World SketchCrawl day today

It was World SketchCrawl Day today and I met up with Nina Johansson to sketch at The City Museum (Stadsmuseet). The watercolour below was sketched from a third-floor window overlooking "Slussen" in Central Stockholm. It was a beautiful autumn day but too cold for us to be outside sketching.

Slussen 2013.10.19

Trying to change direction ...

I don't watercolour as much as I'd like to. I'm going to try paint for an hour or so after each evening meal. Go to less to life drawing evenings, I need to sit down and paint, practice and paint. Play, I need to have fun too, very important that.
Here are some recent watercolours and yes, they were fun to do. The first wash was done at life drawing and the darker tones where added later.

My brush stood still ...

My father passed away on the 29th September, it was a sad moment and I joined my family in grief. I am only now starting to find some form of normality,  returning to a sense of balance which allows me to focus on positive moments like my art once again. Here are a few life drawings I did a few weeks back, I enjoyed having only six pastels and a charcoal pen to work with.

SFBT-3 Artist Mannequin Figure review

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Two hours too much

Still having problems painting a nude in the same position for two hours. I am using Arches 300g, rough watercolour paper and haven't gotten used to it yet. It takes the pigment so well and dries so slow, I need to adjust. I can also blame myself for my lack of skill. Here are two preliminary sketches I did before getting it wrong with the watercolour.

Tuesday's life drawing

Another enjoyable session at Konstnärshuset here in Stockholm.  One colleague asked if I would paint one more watercolour wash after getting home. The sketches would look more complete but then again I probably would loose the freshness. I chose to leave them alone.

10 minute nude

5 minute nude

5 minute nude

5 minute nude

5 minute nude

2 minute nude

2 minute nude

My latest sources of inspiration

I bought these DVDs by Herman Pekel and Alvaro Castagnet last week. They are great, their styles are similar, loose and full of expression. I'm not so sure I want to be so free but then again maybe I am heading that way, who knows. Very busy at work at the moment, not much time to paint. I'm looking forward to having more time again at the end of the month.

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.