Spring day

After a spell of wintery weather last week, spring is back again - hopefully to stay! The light is great and the temperatures are high enough to make sketching outside feasible again. I spent 10 minutes waiting for my bus home from work, and got out the little pocket moleskine cahier for a bus stop sketch:



Since this was the stop across the road, and I was sketching in one of the town's busiest bus-streets, I kept having to pause while buses came and went in front of me, and the 10 minutes were only enough for a simple sketch.

On the way home I sketched fragments from inside and outside the bus:



The girl in front of me had a pretty blue flower in her hair:



All done in ink pens with a spot of colour pencil.

Same time last year

Looking back through the sketchbook diary I kept last spring, I found the drawing I did one year ago today, and thought it would be fun to post it here.



Three very different stones collected on walks around the country. When I look at it, I find it hard to believe that this was just one year ago.

These were drawn in a large Moleskine sketchbook with thick, smooth, yellowish paper, using Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.

Student concert

My youngest daughter attends the Århus School of Music, and the school has regular student concerts where students of all ages and levels of mastery have a chance to show what they've learnt, inspire each other and practise performing to an audience. The last concert was a couple of weeks ago, and I brought a pen and my little sketchbook along:













I almost got away with doing these un-noticed, but when the cellist came on I had to shift position to a different seat for a clear view, and some of the teachers spotted me. As a consequence I was asked whether I might do a small exhibition at the school at some point, so now there's another potential art-project for future consideration.

Revisiting a café drawing

I was pretty dissatisfied with the stiff and boring drawing I made a couple of weeks ago, when visiting the café Hos Sofies Forældre - my sketches and drawings typically turn out stiff/boring/childish when I do something different. Anyway, I decided to revisit the café, and while I was there I revisited my drawing as well:



The second time around I had a pot of Assam tea in their quaint gold rimmed china with rosebuds and forget-me-nots. While waiting for my tea to arrive I sketched the sugar bowl onto my earlier drawing. The tea arrived while I was drawing, and since I was preoccupied with the sugar bowl I ended up with a very strong pot of tea! Bitter, but still good.

 

The generous two cups of strong tea saw me through a second drawing of the pot and strainer with saucer - I have always been fascinated by this type of oldfashioned, ruffled, flowered and gilded china.



Both drawings are in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook. I used various ink pens and colour pencils.

Moleskine Portrait-Party Exchange

I'm participating in an exchange with a number of other artists - you can read about the ideas behind this project in the Moly_X Flickr group HERE.

I just finished my first entry in another artist's book this weekend - you can read the story behind the entry, and find a series of progress shots in my post on our group's blog: moly_x_portrait4



This is supposed to be the book's owner disguised as a Bollywood bride, and the woman in the back would then be me. Inks and colour pencils in a large Moleskine sketchbook.

Cafébesøg

Jeg gik en tur forbi caféen Hos Sofies Forældre efter arbejde i dag og tilbragte en god halv time i én af deres bløde lænestole.


Caféen har et usædvanligt interiør, med mindelser om Mormors dagligstue. Måske ikke lige min mormors, men så én eller anden andens mormors. Der er bløde lænestole og dybe sofaer, broderede duge, tunge gardiner, malerier i guldrammer, standerlamper og lampeskærme med kvaster og frynser. Faktisk meget hyggeligt, hvis man lige undgår de tidspunkter hvor stedet er overfyldt af mødre på barsel med poderne på slæb - da er det mest hyggeligt for dem og deres unger og knap så afslappende for os andre.


I dag var jeg så heldig at finde caféen sparsomt befolket, men med den samme venlige og imødekommende betjening der lader til at være ét af dens kendetegn. Jeg slog mig ned i hjørnet ved vinduet og tegnede i ro og mag, mens regnen silede udenfor.

Tegnet med diverse tuschpenne og blyanter i lille lomme-skitsebog.

Post in English on Urban Sketchers

Girls

We spent last evening with friends, which gave me the oportunity to sketch their girls with my eldest daughter. They were eating pistachios, and having fun getting them out of their shells.


I used the pens and pencils I'd brought along in my bag, and borrowed an extra colour from one of the girls. I've drawn Ingrid before, reading a book with my youngest: Where's Wally?, but this was the first time I got a chance to sketch Gertrud, and she let me have about 30 seconds!

Ink pens and coloured pencils in large moleskine sketchbook.

ASB-revy

Entry in English on the Urban Sketchers blog.

Var til ASB-revy på Århus Handelshøjskole her til aften - overraskende godt må jeg sige. Orkesteret kunne spille, sangerne synge, danserne danse, og der var en hel del gode indslag og kun få der faldt helt igennem.

Pause:

Under det næstsidste nummer røg der en sikring og efter et par minutter tændte de lysene i salen, hvilket gav mig mulighed for at skrible en hurtig skitse ned af de to skuespillere på scenen. Deltagerne holdt standhaftigt ud i de mange minutters uventede pause, indtil scenelyset kunne tændes igen og nummeret fortsætte.


Diverse penne og blyanter i lille lomme-skitsebog. De mørke felter øverst i den anden skitse er stykker af sølvfolie-konfetti, som regnede ned over scenen og de forreste rækker (os!) til slut - desværre ser de ikke særligt festlige ud indskannede.

Creative Sunday

I spent a creative Sunday at my friend Anette's place - she sewed and I sketched. Here's one of her at her work:


Done in a pocket Moleskine sketchbook using various ink pens and pencils.

I also sketched the serger. Complicated machinery is always interesting to draw, even though it sometimes gets so complicated that I get lost in the mechanical details. This was fun though. The drawing isn't entirely spatially correct, but all the relevant mechanical bits and pieces are there, and it was fun to draw and to find simple ways of indicating the different textures and materials.



Ink pens and coloured pencil details in large Moleskine sketchbook.