Life drawing - Konstnärshuset

Venue, Konstnärshuset, Stockholm

I am happy with a lot of my sketches from this session. I focused on trying to keep a single line that is expressive and in no way hesitant. Completing a watercolour sketch in such a short time is challenging,  the hardest part is to mix my colours and create the desired skin tones. I use: Naples Yellow, Cerulean Blue and Cadmium Red mostly.

5 minute sketch, 20130226

10 minute sketch, 20130226

5 minute sketch, 20130226

3 minute sketch, 20130226

2 minute sketch, 20130226

Stockholm Sketchers

Today, I hung out with the Stockholm Sketchers at the Modern Art Museum here in Stockholm. We meet up on the last Sunday of each month. It was a very enjoyable few hours drinking coffee, chatting and even finding time to draw.

Relaxing at the Modern Art Museum, Stockholm. 20130224, A4 Moleskin.

Texting at the Modern Art Museum, Stockholm. 20130224, A4 Moleskin.

Bob's Brother

Bob's Brother

This was meant to be Bob Dylan, I'm not too bothered that I didn't get the likeness 100%. I'm just starting off with my portrait painting. I'm happy enough with my watercolour technique, the shadowing on the face could be better; not so stressed, I'm learning after all. I consider myself to be a student, I will study and practice for a few more years. Then I have no idea what will happen, I have no master plan. :)

Tuesday's life drawing session

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm.

Sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch and sketch. There is no short-cut to self-improvement. One has to put in the hours, it is fortunate that I am enjoying myself immensely trying to reach this illusive higher plane.
(More sketches can be found under, "My Life Drawing 2013 (Kroki)")

Neil Young Portrait

Neil Young 20130219 (Pencil on 200g watercolour paper)

This started out as a watercolour portrait of Neil Young but I just could not stop putting down strokes with my pencil. I spent four lunch breaks doing this, thats about 2 hours work in total I guess.

90 minute portrait

Venue: The Academy of Realistic Art, Stockholm

I'm happy with this portrait, I feel that I am starting to reap the benifits of all those life drawing sessions - my art is becoming more fluid. Thursday's life drawing session was 2 hours long in total but in reality, with all the breaks, we had 90 minutes to complete our work.

Original size:  508 x 406 mm,  watercolour paper 300g.

Sketch Diary of Ch’ng Kiah Kiean

An urban sketcher I really admire is Ch’ng Kiah Kiean. He has an architectural background and was born in Penang, Malaysia. His homepage points to three different locations: his Sketch Diary, his Facebook page and Flickr.

More Ted Nuttall

Ted's website is good but his watercolour images are not much larger than postage stamps. This is unfortunate as I want to study his work in detail, I really like his approach.

Here are some links worthwhile visiting if you are interested in his work. (Please send links to me too, I'd appreciate that.)

Ted Nuttall Homepage
Arvada Award
Art News DFW
South West Art


(I'll add more links here at a later date)

Shattered

Venue: Konstnärhuset, Stockholm. 20130212.

The head of my tripod shattered from the severe cold when I was north of The Arctic Circle last weekend. It fell over and smashed into small glass-like pieces. This meant I was not able to watercolour last night at Tuesday's life drawing session as I use the tripod as my easel.  I did not mind, change is good and I enjoyed sketching with my pencils.

5 minute sketch 20130212

2 minute sketch 20130212

I would not normally do this...

I am enjoying a long weekend, north of the Arctic Circle. The Photo below was taken 20 kilometres north of Kiruna, Sweden. The temperature was -32 degrees! I would not normally post holiday snaps on this blog but the experience was just so magical. You could say that the Sun and it's solar storms were painting the night sky here on earth, a masterpiece.

Northern Lights, Kiruna, Sweden, 20130209

I was not in the mood...

Venue: Konstnärshuset, 20130205

A sketching comrade (Martin) told me I would create good work after the coffee break, I had told him, I was not inspired at all. He said this always creates good art, just keep trying and not to give up. He was right! The following sketches were created after the break.

7-10 minute sketch, 20130205

5-7 minute sketch, 20130205

2 minute sketch, 20130205

Figure drawing at Basis, Stockholm

I had fun today, I was on a roll.

10-15 minute sketch, A3, 20130202

10+5 minute sketch, A3, 20130202

5-10 minute sketch, A3, 20130202

2 minute sketch, A4, 20130202

2 minute sketch, A4, 20130202

Muddy colour problem fix - figure painting in watercolour

Maybe this technique is the answer to my muddy colour problem. I'll will definately give it a try.


Don Andrews (www.donandrews.net)