This week we continued working with charcoal, during the first half of our day we worked on drawing styrofoam spheres trying to capture the roundness and how the light interacts with it properly. After lunch, we were in the model room to draw our first charcoal figure for three hour sessions (four sessions total). The town looked beautiful with snow still covering the ground and there were lots of blue skies this week. During some of the past weeks it was more cloudy or overcast so we definitely enjoyed the extra sunshine. We had a guest artist come to teach us, Theodora Capat, an alumni from the academy who has become successful with her charcoal endeavors in Stockholm. On Saturday, I went to Copenhagen with Keren to explore a few Christmas markets! It was a lot of fun and super busy being the last weekend before Christmas. At the markets there was wool and crochet items, rope of candy, lots of hot dogs, glogg, ornaments, self-serve cubes of fudge, gnomes, and much more. I felt that it was more of an experience than for purchasing things. On Sunday, I packed my luggage, cleaned my apartment, and prepared for my last week before break! I almost forgot to mention that on Monday it was Saint Lucia Day in Sweden so little kiddos from a nearby school came dressed in Christmas outfits and sung songs for us outside the steps of the school, it was so adorable and sweet!!
0 Comments
This week we did etching! I had a lot of fun. I chose to do two designs. The first was a strawberry house with an old man walking up the stairs. It was a play on words based on the Swedish word for strawberry "Jorggubbe" (pronounced yordgoobay) which also translates to "earthly old man" so I wanted to combine the two in my drawing! For my next design, I wanted to attribute it to the school by drawing the architecture from life (it was so cold outside) and then applying an imaginative scene all around it. I decided to make the school an island in the sea since we are so close to the ocean shore and then I added some elements of rococo with cupids and a mermaid. I'm really happy with how they turned out and I might've gone overboard staying hours after school, eating dinner there, and 8 hours on Saturday to complete just over 100 prints total! I am hoping to give some to friends and family as Christmas gifts and hopefully sell some as well. It was a really long process and one week didn't feel like long enough haha. To give some insight into the etching process, it consists of transferring the drawing to a prepared plate that has been sanded and burnished on the sides. Then a ground is applied which needs a few hours to dry. Once it's dry then you can begin etching into it using a fine needle, my teacher made custom tools using record needles. This can be done with crosshatching, stippling, or other approaches. After your design is etched then the exposed copper will become permanent when you place the plate in acid for a long or shorter time depending on how dark you'd like the marks to be. Then you remove the ground and can do your first test print. For every print, you must warm up the plate and apply ink with a piece of mat board, use three different tarlatans (rags) to wipe away the ink. Then you must wipe the edges clean and you can customize where the ink can be wiped clean for any highlights using a q-tip or toothpick. There was pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies) and tea all week which was really nice. It was really cool to have the opportunity to experience etching because it requires specific equipment that I may not have access to after I leave the school so I was really trying to make the most of it. There is an etching club at the school if you pass the etching test where you'll be able to use the equipment so I am hoping that I'll be able to join that next term and make some more prints! Some other highlights this week was when I made some cookies on Thursday to use some of the winter sprinkles I bought haha, there was fresh snow when I walked outside on Saturday, so beautiful! And I went to Malmo and Lund with Keren on Sunday in search of a Christmas market but it had happened a couple weeks ago so we ended up walking around the city instead. This week the class was separated between continuing to work on our charcoal bargues and master copies from those who have etching week then next week we will swap places! I was in the group to continue our projects then have etching week later, I was glad I was in the later group to give me more preparation time. This week I attended a couple portrait sessions after school (and got a lot of help from the teachers haha) and kroki on Thursday. I am feeling really motivated to try to learn as much more that I can before the end of the term. I think we are all starting to feel how the weather is causing us to feel lower energy levels. Right now the sun rises a little after 8am and sets around 3pm. There are a bunch of cute Christmas decorations around town and many people put a candle display and paper star lanterns