Giveaway

I have a sort of giveaway at my other blog, where you can win either a set of hand made cards with cakes (since it is a baking blog....) in mixed media, or a watercolour painting with magnolias. I thought it would be fair to give my readers here a chance to participate as well.... The text is in Swedish, but you participate by leaving a comment to that blog entry where you state what you would like to win, and make sure I can get hold of you if you do by leaving blog link or e-mail address. This is one of the things you might win:

Portrait of Hilda - EDM #294

Well, here´s my EDM # 294 - Draw something that makes you smile... Well, it´s my youngest daughter Hilda and she does make me smile quite a lot... I did start this before the challenge came out, so it might be seen as kind of cheating, but I really thought it was a good fit! I have not practiced portrait drawing that much and this was made from a photo. I am quite happy with the likeness (well, it´s not perfect, but it is possible to see who it is :) but I think the colours are a bit weak maybe. The face doesn´t really stand out against the background.

In the spirit of.... #1

...Stina Wirsén. Sort of. Ink, collage and coloured pencils on paper.

This is an assignment for a corse that I take in illustration. The assignment is to do three illustrations in the spirit of another illustrator, inspired by some daily activity in your life. This is inspired by Swedish artist Stina Wirsén who make fantastic illustrations for childrens books, fashion magazines, newspapers..... The story in my first example above is me doing yoga to mentally run away from the stressful ordinary life in the city (right side) to some calm "inner place" or something, inspired by nature (left side). The text reads "andas" which means "breathe". I realize I should have turned it around since you usually read from left to right, but hey.... my life is a mess anyway ;)

EDM #290 Draw a teapot

Finally another EDM published! A teapot! This was a gift from my mother when I finished school so it has been with me for many years. It is made by a Swedish artist called Dagmar Änggård and I have always admired her pottery. She passed away some years ago though, so I have to take good care of my teapot...

As a small bonus I have drawn a traditional Swedish bakery called kanelbulle ("cinnamon bun", or similar. Translation help anyone?). I had to mention it since it happends to be the official day of the cinnamon bun - "kanelbullens dag" - in Sweden today. It makes me wonder... does everything have to have an official day now? Mother´s day and Father´s day I can buy, but honestly - "kanelbullens dag"???

Coffe break...

I have had little time to draw lately, mostly due to my new job. I did do an EDM this weekend but I haven´t had the time to transfer it to the computer yet so have patience! This is a quick watercolour sketch that I did recently at a café in my old hometown Nyköping, while my little one was taking a nap.

Johanna x 3

Me and my friend Johanna decided to do a challenge in order to improve our portrait drawing skills. We are going to draw/paint 100 portraits of each other. So far, we are closing in on ten - perhaps somewhere around 90 it will actually start looking like her?

Back from vacation

I am back! Finally! I had six weeks vacation this summer (I know, we are priviledged in Sweden) and since I came back, there just has not been any time for posting and reading blogs. Sorry. Anyway, we travelled a bit in Sweden and Germany. I did not get as much time for drawing and painting as I had hoped, but here are some sketches that I managed to squeeze in. All made in Moleskin watercolour journal with pen, ink and watercolours. The first one above is the view from a window visiting my friend Johanna with family in their summer house. She has almost the same view posted on her blog for comparison. And - yes! I am terribly jealous of the paradise they live in all summer, and thankful that they share a bit of it with us :)

This is also a view from Johanna's summer house. They have their own little beach. Fantastic!

We also visited some friends in Schwerte, Germany. This is the view from their balcony - the houses stand pretty close in the area... but it is such a cute little town with old houses and a beautiful church. I only managed to catch this small part of it though...

Visiting my husbands family in a small village in Germany we went to a farm one day where they have pony riding and a giant playground for kids. I managed to squeeze in some drawing time when my youngest was taking her lunch time nap.

We also spent a week in St:Peter Ording, in northern Germany. It is an interesting area with tidal water and a very special nature. There is also an amazing beach (with North European measures, that is) with water that comes and goes during the day. And half the people naked.... some weird German tradition that I have problems getting used to...

The beach in St:Peter Ording

Westerhevner Leuchtturm - we made a bicycle tour to this beautiful light house 10 km from the village we stayed in.

A lot of sheep in the area...

This is a view from "Campingplatz Sass", where we stayed. A cute little place with an interesting bar that opened only when they felt like it - and closed again if the customers didn´t drink enough beer. Well...