View from our summer house

I'm back. It's been a long summer and I've spent my tim enjoying the short but beautiful swedish summer, rather than updating my blog. We spent a few weeks at our summer house by the lake, where we have this gorgeous view.



In watercolor (Winsor Newton, artist's quality, don't remember what kind of paper though)



In ink (Lamy Safari pen, on some crappy paper I found in a cupboard)



And as comparison, the same subject from three years back. What do you say? Personally I must say that I think I've done a bit of progress since then!

Join the fight for a better world...

In the words of my friend Anna:

"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 couldn't have said it better myself.

For Ebba

 

I know a girl named Ebba. This is a portrait I did of her, at the coffee shop where I had coffee with her mother. She wasn't very cooperative as a model, so I took her picture with my iPhone and used it as a reference.

 

This is Ebbas doll (yes, I have coffee with her mom every now and then), which is called Julia.

Everyday in May 21-31

It feels like I have crossed the finishing line in a big race or something. When I started out I had no idea it would be this challenging to do a EDM challenge every day. But I did it. And here are my final drawings for this challenge - ten challenges in the same post, must be a new record for me!



EDM 21 - something old
Welcome to my home town, Stockholm. Founded in the 13th century, I's say it certainly counts as something old.



EDM 22 - a piece of clothing
My son's jacket.



EDM 23 - my foot



EDM 24 - fruit, EDM 25 - a glass, EDM 26 - a vegetable



EDM 27 - anything
EDM 28 - an appliance. This is our television showing the winner of the Eurovision song contest. For those of you not familiar with the eurovision I'll just say that it is the second biggest TV-event after the Super Bowl, and it's a music contest. This year Germany won, and rightfully so, they had a great song and a great singer)
EDM 29 - a book. Getting things done, by David Allen. This is something I need to learn very badly. How will I find time to actually read the book?



EDM 30 - a chair. In bright sunlight, so very hard do draw, but i managed to get a bit of our new mini deck in the drawing too. Very pleased.
EDM 31 - something I collect. Can't say I really collect anything (but I wouldn't mind some of these extremely cute mugs with Moomin characters on them). But, well yes, I couls say I collect good times with my friends, and they usually include coffe. Hence the coffee mug.

Everyday in May 18-20

I'm still drawing, but not photographing and posting (however it's more of a challenge to keep up with the drawing too). Here are a few drawings, and there's more to come.

 

EDM 18 - the view from a window. This is the view from the café where I happened to be sitting on the 18th of May. Boring. My computer screen in the foreground.

 

EDM 19 - something I made. This is a rune stone. I made it as a special assignment in high school ages ago. That is, I found a stone with the right shape (well in the viking days they would obviously shape the stone too, but I didn't go that far), and researched a proper formulation, and then chiselled it and finally painted in white paint to make the inscription stand out. The inscription says something like "Johanna made these runes for her self". In the viking days most rune stones were made in memory of someone who died, but there were a few that were more "ego" like this one. These days it resides in our garden.

 

EDM 20 - dad. This is my father, who just happened to visit us on May 20. My dad happens to be one of my biggest fans, so I am happy to post a drawing of him here. Dad, I love you!

Everyday in May 13-17

 

EDM 13, My phone - I had planned to post it from my phone, just to prove a point. I might be silly, but ok, I'll go for silly, I just love my iPhone. It was a birthday gift from my husband. Has anyone noticed that he gives me fantastic gifts? (The earring from this post was also a gift from him.)

 

EDM 14, What you see in the morning when you get up. Unfortunately this is not my window, it's the window in my parents guest room, whom I visited last week end. But isn't it a gorgeous window? I experimented with some masking fluid, but it didn't work well at all with the paper in my sketch book, so it got pretty messy. I might ink the drawing eventually, and see if it turns out better.

 

EDM 15, A leaf. In the park, I asked my daughter and her friend to bring me some leafs to draw, and this is what they came back with. I have no idea what kind of leaf it is, though.

 

I guess this one is a WIP. I think I want to add something to it, maybe another challenge, or I might color it. But for now this is what it is.

EDM 16, A (favourite) tool. Not sure it's my favourite tool, but it's handy and I bring it with me in my pen case wherever I go, so it was there for me to draw.
EDM 17, A musical instrument. I played the flute for about ten years, when I was in school. Now I don't any more, there is just no time. And again, when there is time I prefer to draw. Maybe someday I'll take it up again.

