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)