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

Louis le Brocquy, artist 1916 - 2012

Irish artist Louis le Brocquy died last month, I'd forgotten how good he was, I don't know if he hung out with Bacon and Freud but his work is quite similar. I'm currently learning to paint watercolour portraits the Charles Reid way, Louis le Brocquy has a surprisingly similar watercolour style, ...although Charles Reid seems to be more cheerful in personality. Visit: http://www.lebrocquy.com/ Unfortunately his website is difficult to navigate but it's worth the visit. Louis le Brocquy obituary, in The Guardian

Louis le Brocquy

Afterwards...

After watching the Charles Reid DVD on watercolouring and feeling really inspired, I went and drew in pen and ink, see the drawing below - it doesn't make sense sometimes how my brain works...

Drawing by David Meldrum

Learning to watercolour

I received two great DVD's in the post yesterday. Watercolouring by Charles Reid and Alvaro Castagnet. I have watched the Charles Reid film and found it really inspiring, so hopefully you will see a big improvement in my watercolouring very soon! It would be nice to go on a watercolour course with these guys but I could not afford it. I recommend these tutorials to anyone who is interested in improving their skills. Not recommended for beginners. Go here if you would like to see more tutorial videos from APV.

Ted Nuttall - Watercolourist

http://www.tednuttall.com/

Ted Nuttall seems to live in a sunny warm climate, at least his paintings radiate sunshine and warmt, lucky him.

Here is Ted doing a demonstration of his technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KYcWDgy38M

More sketches to see on Picasa

I have uploaded more life drawing sketches to my Picasa page. Click the photos below or this link here.

Sketch by David Meldrum

Sketch by David Meldrum

A forgotten watercolour

I found this watercolour sketch today, under a pile of old invoices and receipts. I painted it on A4 office paper, hence the wrinkles ...

Simon Schama's Picasso

I did not feel like doing a lunch time sketch today so I watched my favourite art series by Simon Schama. This week it's Picasso's turn.

The completed "Lunch Sketch #7"

I finished this lunchtime sketch of Arnold Schwarzenegger eventually. It took me 5 lunches to complete, that's about 30 minutes each time so I guess it took two and a half hours to finish.
I got bored with this early into the execution but I stuck with for practice reasons. Personally I want to be more expressionistic with my art and not so detailed. Still, I learned a lot, becoming good with watercolour is all about practice, practice and practice.

Att teckna kroki i Stockholm

Kolla mina länkar till höger under rubriken, Kroki i Stockholm, om ni undra var man kan teckna kroki här i Stockholm.

[English]

If you are wondering where to go Life Drawing here in Stockholm, check out my list of links to the right of this article under the Heading: Kroki I Stockholm (Life Drawing in Stockholm).

Kroki i Stockholm - 5 minuters teckning av David Meldrum

Simon Schama's Vincent van Gogh

Another of Simon Schama's wonderful series, this time it's about the life of Vincent van Gogh.

Starting to sketch with watercolours.

I have started to use watercolour while life drawing. I am just learning to handle the medium so having to work at speed really helps, one doesn't have time to worry, one just has to go for it! 

This model was getting chemotherapy and so her hair had fallen out and she looked very tired, especially her eyes, it was very haunting, still, I admired this 60 year old woman for not letting cancer stop her. These sketches are from 2012.03.17, Saint Patrick's Day. 

15 minute watercolour sketch

5 minute sketch

2 minute sketch

Life Drawing Sketches 2012.03.13

 I got my old flatbed-scanner working again thanks to a program called VueScan. So much better than using my camera!

5 minute sketch by David Meldrum

2 minute sketch by David Meldrum

5 minute sketch by David Meldrum

2 minute sketch by David Meldrum

10 minute sketch by David Meldrum

5 minute sketch by David Meldrum

2 minute sketch by David Meldrum

Lunch Sketch #7

I am struggling with this, my colours are becoming muddy. Still, it's a learning process, I am discovering and experimenting but most importantly, it makes me happy.

Simon Schama's J.M.W. Turner

Simon Schama's J.M.W. Turner 1 of 4

Watercolour on Location: Joseph Zbukvic

Herman Pekel: His vision of watercolour

Duffy Sheridan's painting course

I am half way through this course and finding it very useful in my quest to learn how to paint portraits. Duffy Sheridan teaches at a slow informal pace that can sometimes be tedious but I personally like his laid back style, one gets to know him after a while, this is nice because he seems to be a decent  relaxed - American type of dude. He is also extremely talented which is an important ingredient to me enjoying his portrait painting course.

Alla Prima Portrait Demo

This clip shows several minutes segments from the dvd by painter Robert Liberace. More info at www.robertliberace.com.

How to make flesh colors

This is a very informative video on mixing flesh tones by Ben Lustenhouwer. http://www.lustenhouwer.com/en/home