Drawing with mittens

 

This winter the drawing itch has been too strong to stay indoors, in spite of the cold, so I have been experimenting with tools that work even though I´m wearing big mittens. Large size markers are good (as is lowering your expectations of the results...). And if, like today, it´s not too darn cold, and you can make do with a pair of thin gloves, crayons will do the trick too. I went crayon sketching around Slussen in Stockholm today, and enjoyed trying to simplify and find colours that convey the values without necessarily showing local colour.

 

Worn down concrete has it´s own kind of charm, and changing it´s colours makes it even more pretty. I love the play of light and shade around this place, especially if you go down beneath the surface where there are columns, tunnels and walls in every direction.

 

For this last sketch, I sat in a place that I think might be the dirtiest I have ever been sketching in, ever. My feet were in a puddle of mud, and water was dripping to my left from the highway above my head. The exhaust fumes from the road right next to me were intoxicating, to say the least. But what can you do, this was the best angle to capture this place.