in their home windows. I am really looking forward to being home soon for Christmas! <3 This week I finished my charcoal bargue! And we began working on a charcoal master copy. We also spent some more time in the model room doing two day poses for a total of 6 hours spent on each figure drawing. For thanksgiving my school hosted a potluck dinner. It was sad to be away from my family for thanksgiving but I was able to FaceTime them and I was surrounded by my classmates enjoying some yummy food and dessert so I was thankful for that! This weekend I worked on a lot of anatomy homework and finished up some portrait master copies. Then on Sunday, I went to a Christmas market in Malmo with two of my friends and enjoyed checking out a few other things in the city. This week we continued to work on our charcoal bargues for the first half of our day and for the second, we went into the model room to create figure bargue styled drawings working from life rather than from referencing drawings by Charles Bargue. I feel as though this has been a big step for me being able to create these drawings of the model from life because I really struggled with doing so before I came to SARA so its been really rewarding to see what I am capable of and how I feel. Before, with my minute model drawing experience, I found it to be really frustrating and I wasn't satisfied with what I was able to create but now, I feel much more comfortable with drawing a figure from life and the proportions are much better than before haha. Setting a top, bottom, and mid-point helps a lot with proportion. We also use a plumb line to see what else in the body lines up with the feet, for example if its the side of the head, then lining those up can make a huge difference in whether your figure feels like its leaning/falling over or if it feels stable. In other news, IT SNOWED!!! It was a very interesting experience to see it snowing right next to the ocean. It definitely makes it feel like Christmas here now. I'm excited for next weekend because in Sweden, they celebrate Christmas during the first few Sunday's leading up to Christmas! This weekend I got to enjoy seeing the snow and went to the cafe to catch up on some homework (our seed, learning anatomy, and portrait master copies). I can't believe it's already November still! This week was Dylan's last few days in Sweden. He made us a yummy roasted chicken for dinner one of the last nights. On his last full day here, we went to Malmo to check out a castle they have that is a museum of all sorts- history of the castle, art, fashion, aquarium, and more. We really enjoyed being able to spend time together after a long time apart and we made so many new memories together! For the rest of the week I just took it easy. We continued working on our charcoal bargue and began to go into the model room for live figure drawing. This weekend I just did some tidying up and grocery shopping. This week I continued with finishing up all of my figure bargues, we had a total of 15. I just have one more to do! We also began a charcoal bargue which we will spend about 5 weeks on. This is a new medium we are introducing so we did a value scale to become familiar with it. We are using Nitram charcoal (it is similar to vine or willow charcoal) whereas I am more accustomed to using compressed charcoal that acts more powdery, similarly to chalk. Some highlights during this week was seeing the sunrise twice with Dylan, seeing a rainbow, and Dylan and I went on a big adventure to Kiruna! We went above the arctic circle to the town Kiruna. We were on the hunt to see the Northern Lights! Unfortunately, it was poor timing based on luck and weather conditions so we didn't end up seeing any but they frequently happen in that location during the autumn and winter season. Our trip did have a lot of life-long memories though! We began our trip at 5am on Friday to take a bus, then train, then bus again, to finally get to the airport, to take two plane rides and another two buses to get to our destination. Wow. We stayed at the Ice Hotel where they have the option to stay in an ice room or in warm accommodation like normal. The Ice Room is about $700 per night and you stay in a freezing room surrounded by ice sculptures in a sleeping bag on a real mattress. We decided to go for the warm accommodation for comfort and price haha. We got to walk through all the ice rooms during the daytime when they are open to the public to admire the ice art. It was quite incredible to see what they were able to create with ice and snow. The rooms had various themes, and as always, I took way too many photos. My classmate was so kind to let me borrow his camera for the weekend so I could capture these memories. While we were there, we got to feed and pet reindeers! It was fun and a little bit scary at the same time. They were really adorable and got excited when they saw we had food for them. I got a little scared because some of them had large antlers that we had to be cautious of. It was at the Sami