In the spirit of... 2

...Stina Persson. Well, this is the second assignment for my illustration class, to make some illustrations in the spirit of an other illustrator. It was supposed to be illustrations showing our selfs in a situation from our daily life, and I found this quite hard to do in her style, which leaves little room for details. But this is an attempt at showing myself drinking coffee in the style of Stina Persson. I just love her work, it is the kind of painting that inspire me on one hand and make me truly jealous that I didn´t think of it on the other...

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...

A tube of toothpaste

EDM #275 Draw a tube of toothpaste. I am struggling to keep up with the weekly challenges now that Every Day in May is finished... This is three versions of the same tube of toothpaste (all in sketchbook journal). From the left: pure watercolour, coloured ink drawing with grey ink in fountain pen, inked watercolour drawing with dip pen. Vote for your favourite, anyone?

Watercolour greeting cards

I had some left over vacation days which I had to take advantage of before I quit my old job (yes, I just started a new job - which is one of the reasons for the lack of posts here lately) and one of those I spent finishing different creative projects - for example six watercolour greeting cards that a friend of mine ordered some time ago. It is absolutley amazing how little one does accomplish in one day... I made these cards, some cake decorations, posted them and then I had to pick up the kids from kindergarden. I can see why it would be difficult to make a living as an artist....

A little drawing demo...

A visit to Hermans vegetarian restaurant the other week with some collegues from my old job resulted in a quick sketchbook demonstration. Unfortunaley, it started to rain and as we sat outside we had to interrupt the drawing demo. I took a lousy reference picture with my mobile camera and finished it at home. So here you go "Team Environmental Strategies" - this is how it turned out...

Join the fight for a better world....

A world in peace. Where we take care of our planet so future generations may live in prosperity also. Where we have sustainabiltity, or even "thriveability". Where all humans have an equal value. Where animals are treated with love and respect. And where Moleskin makes Watercolor Notebooks in portrait formats! Well, you have got to start somewhere... so start by joining the facebook group We would love to see a Moleskine Watercolor Notebook in PORTRAIT format started by Nina Johansson, today! (I could write a lot about the options for the other visions too, but this is supposed to be an art blog and nothing else so I´ll just bite my tounge... for now)

EDiM update....

So, I have finished the challenge Every Day in May! A bit late perhaps since half of June has passed by as well ;) To my defence, I actually finished most of the drawings on time, but our Internet connection has broken down so I have not been able to post lately. I have now figured out how to use my phone as a modem, but still.... almost 3 weeks without Internet at home! I didn´t know you could survive something like that ;)Anyway, here goes....

EDM #21 Something old - a friend of mine collects old irons (do you call them that? The things you use to iron clothes?) EDM #22 A piece of clothing. EDM #23 My foot. Nothing much to say about that...

EDM #24 A piece of fruit, #25 a glass and #26 a Vegetable. If you wish, you can check out the same still life from the opposite side of the table at Johanna´s Creative Space.

EDM #27. A book. This is a cook book, it´s not mine, unfortunatley, because it is really inspiring. Filled with recepies of tasty, organic, healthy food and a lot of it vegetarian! Yum!

EDM #30. A chair. Boring, but a chair... EDM# 28 an appliance. This is my old vacuum cleaner. It used to belong to an old relative and I would guess that it is at least 30 years old! I have had it since -98 and it has served me well. It even acted the part of R2D2 at a Star Wars party once! I was so sad when it broke and then my father gave me his old, exactly same one! His wife wanted a modern one but has mostly complained about it ever since... Some things really used to be better in the old days....

EDM#29 "anything else". I had to do this waiting outside in our garden and I didn´t have much interesting "architectural" in sight, so I went for the escape window.... some flowers I got for Mothers day (wich is in the end of May in Sweden)

EDM#31 Something I collect. I don´t know, I really don´t collect much any longer... except wisdom, good friends, moments in life and stuff like that. But I do have one of each size of these Swedish design bowls (?). We used to have one when I was a child and it still sits in my mother´s kitchen. They are really practical, useful and long lasting. Something to recommend as a souvenir if you ever visit Sweden.... Now you can even buy matching spoons, beaters and things. Of course...

For my mother on her birthday

GRATTIS PÅ FÖDELSEDAGEN

Same same, but different...

I am a bit behind with the EDiMs due to some other projects I have running, but I thought the comparision of styles above could be interesting. Me and a couple of friends went to a live drawing session some weeks ago (or, to be quite honest, another friend who doesn´t paint took of her clothes for us) and my friend Johanna and I both did a watercolour each based on the sketches. I think it is interesting to see how the exact same motive can result in such different paintings. Already in the drawing you can see that we have different styles, I think. Maybe those who follow us both could easily guess who painted which picture (her blog is here)?

EDiM 19&20

Every Day in May #19 - draw something you have made. Well, guess what? I made a cake... Surprise!

