Feels Good

Here is a selection of watercolour and pencil sketches from my life drawing evening at Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. I hope to transfer the energy and freshness of these sketches into my paintings which are all too often, stiff and laboured.

Ten minute nude. 20130910

Five minute nude. 20130910

Five minute nude. 20130910

Ten minute nude. 20130910

Two minute nude. 20130910

Two minute nude. 20130910

Muddy Naked Hand

I paint these Naked Hands at lunch time, I take my time and invariably I overwork them, I get scared, I have too much time to think, I dab the brush 100 times too many. Life drawing is different, there I have only five or ten minutes to execute the watercolour, the result is a painting that contains life and energy. I am learning, in the mean time; here is a muddy, overworked Naked Hand.

Naked Hand 20130910. 9 x 14 cm Moleskin.

First session

I was very excited about attending my first life drawing evening after the summer break. It was a two hour pose at, "The Swedish Academy of Realist Art".  I was a bit too eager and so my watercolour study failed, luckily I didn't give up and managed to do one half-decent sketch. The model's underarm does not look correct but otherwise I'm quite pleased with it.

figure drawing 20130905

I used Arches 300gsm rough paper originally which is wonderful to paint on if you have time but is too slow-drying for figure painting with tempo. I don't think my fellow artists would appreciate me using a hair drier every ten minutes either.

Naked hand holds stopwatch!

It sounds like one of those bad newspaper headlines. As for the watercolour which took me two lunch breaks, - it's all right, I learned a few things which is the point of drawing and painting these in the first place. I'm happy enough with the result, a mixture of success and failure.
Life Drawing starts again tomorrow,  I'm really looking forward to starting, it feels like it was a very long time ago since the last session.

Naked hand holds stopwatch! 9 x 14 cm Moleskin.

Naked Hand Failures

I know I should let the watercolour pigment do it's magic but I don't. I stress, I forget, I fail.

Still, it is practice and practice makes perfect. At least that is what we are led to believe.

When I think about it, maybe watercolour and perfection are a bit like water and oil...

 

Two steps forward...

...and one backwards. The last week has been a bit of a backward step for me. Seven days ago, I thought I had mastered it, watercolouring. I was silly of course to think this way. I was painfully reminded that I am in fact a student of art. My last four watercolours have been flops, very frustrating. This quick watercolour below, which I painted this evening may mean that I am starting to move in a forward direction again. What a relief if this is the case, but then again, I haven't started my next watecolour yet, so we will see.

Moleskin watercolour notebook, 13 x 20.5 cm.

Sketching in Stockholm

Once a month a small group of sketchers and I meet and have great fun doing what we enjoy most - having coffee!

Långholmen, Stockholm, 20130825

Långholmen, Stockholm, 20130825

Monday's naked hand

I gave this hand two washes and then stopped, I was planning to add a few more but realised that I was happy with it after two. It is interesting when one gets the message to stop. Sometimes, it comes too late of course.

Moleskin watercolour notebook, 9 x 14 cm.

Porn?

Firstly, I would just like to say that I am very happy with the execution of this painting. It was the first time I used 100% cotton paper (Arches Rough, 300gsm),  and wow, what a difference it makes. It is so much easier to paint on high quality paper.
The only problem I have with this painting is the subject matter. Why is it that a naked person who looks you in the eye, feel pornographic? Why do naked models who look away from you or have their eyes closed feel like classic art nudes? I have a problem with this, Lucian Freud did not but then again, he was not exactly glamorising his subjects either. The next nude I paint will have a cloth over her head, let's see how that feels!
I paint, I learn and I paint some more...

Autumn, 38 x 76cm / 15 x 22"

Two naked hands

I managed to draw and paint two hands during my lunch break today. I'm quite happy with them, it's difficult to paint on such a small format. I feel that my watercolouring skills are improving, this feels very rewarding.

Naked hands

Lunch sketch painted in my mini-watercolour Moleskin.

Introducing The Naked Hand

I try and do a sketch or a painting during my lunch break at work as often as possible. I really would like to practice my figure painting but having pictures of naked people on my computer screen is a bit of a sensitive issue to say the least. So, I have found the solution - hands! Yes, naked hands! Nude hands! It's genius, I can practice my watercolour skin tones and hand drawing at the same time. Only I see the naked truth.

The Naked Hand (24x32cm, Canson 200 g/m²)

Watercolour sketches from Corfu

I had big plans to do a whole bunch of watercolours on my sailing trip. In reality it was almost impossible to concentrate for any length of time in the 35-36 degrees of heat. Still, I had a wonderful holiday and my batteries are charged. The sketches are A5 in size approximately.

Reversed perspective. ( It felt right at the time! )

Home from Corfu

Here are a few more A5 pencil sketches from my holiday sailing around Corfu. The sketch book was a present from my son. :)

Sailing around Corfu

I have been sailing around Corfu for the last week. 35 degrees, almost too hot to do anything, even sketch. ;)