New sketchbook, and a challenge

I finished my old sketchbook which was a bit of a try-out of different papers and now I have started a new one which I bound out of Saunders Waterford Satin - the paper I liked most in the old one. I used some pages of a little thinner, cheaper paper as well to be able to squeeze some extra pages in the cover. I covered it in cloth this time instead of paper. I like the feel of it, but I am not sure I had the right glue to actually make it last without ripping open. We´ll see... Hopefully I will finish this a bit quicker than my last book that took me a year!

In fact, one of my goals for this year is to really get the drawing and painting activities going again! I have made a small studio out of a corner in our basement so I can always leave the things ready to go and I have made two different drawing kits to go - one mini-kit which always sits around in my handbag, and one larger that I can grab if I know I am going somewhere to paint. Also, a friend and I just challenged each other to one drawing a day for ten days! It does not have to be big, or good, or colored, or inspiring... but minimum 5 minutes a day with some kind of drawing tool on some kind of paper (be it a bus ticket, a napkin or whatever) and we have to send each other photo evidence. I will try to post some as well, but sometimes posting seems to rather keep me from drawing/painting than the other way around - as if I get a bit restricted if I know I have to present the end result to an audience.... I think I have to realise that it is my blog and I can decide for myself if something is worth posting or not!

It would be a fun challenge to do together with other bloggers though... anybody out there who is interested?

Art exhibition at work

I am currently on maternity leave from my job but I was invited to exhibit some of my watercolours in the new dining room (or whatever you call it in an office building!?) a long with a couple of other colleagues who also have different creative talents. I couldn´t frame the pictures since there were no hooks on the walls - they had to be hung with needles only - but I think it turned out ok anyway. I didn´t have a special "theme" for the paintings since I wanted to show a bit of everything I do (more or less). Here are some pictures of what my part of the exhibition looked like anyway. 

Amaryllis

This is a flower usually seen around Christmas in Sweden - I don´t know if it is also a traditional christmas flower in other countries? I love them anyway and I have been longing to paint some. I didn´t have time for more than a sketchbook page this year however.... But maybe next year? It is not so far away... And a new sketchbook awaits since this was the last page of my old one! New times ahead! For next year I wish for more drawing time.....

Happy New Year to you all!

Sketchbook pages from the country side

Sketching time is still rather limited, but I have managed some spreads lately which I haven´t had time to post. Now I have tried publishing with photos from the telephone. The image quality is not so good, but on the other hand it makes the whole process easier so I might be able to post more frequently instead...

Anyway, the kids have been spending some time in a stable/farm which has a 4H organisation attached to it. This means they get the chance to learn more about animals - they help out taking care of sheep, rabbits and horses - and they get to ride which they love. I have spending my time there helping them out, looking out for the baby and also drawing a bit. I have thus made my first attempt at drawing horses and other animals. I would say there is room for improvement, but at least it was fun :)

 This is the view across the street from the farm, some church I don´t know the name of...

A sketchbook spread I made with some attempts at horses, a rabbit and some other stuff. 

All drawings are made in ink and watercolor on Saunders Waterford, Satin, in my sketchbook.

Back on planet earth (I think)

Well, time flies... My baby girl (yepp, it´s another girl...) is already five months and routine is slowly coming back to Casa Wolf! This week I even painted a little - first time I brought out the paints since she was born except for one (1!) sketch that I managed to do on our summer vacation. I did an exercise with autumn leafs for our painting group (instructions in swedish here) and we had a lot of fun with it. Hopefully this means a fresh start and I will be able to make use of my painting and drawing gear again! Maybe even some new EDMs? I hope the group is still alive...

Life drawing.... model!

I have been terrible at updating lately... There has not been much drawing time since the kids have been constantly sick. And then I am just too tired also. Right now I am mostly spending my time waiting for the baby to come out.... I have done some café drawings but I haven´t managed to take pictures and post.

I did do something I have never done before the other week though - being a life drawing model! It was kind of weird, but it was just a group of friends so it went alright - I wasn´t too nervous :) I don´t really feel that my body is my own right now anyway. One of my friends took some pictures so I could join a bit in drawing myself also - first I did a sketchbook page, but chose the wrong paper, the one that doesn´t work with watercolor so it just got messy (bottom one). Then we did some watercolors from our drawings with the group (top one). I just took some photos with my phone, so the image quality is really crappy. Sorry about that!

Experimental flowers

I have been playing around a bit with experimental watercolor techniques lately - these flowers for example. I have started out by painting some random shapes on a piece of scrap paper and then pressing it onto watercolor paper - kind of like a print. This is a way of starting that I really like, since it gives some randomness and is a great way to get over the fear of the white paper! I have then added some color in various layers to "help out" the shapes that I like. I also let watery paint run down some of the paintings for impressions of stems, and added dark dots in the middle of the shapes to increase the impression of flowers. I don´t know if they turned out as masterpieces, but it was fun to play around with anyway!