Nina Johansson

I went drawing at Slussen here in Stockholm today. I like drawing there, it´s always a busy place, full of people and traffic. It´s an inspiring mixture of old beautiful buildings and worn down ugly structures for the traffic and subway. Just the way I like it.

The Stomatol sign is Stockholm´s oldest ‘animated’ advertising sign, consisting of approximately 1350 light bulbs in different colours. It was first installed in 1909, and it´s still up there. Quite impressive, huh? It´s a landmark here in Stockholm, and it can´t be all that unknown to the world, since there is even an English Wikipedia page about it. : )

I was drawing a lot at Slussen last autumn, then it got too cold. It´s good to be back. See more of my Slussen drawings here.

18,5 x 23,5 cm, Pilot Namiki-Falcon with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Arches Satinée 300 g watercolour paper.

Waiting for a colleague to pick me up a few days ago, I had the chance to draw these guys setting up their fruit stand at the square in Skärholmen, a suburb south of Stockholm. The second page in a new sketchbook!

18 x 12 cm, Lamy Safari with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours, on Plano drawing paper.

I didn´t choose what to draw today, the temperature did it for me. Stockholm is glowing hot right now, about 30 degrees Celsius, which means our apartment is approximately two degrees cooler. Not so great. I decided to head out on the bike to get some drawing done, but the city was way too hot – and biking didn´t make it any cooler. Eventually, I found a nice spot with some shade in the park of the Johannes church, so that´s what I drew. It never before struck me how big this church is, I need to go back there and take a look inside.

14 x 14,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Platinum Carbon black ink and watercolours, on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Sitting in the sun on the balcony, drawing some flowers in the summer heat.

Yesterday I went to have a look at the cars at Gärdesloppet, or Prince Bertil Memorial, a veteran car race and exhibition that takes place every year around this time in Stockholm. I love car design (old cars, mind you, the new ones tend to all look the same to me…), and this event is a must. Unfortunately, in the middle of all the sunshine and sparkling chrome, there was a heavy rain that made both visitors and some of the car owners leave the area. I only had time to draw this one supercute little Fiat.

14 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Platinum Pigmented Sepia ink and Noodler´s flex pen with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

There´s a fleamarket in my neighborhood today, and lots of people stopped by for a chat while I was sketching. Drawing really is a contact sport.

14 x 14,5 cm, Noodler´s flex pen with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Grabbed a coffee at Kungsgatan (King´s street) here in Stockholm today. Cloudy, almost rainy day, but still warm enough to drink coffee outside.

And actually, that car isn´t particularly off in drawing, it´s the back of  a SsangYong, and it must be one of the ugliest cars ever built…

14 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

I grabbed a coffee in Stockholm suburb Fruängen on my way to work yesterday, and made a quick sketch of the view from the café. Not the most inspiring view, perhaps, and not a great composition in the drawing either, but I coloured it in with a nifty little tool that I got in the mail a few days ago. So nifty, actually,  that it deserves a post of it´s own – coming soon.

14 x 9 cm, Lamy Safari with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Yeah, I´m at it again, the kitchen view caught my eye yesterday because everything had suddenly turned from light brown to light green out there. We are in the time of the year when everything goes so fast you can see the difference between morning and evening in the size of the leaves… You gotta love it.

13 x 15 cm, Noodler´s flex nib pen with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Among the most difficult things to draw for me are cars. They are so complicated, yet should not be harder to draw than anything else, if you just look closely – measure, compare, check angles and distances… Yeah. But it doesn´t work that way. Cars have their own laws of perspective somehow. Making the effort to try and draw them is fun, though.

Oh, and this Toyota got a parking ticket while I drew it. A little everyday drama.

14 x 15,5 cm, UniPin black ink pens on Schoellershammer drawing paper.