Museum, an outdoor museum and cafe with reindeers and history about the Sami culture. Nearby was a river with beautiful reflections of the mountains and it was frozen over near the shore. It really interesting because we threw a few rocks just to see how far the frozen water went out and I was surprised at how far it went out! It also made a really interesting echoing noise when it hit the ice. It was satisfying to walk on the crunchy ice on the shore, don't worry, we didn't dare walk on the actual river part at all haha. We went on a wilderness dinner where we got to try a warm blueberry drink, local meats, and cloudberries (they had the texture of raspberries but yellowish color with a slight citrus taste). It was a bit of a journey to get back to the airport on Sunday since busses weren't running so we had to take a pricey taxi instead but on the bright side, Dylan got to see snow falling for the first time so that was exciting! They had to clear the runway for the airplane to take off and we boarded from portable stairs up to the plane so that was a cool experience! I tried to wake up every hour to possibly catch a glimpse of the northern lights so I was exhausted after the weekend. During the night and sometimes during the day, we could hear dogs howling because they offer dog sledding as a winter activity. It was funny because I thought they were wolves at first. When we left on Sunday, we arrived back in Malmo after the last train ride back home had already passed so we stayed at a hotel to then take an early train back so I could go to school on Monday. I think I learned even moreso to accept how things are simply out of our control and to enjoy to the fullest the experiences we are given. We went with the hopes for a once in a lifetime experience of seeing the lights dance across the sky but for now that one will have to wait and this time it came to us in a different form, it was such a unique experience that we will both always cherish! The next day in Stockholm, it was just Dylan and I exploring. Before our jam-packed day began, we had a hearty breakfast at our hotel that had many for options available, more than usual with fresh fruits, fresh baked bread, cooked foods, pastries, and alternative options for different diets. There were lots of beverages to choose from as well and an iPad that you could choose a juice from. After breakfast we began our day of visiting three different museums- all of them were free entrance! We went to the Natural History Museum, the Modern Art Museum, and the National Museum. The Natural History Museum was especially fun for Dylan because he loved seeing the dinosaur bones. There was a botanical garden nearby that we walked to and explored for a bit. We took the metro back towards the center of the city. At each stop we got to see some of the art that cover the subway stations in Stockholm. The Modern Art Museum had a painting by one of my favorite artists, Salvador Dali, so that was exciting! If you purchased an additional ticket, there was a temporary exhibit by Hilma Af Klint but the line was really long so we decided not to go. We both really enjoyed the National Museum which had paintings and sculptures from different time periods, as you moved from room to room, the time period of the art displayed would gradually become more modern/present. We had some fika while we were at the museum and it was a really beautiful dining experience, you order casually like at a cafe but the dining area was nicely decorated like a fancy restaurant. We took another night train back home where I only had an hour before I had to go to school! I was tired on Monday to say the least but some coffee helped. During the week, my classmates and I finished our seven week long advanced bargue copies. It was quite the journey being patient and keeping a lean eye for subtle detail. We are glad to have them completed :) we cooked some yummy dinners together. We made tiki masala chicken and rice, tortellini pasta, and our favorite was the grilled salmon with rice mixed with sriracha mayo and a few other things like green onion and edamame. On Thursday, I had a couple classmates come over to make some snacks together for the halloween party at school the next day. We tried to make pretzel stick drizzled with chocolate spider webs but they didn't work out as nice as we hoped haha. But we also made cookies with icing in the shape of a ghost with chocolate and sprinkles for eyes. And my favorite was the spider hot dogs- hot dogs sliced on both ends to create legs and a strip of croissant bread wrapped around the center to create the body. The Next day for the halloween party, I did mine and Dylan's make-up to look like skulls. Then we headed to my school for the evening! Over the weekend, I did another day trip to Copenhagen, this time with Dylan of course, but it was completely different than the trip I just went on with Madi we I saw totally different areas of Copenhagen than before. We began our day by going to what we were both really looking