Sketchbook drawings

Two more drawings from the same bike ride as in the last post. This is the first house I ever drew starting at the bottom and drawing upwards. Sat in a lovely little park near the Johannes church in Stockholm and drew and painted for about an hour or so. Finished some paint details at home.

Did another café drawing as well. The guy in the cap had such an interesting face and style, I just had to draw him. I don´t particularly like drawing in cafés, though, I often feel they are too crowded. It´s easier in the summer, when many cafés and restaurants have tables outside, often with a little more space around them. Not that I mind so much if people see me drawing, but I know I would feel a bit uncomfortable if I saw someone obviously trying to draw ME in their sketchbook, so I figure others feel the same. I don´t want them to see me looking at them.

Top drawing 8 x 20.5 cm, café drawing 16 x 12 cm. Lamy Safari, Noodler´s Lexington Grey and watercolours on Arches Satin paper.

Stockholm landmark

If you would ask someone living in Stockholm what they think is a typical landmark here, I´ll bet 80 % would say City Hall (Stockholms Stadshus). The rest would go for the Globe arenas (Globen). Both are important parts of the Stockholm silhouette, but if I had to choose a favorite it would definitely be City hall. It is such a cool building. Throwing a glance at it, you think that the wings of the building are somewhat symmetrical. Drawing it, you realize they aren´t. No wall on this building has the same design as any other.

I drew and painted most of it on location, with a Japanese tourist leaning over my sketchbook for about four minutes, smiling and nodding.

After I did the City hall drawing, I took a coffee break at Riddarholmen, and drew these two ladies having a discussion over lunch. It´s a fast drawing, but I think it turned out pretty ok. Added the yellow several days after I did the drawing, to get some kind of background.

Big drawing 16 x 20 cm, small drawing 14 x 8 cm, Lamy Safari, Noodler´s Lexington Grey and watercolours on Arches Satin paper.

Cars

Too short and too high, I know. In my art plan for 2007 I had drawing cars as one of the goals, simply because I find cars incredibly difficult to draw and I thought it would be good practice to give them a try. I can´t really understand why cars should be harder to draw than any other objects though. It should be the same as drawing a flower or a house or whatever - just LOOK, maybe measure, and then draw. But it´s not. Cars are impossible, annoying, tricky subjects that completely seem to evade my efforts to capture them on paper.

Still, I can´t just give up, can I? So I have tried twice this summer to draw our car, with various results. The small drawing was made today, from our balcony. Difficult angle, but then all angles are difficult with cars. I kind of like the big one, though, totally wonky, looks like a caricature of the car itself. Actually, when I look at them, both drawings look like caricatures.

Of course, my feelings will be hurt if you can´t see what make of car it is. ;)

Bigger drawing: 15 x 11 cm, Lamy Safari and Noodler´s black ink. Smaller drawing: 8 x 6.5 cm, Lamy Safari and Noodler´s Lexington Grey ink. Both on Arches satin paper in a sketchbook.

A few more pages

I have been out and about for a couple of weeks, doing a lot of other stuff besides drawing. I can never stop drawing completely, though, so here are a few pages from the sketchbook again.


The first two pages are drawn in Halmstad, a town on the west coast of Sweden. I took a whole day of drawing there, all on my own. (The downside of drawing a lot, is that non-drawing people you travel with get frustrated with you staying too long in one spot. I always try to make room for some days when I´m on my own and can sit and draw as long as I like. Luckily, my dear M is completely OK with this.)

The last page is from the area where my in-laws live, also quite near the west coast. The cranes woke us up a few mornings, much too early for my taste... I had never heard their sound before, it´s almost a shout, very loud. They walked around in the field beside the house, it´s exciting to get so close to them.

All pages are 16 x 21.5 cm, Lamy Safari, sometimes pencil, Noodler´s ink and watercolours on Artches satin paper.