of 16 colours and a lot of mixing space for a small box.

There is a long queue for these boxes, I think I waited almost two and a half months for mine, but it was worth the wait. I´m incredibly happy with it so far. A tiny review:

The box is sturdy, the mixing space is perfectly enough for me - you can remove the whole tray of colours in the box, if you want to use the mixing surface under there too. There´s a strong ring underneath for holding the box (unlike those thin and wobbly ones on all the boxes I bought before), and I can change a single colour if I like since I chose the model with room for half pans (slightly bigger box than the one for tube colours). I´ve read some reviews on these boxes, and one or two mentioned the weight as a minus, and it isn´t as lightweight as the thin metal boxes you can buy from all art suppliers. To me that´s not a problem - it´s a very small addition to the weight I´m always carrying around in my bag anyway - to others it may be something to take into consideration.

The only minus to me, and it´s only a "cosmetical" one, is a little brass plate that looks a little unpolished on the lid of the box (not pictured here). These boxes come with your initials on a plate on the lid. I didn´t quite like the look of the initials, and I didn´t really want them there no matter how they looked, so I chose not to have them there. But for some reason the initial plate is on the lid anyway, though empty, and the edges of it are a bit rough. After using the box, I found that the plate actually helps holding the box firmly fastened in the water container (I don´t know if that was the thought behind it, but it does), so it fills a function anyway, but it looks a little less worked on than the rest of the box.

The colour mixing chart in this post is something I always do with my watercolour palettes when I change colours in them. I like trying to mix all colours with all others at least once, just to see what combinations I get. Of course a mixing chart like this is not at all complete - you can mix two colours in so many different proportions, and this chart just shows one. Still, it gives an idea of where I can go with this particular choice of colours. I often find new surprising combinations, and some interesting grays when I do these charts. From here I go on to examine a few of those mixes a little closer, trying out different proportions of the two pigments in the mix, for example.

Stenbäck

2008-05-11T20:26:00.003+02:00

I went to see my dad a few days ago, and found this beautiful spot near his house where the sunshine fell through the tiny leaves of some spring green birch trees. I didn´t quite manage to capture that sparkling play of light and shadows among the trees, so this is a somewhat simplified version of what I saw in front of me.

I always mix my greens, and I got to try out a lot of new-found mixes here, since I´ve changed a few colours on my palette. It was incredibly fun to do, and the weather permitted me to sit in shorts and a t-shirt (for the first time this year!) and just enjoy myself.

A trick I use sometimes, especially on bigger sketchbook pages like this one: I put some masking tape on the left and right side of the page. I like to get those straight edges there like margins in the book.

17.5 x 26 cm, pencil and watercolours on Arches Satinée watercolour paper. (Sketchbook page.)

Drawing in the car

2008-05-11T19:56:00.002+02:00

Car rides are great for sketching (unless you´re driving). I like trying to make quick watercolour sketches while the landscape quickly changes outside the car window. Of course, this place doesn´t exist exactly as it looks here. This is just some kind of composition from several glances out the window, kind of trying to catch the character of a landscape.

12.5 x 9 cm, pencil and watercolours (working with a Niji waterbrush here) on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

New toys

2008-05-09T23:30:00.004+02:00

Tried out some new Staedtler triplus fineliners, and they are SO nice to draw with. They are incredibly smooth on the paper, and the colours are clear and bright. At first I thought it was a pity they aren´t waterproof, but then I thought Oh what the heck. This waterproof, acid free, archival hysteria drives me nuts sometimes. My childhood drawings are still around, they didn´t evaporate or explode or anything - and they were made with probably the cheapest pens ever, all permeated with acid and unwaterproofness. My guess is that this drawing will last at least as long as they have. :)

12.5 x 15 cm, Staedtler triplus fineliners on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Me

2008-05-07T22:57:00.002+02:00

I look like a real snob here, don´t I? I had the mirror on a table below me when I drew this, hence the strange angle on the nose and eyes.

Self portraits are amusing. You always end up with a half decent/half wonky image of yourself, that most people can recognize and that EVERYBODY can see something wrong with - but they don´t dare to tell you since they don´t want to hurt your feelings, either about you drawing badly or about how you actually look. ;)

You always get a certain concentrated, almost mad, look in your eyes when you draw yourself. I also get that fine looking angry wrinkle in my forehead. :)

12.5 x 15 cm, dip pen and Pelikan Burnt Sienna ink on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

The pavilion in Ghost park

2008-05-06T20:28:00.003+02:00

Another drawing from the walk I took the other day. This pavilion stands in a small park in central Stockholm, the Ghost park (they say there´s a ghost haunting the park, I just wish I had heard of anyone who actually saw it...). The pavilion looks a bit sad with those plywood sheets in front of the doorways and the rusty roof. Looks like the perfect place to sell ice cream in the summer...

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s black ink, and watercolours, on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Back to drawing

2008-05-04T23:39:00.003+02:00

I finally got almost a whole day of drawing today, and my hands have been itching for drawing for a while now. Bookbinding is fun (see earlier posts), it´s almost too fun, it´s easy to get caught up in it, trying out new techniques, new covers, modifying book models... But in the end I always long to start using the paper inside those books.

Went for a walk around the city center in Stockholm today, and sat down for a coffee. This is the view from my little table outside the café. I love spring, it makes drawing outside so much easier.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Bookbinding

2008-04-30T17:14:00.009+02:00

These are a few images from the bookbinding class I taught last weekend. I didn´t have time to take many photographs myself, so most of these were captured by Anne Majakari who was both a participant in and an organizer of the course. If you check out her site, be sure to click the link "fotodgb" to have a look at her fantastic photo diary, and don´t miss the little plus-minus sign to the right, where you will find more images with text both in English and Swedish.

During this course all participants made two books, one case bound and one with coptic binding. We also did some marbled papers for end papers, which was incredibly fun!

I don´t think I ever saw such enthusiastic class participants anywhere, ever. Everybody worked constantly from 10 am to 8 pm on Saturday, and then started again around 9 am Sunday morning and worked all day. The whole weekend was all about bookbinding and sketchbooks, and it was so good to share some time with people who are all into inks, pens, paper, sketching and drawing. We even ended our dinner on Saturday night with a really geeky Noodler´s ink session, trying out all kinds of drawing tools and ink colours on large papers... Wonderful.

The books turned out beautifully, and I think everybody was happy with their books. I also think they all slept very well when they got home...

I want to send out a great THANK YOU to all the participants in the course, you really made my day (well, weekend), and special hugs to Anne and Christina who put in a huge amount of work to organize everything so well.

Springtime

2008-04-24T20:48:00.003+02:00

Today I finally got a chance to draw these little fellas, I´ve been wanting to for at least a week. I thought it was about time to have some spring here on the blog.

The reason for the lack of updates here lately is that I´ve been preparing for a little course I´m giving this weekend. Some sweet people have invited me to a place near Örebro to show them how I make my sketchbooks. Who can say no to something like that? Sketchbooking should always be encouraged, as much as possible, don´t you think? :)

12.5 x 12.5, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on Arches Satinée watercolour paper.

Spring day #2

2008-04-06T22:25:00.004+02:00

Drawing no. 2 from Saturday´s little personal sketch-/photocrawl around Kungsholmen in Stockholm.

12,5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on Arches Satinée watercolour paper.