forward to, the Copenhagen aquarium! It was so much fun to see all the creatures. One of the most fascinating parts was the rainforest area which had animals and insects that had free range in there. There was a sloth, birds, butterflies, millipedes, frogs, and more. The butterflies were a blue iridescent that was really beautiful. Some of our favorite aquarium animals we saw were the puffer fish cause it was so funny with its smile and two little teeth. We also loved the mudskipper. Nearby the puffer fish was a touch tank where they had a bunch of the fishies that like to clean off dead skin so they tickled a bunch when you put your hand in the tank. I couldn't stop laughing. After hours at the aquarium, we went to Nyhavn where the buildings have a colorful design and specific style to them and there are two strips of the buildings facing each other with a canal of water running between. There were many restaurant places to eat, pubs, live music, ferry tours, and more. A very touristy spot but definitely fun to check out and a nice atmosphere. We got some dinner at an Italian restaurant here and it was pretty good! I got a calzone. When we were inside it didn't feel like we were that far from home since the two tables sitting closest to us also happened to be American lol. The next day we spent it more locally traveling a bit up north to check out an apple cider factory. It was really cute with lots of apples in baskets. There was a factory display of how they make the cider. Outside there was a chart of the many types of apple trees and behind it was all the trees themselves! It was a two-mile walk back to the bus station and we saw some cows on the way. After we got back, we went on a nature walk and saw some jellyfish, shrimp, and lots of mushrooms. We got some Thai food for dinner. What a weekend! This week we continued on our advanced bargues and we had a portrait workshop but the most exiting part was that my sister came to visit me for a handful of days! Within the first hour she got here, I had her sample some of the delicious chocolates they have here and we went to the grocery store cause it was one of the only things open but its always interesting to see the different food options they offer, especially for a nacho queen like her haha. It was so nice to spend time with my best friend :) I dragged her to come watch the sunrises with me early before school hehe usually she isn't a morning person but she was still adjusting to the time change. She brought me some American snacks which were much appreciated like lifesaver gummies and goldfish! She came to my school during our lunch breaks where we usually walked to the grocery store again each day haha. Because her visit was short, I decided to take one day off of school to spend with her. On this day, we decided leave before sunrise to make a day trip to Copenhagen to explore that area since it was both of our first times and her luggage didn't make it to her yet so we tried to see if we could pick it up (it didn't work out so they shipped it to her later). It was fun to walk around the city and go to this store called "Flying Tiger" which is based in Copenhagen. They have fun decor, craft supplies, and more there. While we were in the city we saw interesting historical buildings and I noticed that they had a lot of walk-in tattoo parlors. We also tried a popular bakery place and it was delicious! It was called Andersen. We also got to check out a beautiful botanical garden which included a butterfly house. It was lovely, I would highly recommend it. The most interesting moment was seeing the translucent butterflies. The transportation system is a bit different in Denmark than Sweden as they have a metro that goes by zones (rather than destination) and there isn't transportation personnel that scan your tickets while aboard the metro. And you're able to see out the front window of the metro so it looks like a rollercoaster, whereas you're unable to on the Swedish trains because they have a conductor instead of electronically run. We left in the afternoon in time to explore a bit of Malmo too before heading back home for the day. We got some yummy ramen at the Noodle Bar and I got to show her the crazy plant store. Then we got to shop around the Emporia mall which has different color themes in various parts of the mall so one area would have blue escalators and so on. They. had like three grocery stores in the lowest level of the mall. We walked over 12 miles that day exploring the two cities. On Friday, Dylan arrived to visit me too! So that evening the three of us went on a night train to Stockholm. We got there at about 6am so we got a coffee and chilled there for a bit until the sun rose so we could walk around and look at stuff without it being so dark and cold since most places didn't open until 10am. We went to a brunch place and got yummy sandwiches, they were small but delicious! And they had great fresh-squeezed "apelsin" (orange) juice. There were a ton of orange peels in a big garbage bag