meldrum art
Buildings are a bunch of boxes, straight lines and a few curves, rigid things that demand to be stiff and upright. I am trying to create an impression of what I see – to this point I have failed every time. I enjoy the challenge though, trying to find what is missing.
Here are Saturday’s offerings. I was hungover, so I was surprised I was able to sketch at all. All the poses were between 2 and 3 minutes long.
I used to find these sort of poses quite frustrating but these days I know my limits, I know I can only sketch so much. It is therefore important to capture the pose with so few lines as possible. Just one line would be the most optimal.
Why was I hungover? The new management at work does not want me to continue working part-time in 2018. I have to be 100% or leave. At least they want me 100%, that’s not bad. I of course would like to continue part-time as an artist, I have been doing so for two years. I really appreciate that I was allowed time to explore and develop into who I am today. Now I have to decide, do I become a full-time artist or not? … I have already made my mind up, it wasn’t very hard. 2018 is going to be a very exciting year. Stay tuned!
Sunday was a rainy day here in Stockholm so I stayed in my studio and played with my GoPro camera. I filmed myself painting a sketch in my Moleskin journal. I have an ambition to publish films of my painting process to help others learn from the knowledge that I have gained since I started in 2012. I need to learn how to edit film, next weeks project I guess.
Hopefully I have something to show real soon…
I went to Konstnärshuset for the first time this term. I used charcoal dust as well as a charcoal pencil. At one stage Gabriel the model had posed in such a way that I didn’t find it interesting so I drew the sketchers instead.
Two sketches from my Moleskin watercolour journal (not cotton paper and it shows). I plan to develop and paint these during the week.
Click image below for full sized watercolour
I am trying to paint watercolour at life drawing again. I think my approach was quite successful. As the poses are generally only 5 minutes in duration I just painted the skin tones. Later, during a pose I did not find inspiring ( when the model had her back to me ) I painted the background and more shading, especially around the face.
I liked this model so I felt quite inspired. The lighting at ABF is awful, fluorescent tubes in a very large room, not very pleasing normally but a good model makes up for it.
Last week I attended my first Life drawing session. I am happy the figure drawing season has begun again but a bit sad that the summer is over. I do not usually go to ABF to draw but as my usual venue (Konstnärshuset) has not started yet so I gave it a try. The model was new to me, Alia was her name. Always nice to sketch a new life drawing model. I painted mostly watercolours that evening which I will publish in the next post.
I haven’t sailed all summer but now I am and it’s wonderful. The holiday season is over so the archipelago is quite empty of boats. No motor boats just a few sailing boats and most of them seem to be visiting from Europe. So it’s very peaceful. We have bought a new boat, not new exactly – it was built in 1975. So we are getting to know how everything works. Next week my wife returns to work but I intend to continue sailing as much of September I can. I want to sketch, paint and take reference photos. It’s going to be an experience.
This watercolour sketch was painted at our first stop on the trip, Gällnö is the name of the island, we stayed for a day then moved on.
Click image below for full size image.
I sketched this at Boule & Berså, an outdoor bar close to Danvikstull bridge. The bridge is raised once an hour during the summer months at 38 minutes past the hour to allow sailing boats to pass though Stockholm. It’s very enjoyable to just sit down and have a beer and sketch especially on a Friday afternoon after work. My wife joined me later and so the sketchbook was put away and I finished it later that Sunday.
View larger image by clicking image below.
