Figure drawing in Stockholm

During my stay in Stockhom, I met with Nina Johansson who invited me to a figure drawing session.

I was thrilled for I very rarely have the occasion to attend one.

The model was very experienced and we started with poses alternating between 5 and 10 minutes...

 

 ... followed by quick 2 minute poses. I had a lot of fun with these shorter ones.

We ended with a couple of longer poses again.

She had a very interesting face, so I tried to make her portrait in-between poses, specially during the longer stretches. I didn't quite manage to capture her features, though.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun and wish I could do this more often. Thank you again, Nina, for taking me and, of course, for the delicious dinner!

Stockhom - part 2

The rest of my trip to Stockholm was spent between walking and visiting some more museums.

The Vasa museum was one of the most interesting, in particular for sketching. The Vasa is a warship built in the 17th century which sank on its maiden voyage not far from Stockholm. It was recovered in the 20th century and now stands proudly in the main hall of the museum.

One of the challenges was definitely to find a way to fit this beautiful vessel in my Moleskine sketchbook. This format is not really my favourite, to be honest.

It took me 2 tries to get a satisfactory result, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with this second sketch.

If there is one thing I will definitely take back with me from Sweden, it's the delicious kannelbulle. I loved them so much that I even bought a book with Swedish recipes just so I could have the recipe for these delicious little cakes.

Ah, kanelbulle! I miss you dearly! But I will get to the bottom of your secrets soon. Hahaha

It's true that time flies when you are having fun, but this time I was really surprised when Friday arrived and I had to go home already.

I was very early at the airport, so I still squeezed in an airport sketch, a view of Arland airport.

Stockholm - part 1

I have been in a bit of a slump lately. Which explains why I haven't posted much lately.

Winter is not the best time to go out sketching and my mind seems to be in hibernating mode.

Luckily I had a short trip to Stockholm planned for the end of last month ; just the thing to get back on track.

It was a very fidgety girl

Stockholm is a beautiful city and I was itching to sketch it. I tried, I really did, to sit down and draw. Unfortunately, the temperature was quite offputting and I only managed to produce this sorry attempt at a scenery...

If I go back I will do better.

...and this sketch of a statue of the Swedish singer Evert Taube.

Yellow makes things brighter :D

Stockholm is full of museums, so it was no problem at all to find  both shelter and interesting sketching material.

I started off at the Nobel Museum. As its name indicates, it is dedicated to the Nobel prize and its winners. You can fin information on all the people who were awarded the prize with a description of their achievements, as well as a collection of items they donated to the museum.

These were all donated by prize winners

Next on my list was the Moderna Museet. There was an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois and an interesting collection of modern art. I particularly enjoyed this piece by the surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim...

The artist seemed to have interesting phantasies about his gouvernante

... and loved the samples of George Grosz's work, his drawings are so expressive.

So much to learn from these!

How best to end the day than at the museum's café having what the Swedish call a fika?

More to follow :)