beside our table as evidence haha. The restaurant was unique with fancy looking architecture like columns inside but juxtaposed with sharpie writing from previous guests who have written all over the walls. We went to Gamla Stan, an area of Stockholm with historical buildings. It was funny because Madi had to roll her luggage around on the cobblestone all day so we took turns but the wheels were bouncing everywhere haha. We briefly stopped by the Baatska Palace where we got to see a giant mural that one of the founders of (and teacher at) SARA painted which took over a year to complete, not including all the planning and preparation work. Her name is Sanna Tomac and she gave all of the students a presentation on the process, meaning, and more recently so I'm really glad we were able to check it out in person! We also went to Saluhall, where they sell fresh fish, meats, baked goods, and more. Before Madi had to catch her flight to her next destination, we walked around some shops in the city and stopped by the ice bar next to the train station where we were served a drink in a rectangular block glass made of ice and were surrounded by ice walls, seats, and sculptures. Don't worry, they lended us a sherpa and gloves before we went inside. It was a jam packed day! This week started off amazing! I saw the most adorable koala backpack through a store window on Sunday but they were closed so on Monday I ran back there with my friend after school to see how much it would cost. Then the lady working at the store said that it was meant for display only but if I had a use for it then she would give it to me for free! I thought it was so cute especially because the arms look like they're hugging you cause they're part of the straps and the pouch is perfect size for basic necessities to fit. It was so kind of her, I love it so much haha. I was jumping with joy afterwards. And then my day got even better after I was walking home and saw a super vibrant rainbow!! So I took funny photos of it making it look like it was coming from chimney tops. The rest of the week went by quickly just working on our advanced bargue and figure bargues. I finished my seed of the witches Sabbath that we'll be discussing in class next Friday. For Kroki this week I thought it would be fun to bake cookies so I made some yummy dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips in them with some help from my classmates. Next time we wanna make cookies for kroki, I think it will be fun to experiment with using regular chocolate chip dough and then putting pieces of "Plopp"- milk chocolate bar with caramel in the center. I think it will be so yummy! Definitely sugar overload but once in a while should be okay hehe. I am preparing for my sister and boyfriend to come visit super soon, I'm so excited! I spent my Saturday at school helping create decorations for the halloween party, its theme is "Horrorwood". Hollywood but with a twist so the idea is to dress fancy but to add some scary makeup or take inspiration from cheesy horror movies. I began the week with a trip to Kristianstad on Sunday where majority of the photos are from! When I was there I went to a cool mall then I went to a nature reserve area and got some Swedish meatballs for the first time since I've been here and they were delicious! The views were really beautiful on the way there and back, there was a nice rainbow and grassy fields with picturesque cows. This week at school we continued working on our advanced seven week bargue and worked on figure bargues. I also have been doing more art outside of school since its inktober now, I've been working from a list of prompts and doing a quick drawing each day. I also did a commissioned gouache painting for my cousin of a pelican in honor of a loved one. This week we had Sweden's cinnamon bun day so my classmates and I got some during our lunch break, it was 4 rolls for about $2.50. This weekend I worked on my witches sabbath seed and took photos around town with my friend Keren! This week we began doing figure bargues during the afternoon while continuing with our advanced bargues during the first half of our day. The Figure bargues go at a much quicker rate as we are supposed to complete a total of 15 within 5 weeks then once we are finished, we will go into the model room to work from live models. These are a great exercise for us to learn how to capture the gesture of a person and correct proportions. On Monday, I attended the portrait session after school where I continued my watercolor experimentation. I was able to get some help from the teacher on duty to give me tips on core shadows and how to capture the face when looking at it from an angle since things like the eye and lip look very different as they wrap around the rounded surface of the face. I began my second figure bargue this week and filled in flat tones on my advanced bargue, so it was a successfully productive week! On Thursday's Kroki, I tried to do watercolors again but it was definitely tricky. I did some tests