meldrum artNo pencil was used for this watercolour sketch, time was short so I drew it with ink and at speed in a standing position. The lines are shaky and scratchy which I quite like, I find that the faster I sketch the better the result, I learned this with my life drawing, a two minute sketch being more free and alive than a 15 minute sketch. No time to think and using ones instinct isn’t a bad thing sometimes.
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| Solvalla Stables, Stockholm. |
Believe it or not there is a Trojan horse outside my office. I work at Solvalla, Sweden’s biggest horse trotting stadium. I used my new Moleskin Watercolour Sketchbook for this lunch time sketch (I listened to the advice of Luis from my previous post!).
This lunch time sketch was completed yesterday, it took two lunch breaks to finish (30 mins x 2). My learning curve is still pointing in a steep upward direction, so I am happy enough with this. I am studying from great watercolour artists on DVD but it is one thing to listen and another to execute. I have also noticed that it’s hard to be expressive on an A5 piece of paper, not much room for a daring stroke from my loaded brush but then again, maybe this is a good thing!
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| Watercolour sketch by David Meldrum |
This watercolour sketch took one hour to complete, half an hour yesterday and the rest today.
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| Watercolour sketch by David Meldrum |
I had a thought, could I earn money from doing tourist paintings? Could I do a tourist painting? The answer I think is yes, if I practised more, I could. The question is though, would I want to? I don’t think so somehow. Anyway, this was a fun lunchtime sketch that I went and finished today on my Easter break.
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| Watercolour sketch by David Meldrum |
I guess I have been influenced by the current Kony-2012 campaign, I chose to draw this child soldier from the Congo, it was a little difficult, I’m trying to run before I’ve learned to walk, why didn’t I chose some flowers in a vase instead. Still, I have learned a lot from this little exercise – mainly that I need to be looser in my painting style, use less colour and to scrub less.
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| Congolese Child Soldier by David Meldrum |
I finished this lunchtime sketch of Arnold Schwarzenegger eventually. It took me 5 lunches to complete, that’s about 30 minutes each time so I guess it took two and a half hours to finish.
I got bored with this early into the execution but I stuck with for practice reasons. Personally I want to be more expressionistic with my art and not so detailed. Still, I learned a lot, becoming good with watercolour is all about practice, practice and practice.
I am struggling with this, my colours are becoming muddy. Still, it’s a learning process, I am discovering and experimenting but most importantly, it makes me happy.
A half hour per day; lunch time sketching is a slow process. I take a photo each day just in case I mess the whole thing up and have to trash it!
