Category: Sketch

Fitting art into my everyday life

Post author By meldrum
Post date 2014/01/10
2 Comments on Fitting art into my everyday life

Like most people I have a day job, it pays the bills and helps keep a roof over my head. I dream of being an artist but the reality is that I work 9-5 and spend hours each day commuting back and forth to the office. After discovering, The Great Indoors of Stockholm (see last post), I stopped on my way to work today at Central Station and did this quick sketch. So it’s possible for me to sketch on the way to work, at lunch time and then again on the way home. Suddenly, I have so much time for my art!

On the way to work. A4, HB pencil on Fabrino paper

David Meldrum Sketch Stockholm urban sketching

Urban sketching in a cold climate

Post author By meldrum
Post date 2014/01/09
2 Comments on Urban sketching in a cold climate

As far as Urban Sketching is concerned I’ve always felt sorry for myself living this far north. In Stockholm your fingers go numb after 30 minutes for at least half the year. I have dreamt often of holidays in the sun sketching for weeks on end in sun-drenched villages with happy tourists and buildings to draw.

My solution is to go indoors. The Central Station of Stockholm is a wonderful place to sketch, there is also the bus station and the underground. They are all warm places and there are lots people waiting there to be drawn, watercoloured even. Wintertime also brings darkness but not in the Stations of Stockholm, I look forward to many hours of urban sketching throughout the winter months in the great indoors of Stockholm.

A4, HB pencil sketch, Central Station, Stockholm

David Meldrum figure painting Nude Sketch Watercolour Watercolouring

Life without a pencil

This is a great Christmas present! It seems I do not need to outline anymore. This is the second watercolour I have created without any initial pencil marks. I am happy enough with the result and I look forward now to 2014 and developing this new found skill. 🙂

Nude with no outlines. Saunders Waterford HP paper – 31 x 23 cm

David Meldrum figure painting Nude Sketch watercolor Watercolouring

The Naked Truth

Do I need to use a pencil initially when painting a watercolour nude? I didn’t here and I like the result, I just started painting the nude directly onto paper. I will continue down this path and see what develops. Merry Christmas!

Pencil free nude. Saunders Waterford HP paper – 31 x 23 cm

David Meldrum Sketch urban sketching

Happy accident

Earlier in the year, on my way to work I did this sketch of a commuter waiting for a train at Södra Station here in Stockholm. I wasn’t impressed with my drawing so I left it in my sketch book that I carry in my rucksack. I rediscovered it today after it had spent months being rubbed and smudged. To my great surprise it looks so much more interesting now.

Waiting for a train. A5 Fabriano paper.

David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Nudes Sketch

Keeping it simple

Venue: Konstnärshuset, Stockholm.

Yesterday evening all I had with me was an A4 block of paper and some pencils. It suits my current state of mind and to be honest, I think my drawings have improved because of it. “Keep it simple”, they say. I think this only comes about after hours of making ones art way too complicated.

Nude on A4 Fabriano paper, 21 x 29,7 cm.

David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Nude Sketch

Two minute nudes

Here are a few two minute nudes from life drawing at Basis today. I learned one thing, never sign your signature with a felt-tip marker before spraying fixative on the drawing.

Two minute nude. Fabriano A4 paper, 21×29.7 cm

David Meldrum figure drawing My Life Drawing Nude Sketch

Saturday’s Life Drawing

I was very pleased with my life drawing sketches from Basis at the weekend. I used a chunky charcoal stick and a synthetic coal, Koh-I-Noor pencil. It’s so dramatic with the strong contrast of black and white, very pleasing. A lot of the drawings were completed in two minutes, I have a lot of fun working within that short time frame!

10 minute nude 30 x 42 cm / 11,5 x 16,5″

2 minute nude 30 x 42 cm / 11,5 x 16,5″

David Meldrum Francis Bacon Gustav Klimt Sketch

Learning to be patient

To be patient, to spend hours on one drawing or painting; it is certainly something that does not come naturally to me. These two small sketches are exercises in extending my length of focus on one drawing. It is
not so hard really, I was relaxed and I listened to Bach playing serenely in the background, the minutes flew by. It is creating time to achieve this which is the hardest art to master. If my life resembled a tightly packed suitcase, then something would have to be discarded in order for me to make room for my art. The question is what?

Gustav Klimt – Fabriano A5 paper, 14.8x21cm

Sketch of Francis Bacon by David Meldrum

Francis Bacon – Fabriano A5 paper, 14.8x21cm