to see about how much water to include to get the right blurriness of tattoos and to study skin tones. On Thursday and Friday, my classmates and I enjoyed the pizza place for the last two times before they're closed this winter! It was so yummy, we love their pesto pizza, its called "La Dolce Vita". This weekend I caught up on chores and began my new Seed. Our new prompt is "Witches Sabbath", very fitting for the halloween season. On Sunday, I explored a town more north. Wow this was quite the adventure! I went on a solo trip to an island just off the coast of Sweden. It was about an hour and a half ferry ride to get there. I spent a total of 10 hours on this danish island. I began the journey bright and early before the sunrise at 6am to take a train to the town that the ferry would depart from. I had some ideas of possible things to do but not a set plan so I kinda just went with the flow. I ended up going to an art museum, cave, and hike through the forest. This trip had a lot of ups and downs. For example, I had trouble looking for a waterfall during a forest hike because the maps were not very intuitive to the trails I was seeing haha so I took a long detour by accident going through forest to "enter at your own risk" but I didn't know that until I used google translate to read the sign that I saw only on my way OUT of the detour, I didn't see one on my towards the direction I had gone. Once I got to the waterfall, it was a trickle. The sound of the water was there but there wasn't an actual waterfall. With that said, the detour I took was the highlight of my hike because the nature was absolutely stunning. There were lots of clovers, mushrooms, and various types of trees from different regions around the world, all gathered in this forest. I just about screamed at one point when I saw a dead mouse. Another mishap that happened was when I was waiting for a bus to take me back to the other side of the island where the ferry would depart from. Keeping in mind that the busses don't run as frequently on the weekend days, I waited early for the bus, but then I watched as it drove right passed me without stopping... because I made the silly mistake of standing on the wrong side of the street. It was definitely a lesson learned but luckily I was able to get some help from the ladies working at the nearby art museum so I took the next bus half an hour later which also happened to be a longer route that would drive by one of the main island attractions, castle ruins. So even though I almost started crying for my bus mishaps lol, I got to see more of the island while I looked out the window on the bus so it all worked out in the end. The next day I went on a dat trip to Malmo with my classmates. Since I am writing this after the fact, it turned out that the pipeline leaks were in very close proximity to the island that occurred just a couple days after I had been there. I'm glad I was able to go during a safe time. This week we worked on our advanced bargues all week. Luckily this week didn't go by as slowly as I anticipated while working on a single project (6-7 hours a day) because I was feeling really motivated to make as much headway on the project as I could and not thinking as much about it taking seven weeks because that can be tempting as a means to unnecessarily slow down. I really dove into trying to include as much detail as I could without adding any values just yet. I also attended Kroki again this week and I decided to use watercolors which was super fun! Since I didn't bring any acrylic or oil paints with me, I feel like my passion for painting was revived. The model had a lot of tattoos which made the painting really interesting! I feel like using graphite would keep the art piece in grayscale but with her tattoos I'm so glad I experimented with watercolors! My classmates and I went out to dinner at this delicious pizza place again, they're only open for another week or so before closing for the duration of winter so we're trying to enjoy it before then! This week we began our 7 week Bargue drawing. We are spending the first two weeks working solely on the Bargue and during the remaining 5 weeks we will be spending half of the day on the Bargue and the other half on other projects. This week we were also working on our "Seed" which is a creative piece of art (drawing or painting) that is prompted by a specific word or phrase. We have three each term. This first seed was "Wild Hunt" so it is up to the student to interpret what it means to them and be able to depict it through their piece of art. I included a photo below of how mine turned out, I decided to do three Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs hunting a lion. This week I went to a bonfire on the beach with my classmates and we roasted some hot dogs. Two of my classmates saw shooting stars while we were out! It was really peaceful, we could see the reflection of a bright star on the ocean water. The next day we went to one of my classmate's houses in a town over for a