Nina Johansson

I have given myself the challenge this winter to find ways to sketch with mittens on, and today was the first time I gave it a serious try. For some reason I have super sensitive fingers, I lose all sense in my finger tips if I get cold for too long, so I usually wear huge double mittens during winter – which of course makes it complicated to sketch with fountain pens and fineliners…

Today it was about -3° Celsius – not the coldest day of the year, but still – and I tried sketching with PITT artist pens Big Brush, in three shades of grey. I figured I can´t use small tools with my mittens on, so I went for the sturdiest I could find in my drawers. It worked out quite well, even if I couldn´t really control where the lines were going. I had to draw and re-draw just about everything, but I got the hang of it after a while.

Top sketch: 13,5 x 18 cm, lower sketch 18 x 13,5 cm, PITT Artist pen Big brush on folded sketchbook with Plano drawing paper.

Second drawing from work in one week, seems lika a record of sorts, since I rarely get to sketch at work. This is part of the classroom where my colleague explains 3DStudioMax to our students.

Approx. 15 x 10 cm, Duke fountain pen with Platinum Carbon ink, and design marker on a piece of marker paper.

I know! No posts for a long time. It´s crazy. I have been swamped with things to do, as always at the end of the spring semester. I have been dividing my time between grades and finishing up at work before the summer holiday, illustration jobs, a secret side project, and preparing for the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Santo Domingo. I have definitely been drawing a lot, but not had time to post anything so far. But as I have now officially started my eight week summer holiday, I expect to have more time for communicating with the world outside my own head. : )

Anyway. This lovely Moo package came in the mail today. You´ve got to love moo cards, they are so beautiful. And check out that little sticker book in the lower left corner, I never made one of those before. They are so neat – tiny little stickers with my drawings on them! I may have to go stick some stuff on the walls of a metro station near you…

Peeking out the little door viewer in our apartment door, this is what I see – a Stockholm staircase from the forties. A bit gloomy right now, since it´s dark outside.

My smaller sketchbook didn´t quite reach all the way through December, I finished it with yesterday´s drawing, so I´m continuing in the large book.

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

Day one of the Rendez vous ended outside a bar next to the cathedral (everything else was closing), where Miguel Herranz, I, Lapin and Gérard Michel talked about sketchbooks, drawing techniques, colours, and drawing habits, with a group of young students from Colégio de Santa Doroteia in Lisbon. They are in Clermont-Ferrand with their teacher Mario Linhares (whom I met during the Lisbon symposium this summer) and his colleagues.

I was really impressed by these students – I took this photo at 00.25, and they were freezing at the end, but still asking questions, being genuinelly interested… Wow.

I managed to squeeze in a few portraits too, during the evening. I am determined that some day I will be able to draw perfect portraits, and fast, so I’d better start practicing. These took forever.

I’m having a crazy first day at the Rendez vous du Carnet de Voyage. The place is crowded with people, and today is the day when the school kids visit, and they all want a drawing done in their school books. It’s a rather odd feeling to draw with ten kids leaning over you. They run around collecting drawings from all the ‘carnettistes’. And my brain is ready to explode from trying to speak French with children… But they are very understanding, I ask them to speak slowly, and they really make an effort to.

I’ve had lots and lots of other people too at my stand, asking about my art, about Sweden and Stockholm, about my drawing tools. I’ve had so many interesting conversations, mostly in Frenglish.

As a bonus, my stand is right next to Mattias Adolfsson’s, so I finally get to meet one of my favorite illustrators. : )

The Rendez vous du Carnet de Voyage is the most well-organized event I have ever been to – and it hasn’t even started yet!

Today I have been brought by car to (and from, in the evening) Vic-le-Comte, where I was to set up my exhibition of watercolours. I have had help all day to hang my paintings, print signs and price lists, and had a fantastic lunch mid-day. In the evening, the opening of the exhibition was also taken care of with drinks and speeches, people had been invited, the Mayor of Vic-le-Comte came by…

It has been a fantastic day, and I am so grateful for all the efforts made to make it work! A huge Thank you and lots of love to all who helped out, especially Pauline for organizing things in Vic, and Estelle for just knowing what to help me with all the time, even though I “don’t speak French” and you “don’t speak English”! : )

For all spelling mistakes and bad imagery in this little live blogging adventure, I blame the iPhone. I may accept some little responsibility for the fact that I only took photos way before the opening and when it was almost over. But you’d think a smartphone should be able to remind you somewhere in between, right?

I’m trying out what an iPhone can do for a blogger in Clermont-Ferrand. I don’t know yet if this will work, but here goes, anyway.

I did the drawing while waiting for a flight to Paris. I lost track of time, as I often do while drawing, and realized when I was done that everyone was already standing in line boarding the plane. Drawing as meditation is probably good for you, but missing flights is not. It’s a fine line…

(The image editing is done on the iPhone – not quite like a high quality scanner and Photoshop on a widescreen, but it will have to do for now.)

Ah, getting back to things – I didn´t stop drawing, life just got so busy there for a while that I didn´t find time to scan and write in peace and quiet. Which means I have some catching up to do here!

I went drawing with Charlotte some weeks ago, at Beckholmen here in Stockholm. Beckholmen (which roughly translated means ‘Pitch islet’) is one of those odd places in this town that I really love. It´s a tiny islet in the central city, just off Djurgården – near the stream of visitors to Gröna Lund´s amusement park and Skansen outdoor museum, but with quite a different atmosphere.

Some hundred years ago, this was a place for boiling pitch – hence the name. The little island was perfect for this inflammable business, just distant enough from the rest of the city. Since the mid 19th century, the islet is a shipyard, with three dry docks that are still in use. It is also part of the Royal National City Park, which is kind of an odd combination.

You never get the feeling of heavy industry here, even though quite a few ships dock here for maintenance. The buildings are old, some from the 17th century, and you reach the islet via a narrow wooden bridge. The bridge alone is enough to make me happy – no traffic jams here, the island is too small and the bridge too fragile for that.

Unfortunately for our drawing session, a large part of Beckholmen is fenced in right now. The city is clearing out toxins in the soil. I guess a few hundred years of pitch, tar and naval industry didn´t pass without leaving marks…

Top drawing: 17 x 17,5 cm, bottom drawing: 21 x 17,5 cm. Both: Namiki-Falcon with Platinum Carbon ink and watercolours on Arches Satinée 300 g watercolour paper.

Having some fun on a rainy day recently.

17 x 12 cm, Snowman ink pen in Muji Passport Notebook.