Nina Johansson

Churros was new to me – nice with a cup of coffee. And tapas, of course, you can never go wrong with tapas. Sooo delicious.

Top: 16 x 10 cm, UniPin ink pen and watercolours, bottom: 16 x 16 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink, both on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Went drawing inside and outside the Sagrada Familia on two consecutive days. I had to. It is such a humongous building project, and it´s strange kind of organic (on the outside) Star Wars (on the inside) aesthetics draws you in like a magnet.

16 x 18 cm, black UniPin ink pen, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink, watercolours and entrance ticket on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

A back street behind the flea market near Glòries in Barcelona. Lunch and a drawing with Lapin and his friends.

15,5 x 17,5 cm, black Unipin ink pen and watercolours.

The view from our hotel room in Barcelona.

16 x 17 cm, Unipin black ink pens and watercolours.

Finally got around to do some scanning – another two pages from the Barcelona sketchbook.

16,5 x 17,5 cm, UniPin ink pens and watercolours on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Some drawings on the journey down to Barcelona…

Left: 6 x 16 cm, right: 17 x 17,5 cm, UniPin ink pens, glue, tickets, Faber-Castell Polychromos.

I have spent the last five days on vacation in Barcelona with my dear M. I don´t know why it took us so long to go there, I have wanted to visit this place since 1993, when I was there for about four hours and almost cried because I couldn´t stay longer. It is a splendid city, sort of Rome, Paris and London mixed together, with the beach and the sea thrown in as a bonus. It is also the home of Lapin and Miguel, and I had the opportunity to spend a whole day drawing and hanging out with these fellas, along with Lapin´s friend Julien and his girlfriend.

Barcelona is of course brimful of things to draw, and I still have the feeling that I didn´t draw anywhere near as much as I would have liked to – and I still drew every day. I decided to dedicate a tiny sketchbook to this journey, it´s only fourteen pages long, and folded from one large sheet of drawing paper. This is the front page, more pages are coming up in the next few days.

16,5 x 17 cm, Noodler´s flex nib pen, Noodler´s Lexington gray ink, UniPin ink pens, watercolour and rub-on letters on Schoellershammer drawing paper.

Just a quick one from a bus ride I did recently with my niece Elsa. “Rasta” may refer to rastafari in Swedish too, but it is also a verb for “taking a break”, plus the name of a restaurant along the E4. Many coaches stop there on their journeys through Sweden. We had a “Today´s special pasta”.

16 x 19 cm, Lamy Safari and Faber Castell Polychromos on Fabriano Rosapina printing paper (sketchbook page).

This is the last post of the Rome series, some drawings from a classical concert we went to at Parco della Musica on our last evening in Rome, and some stuff from the flight home. We had a great trip, Rome is a fantastic city and now I feel warmed up for some springtime drawing in Stockholm. : )

17 x 20 cm & 6,5 x 16 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper (sketchbook pages).

Sometimes the internet is fantastic, because it lets you connect with people you never would have met otherwise. In Rome, I had the opportunity to meet up with Barbara Bacci from the online EDM-group. We spent some time together and went out drawing in the ghetto, where Barbara found us this amazing spot with a lot of  interesting angles and textures. Now and then passers-by stopped and talked for a bit, which is always nice (and always makes me wish I knew some more languages). We drew until it started getting dark. It is going to take some time before I can do that again – Stockholm is still full of snow…

Check out Barbara´s sketch of the same subject here, and please don´t miss all her fantastic animal drawings!

Thank you Barbara for a great time, it was worth a million to meet you! : )

17 x 20 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper (sketchbook page).