housewarming since they just recently moved. It was a nice time, we played exploding kittens, listened to records, and had some kladdkada, similar to chocolate lava cake, with vanilla ice cream. On Sunday, (after I turned in my seed) I got some fresh air on a walk and snapped some photos! The weather is starting to get a bit more chilly with a high of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Time for another week of bargues! This week we worked on two block-in bargues. This was to emphasize the beginning stages of any drawing or painting by mapping out the subject correctly with angles and placement of everything before proceeding to add any detail. I think of it kinda like creating the strong foundation before moving forward. This week went by more quickly than last week because we did two drawings instead of one and we started implementing breaks into our schedule so we take one halfway before lunch and another halfway before the school day ends. It was be exhausting otherwise so it is nice to re-energize, have a little snack, and look away from the drawing for a little after working so intensely on it. On Tuesday, I decided to join the portrait class after school, it was liberating in a way to be able to draw at my own pace- a break from the more deliberate bargue drawings. Then on Thursday, the school hosts a Kroki ( the first one took place last week), where they have a model posing for figure drawings and the public is welcome to come draw and enjoy the tea, coffee, and cookies that are available. On Friday we were going to attend a landscape painting expedition but it was raining so it got rescheduled and instead my friends and I enjoyed a day around town. It was nice because the town is much more lively on Fridays and Saturdays. My classmates and I went to dinner again and this time I gave it a rating of 11/10, a big change from last week's dinner rating haha. We went to a pizza restaurant and the food was amazing, the whole decor (inside and outside) was lovely, and the music was great (and yes, I asked for the playlist). On Saturday, I explored with my friend. We saw lots of creatures on our adventure! From jellyfish to tiny frogs, and a snail with a white shell! On Sunday, we made a trip to IKEA. My first time going to IKEA in the land it was created haha. My friend and I ended up buying candles in bulk to last us all winter, to save electricity, and for the cozy vibes. It was a fun weekend once again. Next week, we'll begin a 7 week bargue drawing! This week we worked Monday-Thursday (approx. 6 hours each day) on our Simple Bargue Drawings where we tried to match it as exact as we could. Soon we will be spending seven weeks on a more complicated bargue drawing. It sure does feel nice to have it completed! I was surprised by the amount of time we spent on this single drawing but towards the end, we tried to match every detail down to the pixels by making our sharp pencil lines look more like the printed copy that we were referencing. This week went by slowly at first but then sped up by the time it was Thursday because it was my classmate's birthday! It was her first birthday spent away from home so we tried to make it special for her with balloons and getting dinner together that evening. On Friday, my classmates and I went to grab dinner together again, we're trying to make it a weekly event for bonding time after a week of hard work! We got lured into a restaurant because a man outside offered us a small discount if we went there so we decided to try it but on average we rated our meals 6/10 lol so next time we might try to go somewhere with better ratings but at least now we know! On Saturday, I went to a town about an hour away with my classmate to go to the nearest H&M because we love that store (and their clearance section) and to explore around a bit. When we got back in town, we decided to go see the Dollarstore for the first time. I found a yoga mat and weights for a great price- so great that I decided it was worth it to walk a mile and a half back home holding them. That was a test of our endurance once again haha. It was a fun and busy week. Wow! My first week studying at SARA was quite the experience. I was in awe touring the school as there is art all over the walls. It is really inspiring to see the art on the walls as a constant reminder of our aspirations. The first two days of class we did three uninstructed drawings just so the teachers could see where we are at in skill level and for a before and after comparison once our studies are complete. Instruction began on Wednesday where we started creating Charles Bargue studies. We spent approximately 3 hours on each study trying to do a block-in of the Bargue, attempting to match it exactly down to the millimeter. We used a plumb line to help us with exact placement as well as the comparative method. By the end of each school day, my classmates and I were physically exhausted because our bodies are not yet used to standing or sitting for hours on end. We spoke to students in