EDM #20, Draw something Dad. The most "dad" I can think of is, well, my dad. This is painted from a picture my brother took of my dad trying to "blend in" among the locals during a vacation in Italy. He didn´t necessarily mangage that well, but it turned out to be a great series of pictures anyway...

Both ink and watercolour in Moleskin watercolour journal.

EDiM 18, the view from a window

So, for Every Day in May challenge # 18, draw the view from a window, I just had to do the view from my office. It is so terrible, more or less just a black box and a small part of the subway station. It´s almost funny.... The horrible curtain also doesn´t help, unfortunately I haven´t been able to do it justice here, it is much, much uglier..... What do you say? Anyone want to trade? (Ink and watercolour in Moleskin watercolour journal)

Blog news - nyheter om bakbloggen

Ok, so I am finally doing it. I will separate the blog in two - one about drawing, painting etc and one baking blog (in Swedish). The artblog, Annas Ateljé (which means Annas studio, by the way) will stay here and I will continue to write about baking and cake decoration in Annas bakstuga (Annas bakery, which will be in Swedish). So welcome to look at my cakes if you wish, but at least now you won´t have to...

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Jag har bestämt mig för att dela på bloggen i en konstblogg (Annas ateljé, denna adress) som kommer att vara på engelska, och en bakblogg (Annas Bakstuga) på svenska. Från början hade jag tänkt att det skulle bli mer av en allmän skaparblogg med allt möjligt, men nu har det blivit mest två spår, och dessutom har jag flest konstföljaren på englelska och bakföljare på svenska så det verkar helt enkelt enklast med två! Välkommen att följa båda om ni vill!

EDiM 14-17- Finally caught up.....

Finally I have caught up with the challenges - I did some quick sketches and a watercolour painting today just to get it done. Wish I could put a little more effort into some of the challenges, but sometimes I guess it is an accomplishment just to find some drawing time! Today I sneaked in to my studio to paint a couple of minutes here and there when I was supposed to do something completely different - like getting dressed and fetching stuff for the kids. In the afternoon me and my friend Johanna took turns trying to entertain the kids so the other person could finish todays challenge. A lot of creativity in creating time to draw in other words....


EDM #14. Draw what you see when you wake up in the morning. Not very inspiring unfortunatley. Just an ordinary bedroom ceiling with an ordinary lamp. No panorama window with a view over the ocean or anything like that.... Ink and watercolour in Moleskin watercolour jounal.
EDM #15 Leafs and branches. Watercolour on Saunders Waterford 300g. I just love Magnolias and I think I have done some kind of Magnolia painting every year in May for the last 3 or 4 years. They are so beautiful! This one I tried to focus on the leafs and branches to go with the challenge...

EDM #16, draw your favourite tool. This is the knife I have in my drawing box, it is not really so inspiring to draw, but it is very practical for many things - sharpening pencils, creating highlights etc. EDM #17 a musical instrument. We are unfortunately not a very musical family - not a guitarr or flute in sight. But the kids have some toy instruments, for example this cow shaped thingy. I can´t play a thing on it, but my friend Johanna really impressed the kids (and me) by playing Mamma Mia on it today when I was drawing.... (Ink and watercolour in Moleskin watercolour journal)

EDiM 10-13

Ok, I am really behind with the EveryDayinMay challenges now... two cakeorders this weekend and the kids sick... But here are some from last week, EDM #10, draw your hand, left side. EDM #11 draw your glasses (I really don´t have three pairs - but I am currently buying new ones since my old ones broke - there´s a blog entry about that as well, and I therefore had borrowed some from the store to try out. I ended up chosing the ones in front btw.) EDM #12 - what you ate for dinner... to my defence, I usually eat better than that, but that day we had lunch at 2 and we were visiting my mom so I just took a slice of left over pizza they had in the fridge. Maybe I should have planned better knowing the challenge of the day ;) EDM #13, draw your telephone. This is my absolute favourite telephone - a Swedish design from the 50ies or 60ies, not sure. Mine unfortunately doesn´t work any more, but I really want to get it fixed some day. Although now we have our telephone via internet and since the old phones have no tones in the buttons (don´t know what it is called in English) I can´t use it to call with any more anyway. Pity.

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This is part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing an Everyday Matters (EDM)challenge each day using EDM 1-31. The list of participants in this particular May challenge can be found at Liz and Borrominis blog. The list of EDM challenges can be found here

EDiM #9 and some notes from the course

EDiM #9 Draw a bit of organized chaos. It was a really suitable challenge for today because I have spent the day in a watercolour workshop held by Swedish artist Gunnel Moheim (http://www.moheim.se/) and my working space was chaos most of the time, as always when I paint watercolours. Below you can see the result of what I was working at in the sketch, we were working with semi-abstract paintings in complementary colours. I find it so hard to free myself of the more naturalistic way of painting when I do landscapes, especially if they contain some kind of building or likewise. I tend to go for either totally abstract paintings or more naturalistic. But I really admire artists who can capture the idea of a house without painting all doors and windows. Happy to recieve any tips you´ve got...

