meldrum artLife Drawing at Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20150127
I have not much to say about these illustrations. A picture speaks for itself anyway, so I’ll just sign off now and get back to my drawing-board.
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| Ten minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Ten minute study |
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| Five minute nude. |
This female nude was incomplete until I got my fingers dirty with charcoal dust and finished the contours of her body.
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| A4 nude, Fabriano sketch paper |
We were a group of seven or eight Urban Sketchers on top of Katarina Elevator last Sunday. It was zero degrees, my water did not freeze but it didn’t dry very well either. After half an hour it got too cool for us and we retreated to a nearby café where we could warm up again. It was only then that my watercolour sketch dried.
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| Katarina Elevator view, Slussen, Stockholm. A4 watercolour Moleskin, 200g paper. |
Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20150120
Ups and downs, that’s the way my abilities go when capturing a model’s pose.
I’ve had this model several times before, I’ve always struggled to catch her beauty and elegant ballerina posturing. It’s strange because she is quite pretty. I guess it’s like dating, sometimes there’s magic and on other occasions there is nothing at all. Does that make sense?
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Five minute nude |
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| Two minute nude |
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| Two – three minute nude |
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| White horse. 11.5 x 7.8 cm Fabriano GF 300g |
I must admit, I need a break from sailing boats, I love sailing and the Stockholm archipelago but I have to resist it for a while. I decided to paint a horse yesterday instead, I build horse-sport websites during the day so it feels kinda natural to paint them too. It is a small painting, 11.5 x 7.8 cm. Keeping it little means less surface to paint and so practical for lunch break watercolour painting. I see improvement in my technique, painting and drawing as much as I can really pays, which feel really nice.
This week I have painted every morning for an hour before going to work, I paint at lunchtime, I have Life Drawing twice and figure painting once during the seven days.
I started this lunchtime watercolour last week, I didn’t finish it during my break so I spent one more hour on the painting yesterday morning. I am testing to see if I can cope with getting up one hour earlier at the moment. I started yesterday so it’s early days. I’m too tired in the evenings after a full-day’s work to feel inspired to paint, getting up earlier feels better, it’s tough but better, if you know what I mean. It’s not easy being an artist but it’s very rewarding!
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| Storm clouds. A5 Fabriano GF 300g |
Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, 20150113.
It was nice to start life drawing again. I felt a bit rusty. The model, who is very good, made endless difficult poses for us. After a while I started to relax and enjoy myself. I used charcoal dust, my hero calligraphy pen and my trusty 0.7 Pentel mechanical pencil with 2b lead.
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| 10 minute nude. |
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| 3 minute nude. |
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| 10 minute nude. |
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| 2 minute nude. |
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| 5 minute nude. |
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| 2 minute nude. |
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| 5 minute nude. |
This watercolour of a Stockholm tram took me two lunchtimes. I struggled with the background, I should have done a tonal sketch first, unfortunately I do not have time to be that professional. I prefer quantity to quality at the moment anyway, it’s more important for me to just paint as often as I possibly can and learn. The masterpieces will come later, I hope.
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| Tram Nr.7 to Skansen, Stockholm. 20150113. Fabriano FG 300g 17 x 22 cm |
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| Winter Bunny 20150109. Fabriano FG 300g 17 x 22 cm |
My lunchtime watercolours have to be simple in composition in order for me to complete a painting in 30 – 45 minutes. I choose sailing boats and water scenes partly for this reason and partly, well, I just like sailing. Some friends asked recently, “Do you do anything besides sailing boats?” so this is for them, a winter bunny. It’s kinda a cute, isn’t it!