Book forest

I have been in a beech forest for the first time of my life. I´ve seen beech trees before but they don´t grow up in the north of Sweden where I come from, so standing in the middle of that forest on a sunny day was a bit special.

In Swedish, the beech tree is called “bok”, which can also mean book. Which of course always leads to a lot of bad jokes about libraries as soon as we set foot in a beech wood…

Anyways. Magnificent trees. I managed to sit down for a while and capture one in my sketchbook, and spending time looking at that tree made me think that trees are like people in that they have very different body languages. The beech tree looks proud and strong (but kind), the birch-tree is kind of happy and calm, the pine is quiet and lonely and the spruce looks a bit gloomy, perhaps lacking a bit of self-confidence...

Tagged!

Oh, all these Internet novelties... You learn something new every day. I have been tagged. Apparently this is something you do in the blogging part of the electronic world. You get a challenge from someone to do something - write a list on a certain subject or draw something or whatever, and then you´re supposed to post it on your blog for everyone to see.

I´ve been tagged by Jako and Anna and now I´m supposed to make four lists here - five things I have in my purse, five things I have in my closet, five things in my fridge and five in my car. I thought it would be nicer to draw all this stuff than to just write it down, so here it is:

Five things in my fridge: soy sauce, sambal, sushi gari, fresh ginger and garlic (always)


Five things in my closet (yes, we do keep other stuff there along with the clothes): a flashlight, my bike lights, a bicycle repair kit and my bike computer (wow, turned into a bike theme here)


Five things in my "purse" (I´m more the messenger bag kinda girl): the pen case, cell phone, keys, wallet and the Swedish Military lip-salve (I´m not joking. It´s the best.)



As for the car... well. Living in a big town means that if you leave your stuff in the car, you´ll have to learn to live without it sooner or later. So our car contains four seats and a steering wheel. And how fun is that to draw?

EDM challenges no. 59 & 65

Spring is finally here (in Stockholm) and like everybody else I love it. It´s been very much longed for after a long cold winter. But it does have a disadvantage - or millions of them, actually. Pollen. Those nasty little grains flying around, invisible to the eye but very real when it comes to clogging up my face, making nose and eyes itch and run. Which is why I combined two EDM challenges this time - draw a sign of spring and draw your nose.

The usual signs of spring - buds, grass and flowers - are all very nice, but the thing that really makes me go "yep, spring is definitely here" is the day when I have to start carrying at least three different kinds of medicin around with me - one for the body, one for the nose and one for the eyes.

But still. Spring is nice.

EDM challenge no. 63

"Go on a nature walk, pick up items, draw what you find." That´s a nice challenge. My dear M´s son found these on a little walk the other day. They are very small (about 1,5 cm), looking like mushrooms but are probably some kind of moss or lichen (don´t know their name even in Swedish). You see those everywhere in the forests here, but never with that red thingy on top. What in the world is that? Do these things bloom? Do you know?

Old sketchbook

I filled my old sketchbook last week, it´s up in the sketchbook section of my site, if you´d like to take a look.

Life drawing no. 2

I went to a life drawing session tonight and finally managed to draw a human lying down. Drawing people is always a challenge, but in a horizontal position I find human proportions even harder to recognize. I guess it´s because we all move around in a vertical position, always seeing each other that way - it´s easier to draw things you feel familiar with.

Anyway, this drawing was made towards the end of the session, which is typical for me. That´s when I start relaxing a bit, not being so tense about getting it right. And that´s when it´s time to go home...

EDM challenge no. 61

Last week´s challenge over at Everyday Matters was to draw a grouping of two or more similar objects. I found this strange little grouping behind one of the houses in the street where I live. The landlord is renovating all the apartments here, and every now and then you run into some very odd stuff around here…