Saturday 21st- Sunday 22nd May

Sunday 22nd

Sunday 22nd

Saturday 21st

A visit to Drottningholm on Sunday- the palace where the Swedish royal family live, which is about an hour's boat trip from Stockholm. I didn't go into the palace- I wasn't enthusiastic enough to want to pay 80 Kronor (8 quid)- but had a pleasant time drawing in the grounds instead while Nick went in.
Saturday's sketch is an experiment with a sharpened stick and ink...I think I need a really sharp one as well!

Thursday 19th- Friday 20th May

Friday

Friday

Friday

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday 18th May

 Drawings from a day's sketching in Stockholm last Wednesday. The larger one is on a concertina-folded sheet- hence the seperate photos as it's too big to fit clearly into one. I discovered a new (well, new to me!) way of working with this one- starting in the middle of the paper with a point that looks interesting, and just seeing where it goes rather than trying to sketch the whole thing out in advance. It made the whole process much more interesting...

Looking towards Stadhuset from Riddarholmen

Sergels Torg fountain (and random 80s sculpture)

Monday 16th May : A leafy view- and an old drawing for contrast

The view from our kitchen window last night- 16th May...

The same view in early February. I think it might be spring now!

Saturday 14th- Sunday 15th May

Saturday 14th

Sunday 15th

Wednesday 11th- Friday 13th May

Wednesday 11th

Thursday 12th

Friday 13th

Well. ok, the top one is a drawing in the loosest sense of the word, but I enjoyed doing it. And it represents the first time I've actually found playing around with an image in GIMP to be a productive undertaking!

Tuesday 10th May

Sketches from around town- and a journal page at the bottom. Just in case it wasn't obvious, I'm really enjoying a black water soluble pencil at the moment- it gives a really inky black wash when you paint water over it, and is really easy to carry around!

Monday 9th May

Sketching in a beautiful quiet churchyard on the way home yesterday... brown paper turns out to be difficult to photograph but lovely to draw on. And an experiment with a new watersoluble pencil at the bottom.

Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th May

Sunday 8th

Saturday 7th

Sunday- entertaining experiment with bubbles and straws. Ostensibly trying out things to do with kids, (though not with india ink!) but actually just as much fun for me. 
Saturday- very quick drawings using thick pen on tissue paper.

Friday 6th May

All 

Yesterday I borrowed a bike from the Citybike scheme and spent the afternoon cycling around Djurgården and sketching. Djurgården is one of the islands in central Stockholm and quite a lot of it -for the Londoners reading this- resembles Richmond Park. It's full of amazing old trees, especially oak, lime and beech, which are really interesting to draw. It wasn't very warm, but if you sat in the sun it was alright to sit still long enough to do a drawing. I also learned that carrying a jar of ink in a rucksack can be a messy business!

Weds 4th- Thursday 5th May

Thursday 5th May

Thursday 5th May

Wednesday 4th May

Experimenting with a new sketchbook with a mixture of papers- very smooth, normal cartridge, brown wrapping and tissue paper. It seems to be making for some interesting contrasts.

Monday 2nd- Tuesday 3rd May

A bit disappointing to go back to drawing domestic things after having so many interesting places to sketch in over the last couple of weeks. Still, it keeps my eyes and hand busy, which is what this blog is all about!

Sunday 1st May

At the Vasa museum- the Swedish equivalent of the Marie Rose; an enormous wooden ship preserved underwater when it sank in Stockholm harbour in 1628, and raised and restored in the 1960s.

Friday 29th and Saturday 30th April

 

A return trip to the archipelago- these drawings from Grinda, apart from the bottom one, which was in front of Stockholms Stadhuset- City Hall. They are all on smooth paper, which I'm actually really enjoying- it completely changes the way the line looks, most noticeably with pencil.

Thursday 28th April- National Museum

Drawing at National Museum with Kim and Anne-Marie. We saw the Lust and Vice exhibition as well as some of the permanent collection. These are small wooden sculptures- about 15 figures, maybe 15-20cm tall- arranged around a table in a scene. The title is Häradsratt, translated as 'District Council'. This is the second time I've drawn them- I find them absolutely fascinating- there is so much character in each one, and they are fairly roughly carved.

Monday 25th - Wednesday 27th April

Wednesday 27th April Blind contour drawing, for want of anything else inspiring at 10pm!

Tuesday 26th April. On the way to meet Anne-Marie at Central Station. One of the nice things about the T-bana system in Stockholm is the artwork at every station. This is one of the pieces at our closest stop.

Monday 25th April- waiting for the boat back to Stockholm from Gällnö, one of the islands in the archipelago. We spent a whole day walking around in pretty much untouched forest- and what I chose to draw was the steel and concrete jetty at the end. But, the forest was quite overwhelming and I felt like I didn't really know where to start. And I loved this colourful rusty metal.