Nina Johansson

My book Drawing around Sagrada Família is now available for Europeans too, via Amazon.es. This is the Spanish Amazon site, which means it is in Spanish, but I´m sure you´ll manage. : )
(If not, open up amazon.co.uk, for example, in another browser window, and see how the buttons and links work.)

My book is available in Europe here: Drawing around Sagrada Família, amazon.es
Both mine and Swasky´s Enjoy Gaudí are here: Sketchguides at amazon.es

Also available for the US here: Drawing around Sagrada Família, amazon.com

For those of you who wonder: the book is written in English, and has a translation to both Spanish and Catalan in the last few pages.

It is finally warm enough in Stockholm to head out on the bicycle in a t-shirt and jeans and sit down to draw just about anywhere. So wonderful – this is what I´m longing for all winter.

I pulled out my old trusted fountain pen and watercolours today, at Bastugatan in Stockholm, feeling a little rusty… I have been drawing a lot in greyscale lately, using all kinds of drawing tools except watercolours. But – it can only get better now, summer is almost here! : )

21 x 16 cm, Namiki Falcon with Platinum Carbon black ink and watercolours, on Lana 200 gsm cold press watercolour paper.

I got my book Drawing around Sagrada Família in my hand this weekend, so I can finally show you a few sample spreads from it. It is available now from Amazon.com. Also, check out the new Sketchguide site from Zahorí!

Fresh from Slussen, the sluice canal is in full use. There is always a curious little crowd watching the boats going in and out of the canal.

29,5 x 23 cm, Staedtler fineliner, PITT Artist big brush pens on Fabriano hot press watercolour paper.

Another scroll sketch. I went drawing at Slussen again today, and had decided to do a number of quick sketches like the two on the left, drawn in Gula gången (Yellow walkway, with yellow tiles on the walls). But after a coffee break I found this super sunny spot in the empty square outside Blå bodarna (Blue booths/stalls, and you guessed it – blue tiles on the walls), and I couldn´t persuade myself to do a quick sketch. I stayed on there for a while, basking in the sun, drawing away.

Inside Blå bodarna there used to be a number of small shops and stalls, among others a big stationery shop that was still there when I came to Stockholm in -98. Now there are two small shops and a hair dresser left, and the rest have been taken over by a nightclub or simply shut down. A half scary place at night, and a dark, worn down corridor in daytime, still retaining some of it´s oldschool cool.

50 x 13 cm, ink fineliners, pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine Japanese album.

I went to Slussen to sketch today, and brought some tools I haven´t used in a long time – bamboo pen and ink, grey paper and a white Uni Poska pen. Actually I have never used the Posca pen, it was a quite nice acquaintance to make.

The weather was nice and sunny, but unfortunately the wind tipped my ink bottle over, so it made a mess in the beginning stages of the drawing. I tried to mop up most of the ink with a tissue, and kept on drawing. It was a lucky thing I had decided to work with black and white, the Posca pen managed to cover most of the ink blob, but it wasn´t a pretty sight at first…

48 x 25 cm, bamboo pen with Noodler´s Bulletproof Black ink and Uni Posca pen on grey drawing paper.

I just got word (and images) from my publisher, Zahorí, that my book Drawing around Sagrada Família is printed! It is not for sale just yet, but soon will be. (I will let you know when it is.)

The sketches in it were drawn during ten days in August last summer, when I was invited by Zahorí to explore and draw the Sagrada Família and the streets around it. The sketches were made into a Sketch guide, the start of a new series of books that Zahori is producing. It was a fantastic experience, not just because the Sagrada Família is an amazing place, but also because I have never drawn so much and so intensely around one and the same subject before.

Released along with my book, there is also a Sketch guide called Explore Gaudí by Swasky. Check it out here.

I will post more images as soon as I get my hands on a copy!

25 minutes well spent before leaving work today.

27 x 13 cm, PITT artist pens (fineliner and brush pens) on HandBook sketchbook spread.

This weekend spring got serious in Stockholm. I sat down by the water at Slussen, jacket open, no mittens, sun in my face, listening to the humming sound of conversations from passers-by. Used pencil for shading, for once, and added a few highlights of white with a gel pen.

21,5 x 13 cm, PITT artist pen fineliner, pencil and gel pens in Moleskine Japanese album.

Another quick sketch, this time on my way from work. Had an unusual school day, went to a cinema with students and a colleague, and grabbed a coffee in the sun at Kungsgatan before heading home.

12,5 x 12,5 cm, PITT pens (fineliners and brush pens) and Staedtler coloured pens in HandBook sketchbook.