November has perhaps been the most difficult month for me since the move to Denmark -- it's when one comes to terms with the full impact of the loss of the light, with darkness coming even faster due to the end of summer time (aka. Daylight Saving Time). November – in all its gray, cold and wet meanness – is also the month our family observes my sister’s death anniversary.
So I’m grateful that this month has been so productive for me, painting-wise. I’ve been painting in watercolors, in a little black book of 300gsm paper the size of a postcard. The book is so light I can have it with me on the train, using the travel time to sketch scenes in pen or pencil, which I then go over with watercolor when I get home. I’d started with landscapes, then cityscapes, often working from photos I took on my phone. But the last few days it’s been the people who populate those cityscapes, the blurry folk in the margins, the shadows in front of a church or a bar that, thanks to the magic of high-definition imagery, emerge crystal-clear on my phone screen when I zoom in on them. The move to people was probably prompted by a visit to the Hirschprung Collection, a museum in central Copenhagen that houses the work of prominent Danish artists from the 19th century, P.S. Kroyer among them.
Trying to find out what the hashtag “urban sketching” signified, I stumbled upon the 100-people-in-1-week urban sketching challenge, which takes place in March each year (and is hosted by artists Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes). I decided to challenge myself to sketch 100 people in 7 days, from life (on the train) or from my own photos. In the process I rediscovered the pleasures of sketching directly with a pen, of line-and-wash (pen-and-ink, then watercolor over it, or vice versa), of using a brush pen then painting over the lines with watercolors and of painting directly with watercolors (without a preliminary pencil or ink drawing). I'm particularly pleased with the results of the latter.
I’m sharing some of those sketches with you. The challenge is ongoing – I have reached 81 people in 5 days, whiling away the otherwise tortuous hours spent on my train commute, and using the painting to keep productive on a day marred by migraine, medication-induced wooziness and joint pain. I am calling this series "Copenhageners." 💝
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| On the train: the last day people could ride public transport without masks. |
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| On Købmagergade, Copenhagen |
