meldrum artI struggled last Tuesday. I was still recovering from my illness so I felt tired. I discovered that I need to be really alert when figure drawing, the brain must make thousands of calculations every minute one is sketching. Still, I find it important to just keep going even if the mental hill is steep.
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| 5 minute A3 Fabiano sketch paper |
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| 5 minute A3 Fabiano sketch paper |
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| 5 minute A3 Fabiano sketch paper |
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| 5 minute A3 Fabiano sketch paper |
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| 5 minute A3 Fabiano sketch paper |
I hadn’t used it for a year, my Moleskin watercolour journal. I have several, this one is for practising my skin tones. I needed the practice, …I always feel I need to practice.
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| Moleskin watercolour sketch, 13 x 20.5 cm |
I have been ill for a week and so I haven’t been able to go to life drawing which I find tough on the soul, more painful than a sore throat even. But now I’m starting to feel better and so I can start painting and sketching again. 🙂 Here is a watercolour I did last week just to get the wheels of art-production going again.
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| Lighthouse. Arches fine grain, 300g/m2 , 26 x 18 cm |
Here are two watercolours that I did during my lunch breaks earlier in the week. My daily routine is to eat my lunch (quickly) and then spend 40 minutes painting. I usually have two watercolours on the go at the same time so I don’t have to hang around waiting for pigment to dry. I find it’s a great way to learn, I have to be quick and so I don’t fiddle around, I just apply the paint and see what happens. I’m having a 50/50 success rate at the moment. I really want to improve my technique so squeezing in some art-time during the working-day is uplifting, I find it so frustrating when I don’t find space in my life for watercolour.
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| Archipelago sunset, 25 x 16 cm, Arches gf 300g/m2 |
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| Archipelago mist, 23 x 16 cm, Arches gf 300g/m2 |
Here are the sketches of the nude from Tuesday’s life drawing.
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| 10 minute sketch |
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| 10 minute sketch |
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| 2 minute nude. |
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| 5 minutes |
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| 5 minutes |
Tuesday’s model went to the wrong address so the organiser of the life drawing, Sissel took her place. We sketched her for half an hour until the intended model turned up. I didn’t care, to be honest I think these sketches are more interesting than the nude drawings I did shortly afterwards. Judge yourself.
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| 5 minute sketch. |
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| 5 minute sketch, The Murder Scene. |
I painted these during my lunch breaks last week. I want to master capturing the affects of water and sky. I improve each time I make an attempt, … just gotta keep trying I guess!
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| Sailing in Stockholm |
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| Sailing in the light |
I bought two sticks of Derwent XL Charcoal ( Ochre 01 and Sanguine 02 ). They are small and chubby so I don’t know why they call them, XL! But, this is not important – what is important is that I am having lots of fun smudging grated charcoal powder all over my pencil sketches. I used some grated red pastel and black charcoal also in the mix of things. All drawings are on Fabriano A4.
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| 7 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 10 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 5 minute nude |
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| 2 minute nude |
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| 2 minute nude |
It was a full-house at Konstnärshuset, I arrived five minutes before the start and there were no seats left. Thankfully, I had my light-weight tripod with me and had no problems standing at the back of the large room. There must have been fifty sketchers that evening. There was a large distance between the model and my failing eyes, I couldn’t see small details but when I think about it, maybe that was a good thing.
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| 5 minute nude. Fabriano A4 |
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| 2 minute nude. Fabriano A4 |
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| 5 minute nude. Fabriano A4 |