Nina Johansson

Found a new toy today in a store, a water soluble pencil. I think I actually had one of those once, but I never really used it. I bought two, a 2B and a 4B, and played around a bit. I like the way the water smoothes out the graphite without rubbing out the lines completely. You can keep working on top of the washed surfaces with more graphite, getting much darker traces.

For those of you living in countries where poinsettia is more like a bush or a tree – in Sweden we buy them in December, in a pot, and every Swede get all Christmassy inside when these turn up in windows everywhere. People don´t usually keep them longer than a few weeks or until the red has disappeared – poinsettias do not fancy our climate, so the red leaves don´t come back.

17 x 18 cm, Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth “GIOCONDA” Aquarelle pencils and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper (sketchbook page).

I ran some errands in town this afternoon, and took a break in a café at Odengatan, where this girl was studying (”plugga” in Swedish) something very intensely.

I couldn´t help but trying to capture her on paper, it is so rare with people who sit still when you try to draw them!

Some news here on the blog: I have been trying to figure out how to get threaded comments to work, so I can answer the questions I get in the comment section in a neat way, and it seems I´ve solved it! So if you pose questions to me, please don´t forget to check back for an answer!

7 x 11 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper (part of a sketchbook page).

A text message and a massive explosion of fireworks outside our kitchen window woke me up at 06.00 this morning. The police was down at the old public bath here in Aspudden, and the action group trying to save the bath from destruction wanted everyone´s attention. A little crowd of people gathered outside the bath when the police ended the 59 days of occupation. They emptied the building, sealed all windows and doors with sheet metal, and put up a fence around it. And just to make sure no one would try to save the house again, they pointed a flood light at it, and placed two guards outside.

What a waste of people´s efforts in trying to make their community a better place, and what a waste of historical value – the bath has been around since 1919! The responsible politician has never set her foot in this place, even though this matter has been discussed for almost two years now. I suppose travelling six kilometers from City hall is too much to ask to have a meaningful dialogue with the people you represent.

This has been in the national television news today, and in the morning papers. If nothing else, I hope this opens the eyes (ears!) of politicians who forgot to listen to ordinary people.

I wrote and drew about this before, here and here (and the same drawings were also posted at Urban Sketchers).

Oh, and if you want to see some actual photos of this place, check out excellent news photographer Lars Epstein´s blog posts about this subject, he has covered it over a period of time:
Nov 25 (evening)
Nov 25 (day)
Nov 21 (Aspudden public bath festival)
Nov 13 (oppositional politicians show their support)
Nov 8 (art barricade)
Sept 29 (the bath is occupied)
Sept 4 (about decision to tear down the bath)

Top drawing: 16 x 17 cm, Uniball eye pen and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper
Black and white drawing: 14 x 9 cm, Uniball eye pen and Copic marker on same paper.

I finally filled the last spread in my old sketchbook. The one with the crappy paper. The one I never really liked (sorry, little book). I´m glad I worked my way throught it, though. A finished sketchbook always gives you a certain feeling of accomplishment.

So, on to new adventures with a new book that has been waiting for me for a while! It is (was) an old book about russian souvenirs, written in French, that I slaughtered and filled with new pristine pages of Fabriano Artistico hot press paper. I´m looking forward to both the size of the book (it´s slightly bigger than the last one), and working on better quality paper.

I´m thinking about using a smaller book too, on the side, since Souvenirs Russes might be a bit on the heavy side in some situations. I just have to decide on which of the smaller books I should go for… Hard decision. But a rather pleasant problem.

26,5 x 17 cm, Lamy Safaris with Noodler´s Lexington Grey and Polar Black ink and watercolours on sketchbook spread.

I kept drawing on the spread with the Doc Martens, just one more spread now, and this book is full!

27 x 17 cm, Lamy Safaris with Noodler´s Lexington grey and Polar Black ink and watercolours on sketchbook spread.

Drawing the dogs the other day made me feel like doing some more crosshatching. Gave it a try with my new Dr Martens. Difficult to do the jet black leather when you´re drawing with a grey pen, though.

EDIT: I just noticed I wrote October 2 on this drawing… Well, time flies. Faster than my brain, which is obviously still in October.

17 x 13 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Grey ink on sketchbook page.

My in-laws have been visiting for a few days, and their two dogs have been living an exciting life in Stockholm. This town is so full of dogs and new smells that these country girls are completely wiped out every evening.

13,5 x 18,5 cm, Lamy Safari with Lexington gray ink on sketchbook page.

A funny thing happened Monday evening. I went to a life drawing session again (lots of nudes here lately!) but Lo and behold! – I forgot to bring paper! Luckily, my friend Lisa was there and  she gave me some papers from her pad, plus I had my little sketchbook with me. I´m anxious to fill the last few pages in the book (I have a new one waiting), so I drew several five-minute poses on this spread. The drawings are not that great (I hate drawing small when drawing from life) but I think they made a pretty decent spread in the end.

Anyway, when I came home, I told my dear M about my silly absent-mindedness. His comment was: “Nina, isn´t it a bit suspicious to attend a life drawing session without paper?”

Well, when you put it that way…

20,5 x 17 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington Gray ink and watercolours on dodgy brand of drawing paper in a sketchbook.

Did a tiny painting of a bunch of lilies yesterday. Just to make it as complicated as possible, I decided to paint without drawing first, which is a big challenge to me. Good practice, though, since you really have to concentrate on negative space and whole shapes instead of lines. Plus I deliberately used a Very Big Paintbrush, to avoid getting stuck in details.

12 x 18,5 cm, watercolours on obscure brand of drawing paper in a sketchbook.

Another week – another life drawing session. With rather poor results this time. The only thing I was remotely happy with was this – a fast sketch of the model´s face. Or half of it.

16 x 15 cm, pencil on cartridge paper.