EDiM#8

This is a piece of jewlery that really mean a lot to me. It is not valuable really, silver and a pearl, but for me it´s precious. I inherited it from a distant relative and I wore it as "someting old" at my wedding. Then I lost it and I was so sad. I looked everywhere but it was not to be found... and then, suddenly, one day, it just showed up out of nowhere again.... (btw - how DO you draw metal??)

EDiM #6-7

Ok, I am a bit behind with the challenges... partly due to a course I am participating in this weekend with talanted artist Gunnel Moheim. More about that later. Here are challenges #6 (favourite object or childhood toy) and #7 (tin, jar or bottle from the kitchen) anyway. A couple of quick sketches I made with the kids jumping around in the couch so not going for perfection here.... It is my youngest daughters favourit toy by the way since I couldn´t think of a favourite object of my own. Amazing with all the stuff I own that I have nothing I really couldn´t live without!

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This is part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing an Everyday Matters (EDM)challenge each day using EDM 1-31. The list of participants in this particular May challenge can be found at Liz and Borrominis blog. The list of EDM challenges can be found here

EDM #4&5

EDM #4, draw your mug or cup. Probably one of the more useless mug-drawings I have done so far... I didn´t manage to finish it at location because my daughter got tired of eating sweets and wanted us to leave the place. I took a reference photo to be able to do the colours later, but my phone got run over by a car (!) and I lost the photo (along with all my telephone numbers) and had to try to remember the rest of the scene... whith the not-so-very-impressive result you may see above.

EDM #5, draw your bed. Well, this isn´t my usual bed. I spent the night in what might just have been the most boring hotel room I have ever seen. Not a single picture on the wall or anything. Thus the boring drawing, it just simply wasn´t more interesting than this...

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This is part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing an Everyday Matters (EDM)challenge each day using EDM 1-31. The list of participants in this particular May challenge can be found at Liz and Borrominis blog. The list of EDM challenges can be found here

Every Day in May 1-3

Watercolor and ink in Moleskin watercolor sketchbook.

I decided to try the Every Day in May challenge. The idea is to do one of the EDM drawings each day starting from #1. A really fun initiative, the list of participants can be found on Liz and Borromnis blog . I will really try to do a challenge a day, but I haven´t managed to post each day so far and I probably won't in the future either. I´ll try my best to keep up though. Sometimes I think the hardest part of the drawing challenges is finding the time to do them... I somehow seem to always either be at work, sleep, or carry at least one child around... And if my husband would take the kids out while I am home, or if I manage to stay awake after I put them to bed there always seems to be something else I should do, like cooking or cleaning or something else boring. And no, stop creating until the kids are grown up isn´t an option, I don´t think I could live without it... Advice anyone? Where do you (non-professional artists of course) find the time to draw?

EDM 270, Something I´d like to preserve

Watercolor and ink in Moleskin watercolor sketchbook

Ok, this one wasn´t hard for me. Something I´d like to preserve - Nature. The Environment. Earth. I did this quick sketch today at a picnic in the woods, close to the lake Mälaren, not far from where I live. It was such a nice day and such a beautiful spot. To sit near the beach, listen to the sea and the birds. To smell the wonderful fresh air and admire the little spring blossoms covering the ground. That´s life to me... I´d really hate it if my grandchildren wouldn´t be able to experience days like this because our generation won´t take responsibility for the problems our lifestyle have caused. To be honest, I am quite scared that my grandchildren won´t be able to walk the earth at all unless we start taking action now and change the way we live. Maybe the moral speech is a bit out of topic in this kind of blog, but think about it this way - where will the future generation of artists find their motives if everything is just desert... ;)

Tips för att torka sockerblommor

När jag började dekorera tårtor köpte jag massa små skålar speciellt för att torka sockerblommor så de får form. Korkat egentligen, när det - i återvinningens namn och allt - går smidigare med lite plastfolie i en äggkartong.... På så sätt kan man dessutom reglera vilken radie man vill ha på "skålen" genom att trycka ned olika hårt. Och så kan man stapla flera ovanpå varandra i ett skåp med hjälp av en bakplåtshållare (?).

Weekly drawings 12-14

Inspired by Swedish artist and blogger Nina Johansson, I recently gave "weekly drawings" a shot and I must say I really like the idea. It forces me to draw something every week and I have decided to use it both for drawing practice (I really need to work on the compositions - I find it so hard to fit everything together!) and to keep a kind of drawing diary. I am working in my first ever sketchbook, a moleskin watercolor journal, and every new week starts off with the weekly drawing. Some weeks it´s the only one and other weeks I do several other sketches and drawings. Now when I have worked my way through more than half of the book I realise that I can go back and follow what has happend in my life - places I have been, things I have done (and eaten), the change of winter into spring etc. I tend to draw completely different things than I would take a photo of, which makes the journal/weekly drawings a good complement to a family album in order to document my life!