Everyday in May 11-12

My sunglasses. I had to draw them really fast, because of all the sun.



I'm keeping up with the challenges, but I haven't really had the time to post lately. But there's more to come.
Thank you all for your kind comments on my previous posts in this May challenge, they are deeply appreciated.

Everyday in May 10

EDM 10 - draw your hand, or hands, or someone elses.

Well, hands. The far right one is done with my none dominent hand (left). And then just my hand. And a zombie hand.

Everyday in May 9

This is EDM number 9 - draw a bit of organized chaos. My daughter is sick, and wanted me to sit with her in her room while she rested, so I decided to draw her book shelves for this challenge. And as I did it, I realized that I almost have a theme going, with drawings from her room (it did her bed for EDM no 5, see it here).

* * * * *

This is part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing something every day in May. A group of us thought it would be fun to do a 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.

Everyday in May 7-8

 

EDM 7 - A tin from my kithchen. This is a tea container from Kusmi Tea, lovely tea and lovely a lovely little tin.

EDM 8 - A piece of jewellery. This is one earring from a set of earrings and a necklace that my husband gave me for our fifth wedding anniversary.

 

I also completed EDM 270 - draw something you want to preserve. This is my daughter Alice painting a dinosaur at her little easel. I would like to preserver our companionship, and intimacy. Our doing things together, having fun, drawing and painting, or anything really. I really want to see her grow up, and I always want to be her friend.

This is really only a quick sketch. Painting people is hard for me, and this just feels blotchy and very rough. I honestly don't know what I would do next if I were to continue work on this one. Any suggestions?

Every day in May 6

 
EDM no 6 - draw a favourite well-loved object or a childhood toy. This bear was given to me by my husband when we had just met and I was going away as an exchange student for 6 months. He's called Kasper-Valter (Valter is my husband's middle name), and was my companion for those 6 months, sleeping in my bed, giving me a good night kiss every night. He is indeed well-loved.

I had intended to do a quick pencil sketch and then fill it in with ink and water color, but then this drawing just kind of came. I was hardly aware of what I was doing. I was even talking to my husband at the same time and the sketch just kept on coming through. Very cool experience, so I've decided to let him stay the way he is (but I really need to get some of that fixing spray, bacause the sketch is really getting smudged, just by me writing next to it). At least for now.

 

And this is how the intire spread turned out in the end, for challenges 5 and 6.

Everyday in May 5

 

This is EDM challenge no 5 - draw your bed. My own bed was occupied by my husband putting our son to sleep, so I decided to draw my daughters bed instead. We both had a great time, me drawing her bed and her painting beside me. The duvet cover has Barbie on it, only partly showing, which my daughter wasn't very pleased with. She also insisted that Barbies hair wasn't quite so fuzzy in reality so I had to explain to her about artistic freedom. :)

* * * * *

This is part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing something every day in May. A group of us thought it would be fun to do a 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.

Everyday in May no 4

 

I have no comment to this one. I did a mug and some other stuff, so challenge completed. And then lets forget about this one, ok?

Every Day in May no 3

Here's my beloved Marimekko tote. I love it because of the wonderful colors, and because I can fit a lot of art supplies in it!

Every Day in May

 
EDM no 1 - Draw a shoe
 
EDM no 2 - Draw a lamp

I decided to try the Every Day in May challenge. The idea is to do one of the EDM challenges each day starting from no 1. It seems like a lot of fun, and the list of participants can be found on Liz and Borominis blog. Check back tomorrow for todays challenge - draw a bag!

Negative space

 

I've been trying some negative space drawing with my new Lamy Safari pen. Love the pen, negative space is fun but difficult. Any hints on what to think about?

Just a little something

 

Having brunch with my friends, and finishing it off with coffee and cookies, and a sketch. Splashed with some actual coffee.

Peace lily & da Vinci

 

I'm introducing my son at pre school, so I've been spending some time there these past couple of weeks with him. To kill time I've been drawing a peace lily they have in the window. The top one is pen and ink in my new sketch book (yep, I just did it. I might put some color in it too, I'm not sure yet.)

 

These are done with pen and water soluble ink, and then water color, which dissolved the ink totally making it look kind of like a negative space drawing. I like the effect!

 

This last sketch includes a copy of Leonardo da Vincis drawing "study for the last supper". I'm thinking that copying other artists portraits might help me improve my own portrait drawing skills.

Here's the reference picture I used (I tried to make it smaller, but don't seem to succeed in any easy way, so this is what you get):