Sketching with Ronell

I belong to this online drawing community, EDM, with members from all around the world. It´s a great place to discuss drawing and general art issues with like-minded people, and to get some inspiration from other people´s work. I am one of few members in Sweden, though, and seeing how others on the list living close to each other go on sketchcrawls together every now and then, I feel a little off here in Stockholm at times. (A sketchcrawl is like a pub crawl, only skip the pubs and bring a pen.)

But sometimes life is so full of surprises! The other day I got an email from another EDM member, Ronell of Africantapestry, asking if I wanted to meet her in Stockholm, since she was coming up here for a few days. How likely is that to happen? Someone actually coming from France to Stockholm - in darkest November - wanting to meet and draw?

We decided to go get a coffee and do some sketching together Sunday evening. We talked a lot, and browsed through each other´s sketchbooks (hers is fantastic with glowing watercolors flowing freely over the pages - yummy!), talking about what we saw in ways that only initiated sketchbookers can, and had a great few hours at Café Gråmunken in Old town. We made a sketch each too - no, actually Ronell made two - from the interior of the café.

The internet is great. There´s a lot of nonsense out there, but here and there you´ll find real gems that make your life a little richer. Ronell is definitely one of them.

Ronell, it was so great to meet you and have a real art-chat and share some drawing time! I hope we can do it again some time!

17 x 22 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Gray and watercolours on Arches Satin paper.

30 minutes by a zebra crossing

I seem to have taken to quick sketches lately, I don´t know why but I really enjoy trying to capture people in motion. These are from ten days back, I was sitting in a café overlooking a zebra crossing right in the heart of Stockholm, and I couldn´t resist making use of my sketchbook and a pen.

Unfortunately winter is here (well, I like winter, actually, but drawing-wise it´s a drag - either your fingers freeze or your ink does...) so it´s getting harder to find good places to draw in town. I like being outside. In-door shopping malls are always an option for drawing people, but I get so de-inspired (is that a word?) by the surroundings...

Oh well, I´ll get by.

16 x 21 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Grey on Arches Satin paper.

One minute sketches

I and a friend of mine went to the most unusual life drawing session I have ever been to the other night. The model was a man who practiced tai chi, karate, and an African form of yoga.

He divided the drawing session into three half-hours with one practice each, and he changed into the proper clothes before each half-hour. Then he moved around, stopping for one-minute poses every now and then.

We had our hands full trying to capture his poses. In the beginning I didn´t succeed at all, I got all stressed out by the short poses. But after a while you kind of get the fact that you only have one minute, so you have to speed up. After a while I managed to work up a drawing speed that was just about enough to capture the main lines.

After drawing one-minute poses for two hours I was exhausted. It was difficult, but really fun, and I got loads of incredibly good practice.

Cretacolor NERO pencil sketches on A3 cartridge paper.