Monday, April 27, 2015

Charles Darwin

I was sketching at the Natural  History Museum  in London the other day. :)

Sketch of  Charles Darwin Statue

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Imperfect portrait

I look at my portrait of Anders Zorn and wish I spent more time trying to capture his likeness. At the same time I am happy with the painting. I completed it during two of my lunch breaks. The clock was against me, it wasn't perfect from the start but I pushed on regardless, my goal was to paint and learn, which I did.

Life drawing has thought me not to get hung up on details, just draw and never pause for thought until the bell goes pling! Some day I will have time to paint and I hope by then I'll have mastered watercolouring enough to excel at it. Until then, I practice. Time permitting.

Anders Zorn by David Meldrum
Anders Zorn

Friday, April 17, 2015

Little lunchtime watercolour

This was my first lunchtime watercolour for a few weeks, feels good to be back doing it.

Stockholm ferry. Arches rough 300g, 11,5 x 7,8 cm

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Tuesday's life drawing

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. 20150414

It felt good to be figure drawing again after a two week break. I feel frustrated these days, I just don't have enough time for my art. I am working on it, trying to free up more time in the future. I buy lots of gadgets to improve my art, the latest being Ken Bromley's paper stretchers, it's an expensive hobby if you let it be so. I wish time was as easy to buy!

Figure drawing by David Meldrum
5 minute + figure drawing

Figure drawing by David Meldrum
5 minute figure drawing

Figure drawing by David Meldrum
5 minute figure drawing

Figure drawing by David Meldrum
2 minute figure drawing

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Alexandra Becker-Black

I stumbled over this site this morning while on Facebook. Alexandra Becker-Black is a watercolour artist who does very good figurative work. Visit her website here.

Sunday, April 05, 2015

Life drawing

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. 20150331

It wasn't one of my better life drawing sessions. I was feeling worn-out. Working, painting and drawing all the time, I needed a break so I did just that.
... Now I'm back and today I finished a large watercolour, it wasn't a total success but I learned a lot working in large format ( full imperial ). At my next figure drawing session I plan to draw less pencil outlines. I want to smudge charcoal dust around the outline of the figure to give a softer more natural look. Also, it was pointed out to me that the eyes I draw are too stylised, a line and a dot basically. I will try and change this over time.

Five minute nude

Five minute nude

Five minute nude

Two minute nude


Watercolour practice.

Monday, 30th of March, 2015
I didn't know what to paint during my lunch hour, I only had a half an hour. I decided to do a bit of cloud practice.

Clouds. Fabriani HP, 24 x 18cm 20150330

A visit to the museum

A visit to the Natural History Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. 20150319

I was with the Stockholm Urban Sketchers last Sunday, we spent half a day having fun sketching all the stuffed animals. It's kind of morbid but at least they don't move when you're trying to draw them. I really enjoyed it, I'll be going back there again soon.

Moleskin watercolour sketchbook 21 x 19cm

Moleskin watercolour sketchbook 21 x 19cm

Fabriano A5 sketchbook