Drawing – Page 4 – Nina Johansson

February 13, 2017January 22, 2019

Årsta torg

Stockholm has it´s own local chapter of Urban Sketchers these days. We meet up every last Sunday of the month, to sketch and have a coffee or lunch together. In August we went drawing at Årsta torg, a little pearl from the fifties. You should join us! https://stockholm.urbansketchers.org/

This was drawn in my BIG companion, the A4 Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook. I don´t think I ever had a sketchbook this big before. At first I was a bit intimidated by the size, but it´s really just a matter of habit. These days I feel quite relaxed even when drawing across a spread in this huge fellow. Though it´s not very discrete, I think I can statistically prove that more people peek over my shoulder when I draw in this one, than in the tiny one from previous posts. 😉

A4 size, fude nib fountain pen with black De Atramentis document ink, and watercolours, in Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook.

February 12, 2017January 22, 2019

Tiny unfinished

I was at this doctor´s appointment in October, and since I was quite a bit early, I thought I´d try to draw the waiting room. I had an interesting point of view, and thought it might become a nice sketch with some perspective, people, chairs, signs… In the end, the guy before me didn´t turn up to his appointment, so I was called in early. Isn´t it typical? The one time you really have a good chance to finish a drawing in a place you rarely visit…

But in the end I really like this sketch, unfinished and all. It makes me smile.

17,8 x 14 cm, UniPin fineliner and grey PITT Artist brush pen, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook spread.

February 11, 2017January 22, 2019

Tiny coffee

Wake up and smell the coffee! Cafés and coffee paraphernalia are always great subjects for sketches. And drawing is such a nice occupation for your hands and mind while drinking that coffee…

Both drawings: 17,8 x 14 cm, fude nib fountain pen with black De Atramentis document ink, and watercolours, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook spread.

February 10, 2017January 22, 2019

More tiny drawings

A good thing with a tiny sketchbook is of course it´s portability. I like drawing whatever is in front of me, to record all those everyday things in life, and wanted to capture this place, where I sometimes change buses to and from work. I´m never there long enough to finish a drawing, but it was easy to just keep working on the same sketch during several days with this little sketchbook. Also, weather matters less! A few drops of rain doesn´t do much harm, because the sketchbook is almost covered by my drawing hand, held closely to my body while drawing.

And as always, you are never bored with a sketchbook in hand. I was host at an exhibition in October, and while it´s fun to talk to visitors and take care of things around the exhibition, there are always those moments of silence and complete calm between visitors, where I tend to get a bit restless. I kept myself busy drawing.

All drawings: 17,8 x 14 cm, fude nib fountain pen with black De Atramentis document ink or UniPin fineliner, and watercolours, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook spread.

February 9, 2017January 22, 2019

Tiny cars

Two more from the tiny companion sketchbook. I found this old, seemingly abandoned, Pontiac Fiero in an industrial area when bicycling around. I don´t know about these eighties plastic car bodies, not really my cup of design tea, but definitely fun to draw.

You´ll never go wrong with a pink VW bus. When I spotted it, I immediately got off the bike and sat down on the curb to draw it. After a while, a Volvo drove by, stopped, and the driver came walking back. “Are you ok?”. I was into drawing, so a bit surprised, I didn´t get what he was talking about. I guess I answered something silly like “Huh?”. “Well, I just wanted to check if you had fallen off your bike, but I can see now that you´re drawing…”.

Aww. 🙂

Both drawings: 17,8 x 14 cm, fude nib fountain pen with black De Atramentis document ink and watercolours, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook spread.

February 8, 2017January 22, 2019

The tiny companion

I have always had a hard time working in small sketchbooks. Not so much because of the size, but because I haven´t found any decent sketchbooks to use. I have tried Moleskines – good for ink, but not for watercolours, I have tried to bind my own – good paper, but my own binding tends to be a little too chunky for small books. And then I´ve tried a number of others, with crappy paper, or the books don´t open flat, or the binding falls apart, or…

In September, the good people at Stillman & Birn sent me some samples of their new softcover sketchbooks, and I started out trying the small portrait format book, 8,9 x 14 cm. And I have to say, after using it for a while, that these small books are perfect! The paper is my usual favorite alpha series paper, with the right balance (for me) of tooth and watercolour durability, and the covers, although they are soft, are flexible but still really sturdy and strong. The book opens flat in spite of it´s small size, and is easy to hold and use, even standing up (which I always have a hard time with, using larger size books). I really like the rounded corners too.

To make a balanced review, I´d like to say that there is at least one thing that I´m not too crazy about with this little book, but I really can´t think of anything. I´ve been keeping this little fellow in my bags since September (when I´m not drawing in it, obviously), which means it´s been squeezed, scraped, bruised and bent, over and over again, but it´s still holding up fine (see photo below).

Also, it´s getting thinner and thinner, because I´m doing something to it that I´ve never done before: I always draw on whole spreads, i.e. where the spread consists of the same sheet of paper, and then cut them out (I know, so terrible, right?). I´m thinking I´m going to frame these little guys somehow, once I´ve used up the book. We´ll see where that ends up. More spreads coming up in the next posts!

Both drawings: 17,8 x 14 cm, fude nib fountain pen with black De Atramentis document ink, and watercolours, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook paper.

February 5, 2017January 22, 2019

Time flew, all is well

Well, there you go. I have had a long blog hiatus, without even planning to. Sometimes time just isn´t enough for everything you want to do, is it? So now I´m sitting down to do something about it. Sorting through images, writing some posts, and it feels like I´m getting back on track.

The exhibition in November went well, had lots of visitors at the opening and at the finissage, and perhaps a bit fewer in the weekens between. When the slow hours of Sunday afternoona came along, I spent some time drawing the exhibition space. Never bored with pen in hand. 🙂

Top drawing: 17,5 x 14 cm, pencil in Stillman & Birn alpha series soft cover sketchbook.

October 14, 2016January 22, 2019

Exhibition in Lycksele

I have an exhibition going in Lycksele in Northern Sweden, arranged by Lycksele Konstförening. I was there the weekend before last for the opening and this coming weekend will be the last two days. The subjects of the paintings are from Slussen in Stocksholm, and Norrbyskär in Västerbotten. Some of them have been exhibited before, and some are newer.

The opening was a great experience. There is quite a distance between Lycksele, Stockholm and Norrbyskär, and yet I had so many interesting conversations with people who knew the places in the paintings very well. It felt almost surreal – in a good way! – when some visitors told stories of older relatives who had actually worked at the saw mill at Norrbyskär while it was still running (until 1952).

October 12, 2016January 22, 2019

Adeln concert

The last drawing from Norrbyskär this summer – Adeln played jazz at the museum, and I managed to to a quick drawing from the back row. Such a great concert, only too bad I was at a bad angle for the poor pianist – he´s back there, somewhere…

19 x 17 cm, fude nib fountain pen with De Atramentis ink, and watercolour, on Stillman & Birn alpha series sketchbook page.