Caravaggio workshop - David with the head of Goliath

I've been doing a workshop this month in Florence that aimed to teach the procedure that Caravaggio used in his work. 

Something along the lines: Underpainting in burnt umber, then an underpainting in white, then filling in the dark of the background (black with a medium of oil, turps and varnish), and then painting the values of the flesh, and then the fabric of the pants. Some fabrics may be painted as glaze, such as bright red textiles. However these ochre colored pants are not a glaze but solid paint. 

I did not not finish the painting and did not work on the white shirt much other than as a white underpainting. Had I worked on it more, I would have put in the different white/gray values of the shirt on top of the white underpainting. 

Many questions were left unanswered. But I think that the face, hands and feet in a painting is suited for wamer values such as burnt and red umbers, while the body is better suited for cold values mixed with raw umber. The palette I used consisted of Roman ochre, Vermillion red, red umber, burned umber, raw umber, black, and titanium white. 

This is as far as I got in 10 days.

Portraits in progress

I am working on a few paintings at the moment. Oil (and charcoal) on linen. All are in progress.

Fashion

 I have been studying fashion illustration and pattern construction throughout the fall of 2014. Most of the time was consumed by pattern making: By given measurements constructing patterns based on using a design principle developed by Danish engineer Moesgaard, then cutting it in paper and putting it together w pins into a paper garment. Well, and then a couple of hours a week were spent on fashion illustration. 

Illustration for a sun suit collection.
 Maria Callas' face on a body drawn from imagination. 

  Sun suit sketch.

 I used a face from Gustav Klimt's painting of Adam and Eve for reference for this illustration. Her face just vaguely resembles Eve's face.

 

This is a smaller piece of the mood board I created for my sun suit collection.  With lemon cakes, my great grandmothers blue and white china teacup half filled with coffee on the wooden porch of the country house; pears, lemons, bees, seashells, seahorses, retro cotton swimsuits, victorian lace, 18th century corsets and a photograph of my grandmother Anna-Greta Blomqvist in her swimsuit in the 1950's, in a rowing boat ,surrounded by the dark water and tall firs of northern Sweden. My grand dad Rune photographed her. The idea of the swimsuit collection is rather that of a sunbathing suit one: Made to wear sitting under pine trees, sipping coffee in the quiet of nature distant from cities; strolling through the woods with beams of sunlight filtered through the canopy, chatting to friends and dipping your feet in the water. The cut of the sun suit is inspired by fashion of the 1950's, the Italian renaissance and victorian costume. It's a big mash up, but if done right, I think it could look good.

Sketches of sunbathing suits

I borrowed this flower from Sandro Botticelli, so to speak, it being one of Venus' flowers being thrown at her in the painting "The Birth of Venus". In times of having very little time to come up with ideas, I tend to look to renaiassance painters for inspiration. 

  This little portrait ( school work)  is something I made while having tea in the garden of Villa San Michele on Capri, high up on that beautiful rock of an island. I walk through the house and gardens. I drink green tea. The sea reflects the afternoon sun as a white light, and Vesuvio appears vaguely across the water like a violet bulge. It's very quiet. The sea lies far below us. This high up the wind makes odd and comforting noises. American ladies at the next table, too, draw pictures in their sketchbooks. I imagine the history of San Michele and the island. The Phoenecians, the ancient Greeks and Romans. All sorts of artists visiting. Oscar Wilde. Birgitta Stenberg. And philantropist Axel Munthe himself. I'd like to know more about him.

  Pearl and crystal crown - made for an arctic mermaid. Inspired by the arctic enviroment. Wooden beads painted w oil paints, some of them resembling bird eggs.

I had to snap a selfie wearing the crown, of course, amongst tooth paste stains and all.

The beautiful arctic maid, wearing a fur made from polar teddybears: She turned out a bit like a mash up of Lady Gaga and a mythological creature of nature.

 

Turning wood into real pearls and eggs. True story.

 

Bye!

Anatomy and figure drawing

I found a few anatomy drawings and figure drawings I made last fall at the Florence Academy of Art.
The small illumination painting is a water color I made in fifth grade or so. I've kept it since then.

Portraits of women under water, landscape and charcoal figure studies

These are some of the projects I've been working on lately: Paintings and drawings. And what they looked like during the course of work.

Painting practice after Leonardo. I think that learning by looking at someone elses work is fascinating. 

I'm quite unhappy with the result of this figure drawing. I didn't finish it in time. 

Making a stencil

I made a spray painting today, using the drawing in my previous post #Dear Suzy, when? to make a stencil.

So. I first made the drawing, had it enlarged a great deal (!), cut out the dark bits with a knife and then spray painted it onto one side of a big cube. It's a first try. Perhaps next time i try it it will look better. 

Enlarged drawing. Turned out pretty big.

Cutting out the darker shadow shapes. I still can't feel my forefinger since doing this. It's just gone.

And...done. It was so so cold. I went home early. Next time i'll stick to black and white, or work more thoroughly w the background. :) Also, I accidently left some tape on the stencil so I didn't get the shapes right. 

Dear Suzy, when?

I just finished this graphite drawing, portraying a scene from Wes Anderson's movie Moonrise Kingdom, which I happen to be fond of. The end result will be a surprise and will be finished this Thursday.

Sketching a winter self portrait

I made a sketchy drawing of my own face.

New studio, new year.

So eventually I got myself a new easel after moving far away from what used to be my home. Today I've been putting it together. :) I also grounded some canvases with raw umber and turpentine. Now all I need before I start painting, is good lighting, and to pass a couple of exams. My appartment smells of turpentine and blue hyacinths. 

Blank linen canvases waiting to be covered in a sheer layer of raw umber.

A bit of publicity

My charcoal cast of Beethoven was featured in a fashion shoot in the April 2012 issue of Swedish fashion magazine Plaza Kvinna. Am happy about that.