later terms and they reminisced about how they related to us about the first week how they were sore and the bargue exercises are tedious. To end the week, the school organized a picnic on Friday at the beach to celebrate the kick-off of the new school year and so students could get to know one another. A handful of the term 1 students went to grab Thai food for dinner on Friday evening, everyone is so kind! One of the students brings their dog, Harvey to school everyday. He is so cute, he takes naps during our studio time and we can hear him snoring sometimes, its so silly. He is like the therapy dog for the whole class whenever we're stressed, we just go pet him for a second haha. During the weekend, I went with a couple classmates to Malmo. It was so fun to explore around here! We went to an art store and a really cool botanical place. It was like an endless maze in the basement of different plants from all over the world with murals covering the walls to represent the country they were from. It was a busy week, but so much fun. I am soaking it all in! I had to travel a few hours away to finish up my VISA stuff in-person. Since I was far from home I wanted to make the most of it so I explored two different cities on this adventure! I left my apartment at about 5a.m. (early enough to catch the sunrise out the window) and was out all day, nearly walking 9 miles! During my trip I went to three different museums, a glass museum, emigrant museum, and an art museum. I also stopped by a huge cathedral and a beautiful botanical garden. It was an eventful day! I definitely didn't take over 200 photos in one day... lol. I am taking the next couple days to enjoy relaxing and preparing for school to begin. Today I think I had to catch up on sleep and at the same time continue adjusting to the 9 hour time change. Since it is Sunday, it seemed as though many things closed quite early, I think I saw on the window of a place that closed at 2pm (if I read it correctly, I still need to learn the days of the week in Swedish). They use military time here which is helpful so I can easily determine a.m. by p.m. and when I was walking around 3pm, most stores were closed while restaurants and cafes were open. Today I took it easy and just did some more grocery shopping to get settled in.
Last night my landlord invited me to go along with him and his wife to the flea market the following morning that is reoccurring every Saturday. When we went, there was a lot of antiques and records, things of those sorts. We walked around town together, through a garden, and came across a series of booths outside for various political parties as they have elections coming up next month. Afterwards, we got some cherries at the food stand and some books nearby then we walked down to a cafe to get a coffee and pastry together. In Sweden, they have a time during the afternoon called "Fika" that is a time where they chat and have a coffee and usually cinnamon bun type pastry. I got a latte and delicious pastry. I'm not sure what it was exactly, it was like a cookie with pear custard over it covered with a shell of white chocolate. It was so tasty, I can't wait to go back and get it again and try other pastries! My landlord got the same thing but black licorice flavor, I had noticed black licorice candy in the store the other day too. It was nice speaking with them about the Swedish culture, classical art, and more. They are a kind couple. They also told me a funny story about how their to-go bags are called "Doggy bags". Just a few years ago it was considered to be embarrassing to be seen with a togo bag but they have since transitioned towards a mindset where it is normal now to avoid wasting food. But they told a story of someone they knew who ate out with friends and they all got lamb on the bone and she had a good amount of meat leftover and wanted to take it home to eat later so she asked for a doggy bag. The server came back with a large bag with bones from everyone at the table with hers mixed in because they misunderstood thinking she was going to give it all to her- what would've been- very lucky dog that she didn't even have lol. I noticed that many people have dogs around here and they're usually ones with short legs and long bodies like Scottish Terriers and Dachshunds lol very adorable. I noticed a little yesterday, but even moreso today, the difference in the culture when it comes to speed and interaction with others. In California, I feel as though we are usually moving quickly at a go-go-go rate, but in this town in Sweden, people leave a lot of time for leisure interactions/conversations with others like with workers and such. I feel that it is a nice change of pace. Usually I feel that my schedule is jam packed but here, time moves slower. I ended up taking a long nap after I got back home. For dinner later, I got some pizza at a cute airstream-looking food truck on the harbor. I explored the town and decorated my apartment! I had so much fun going to all the shops around, there was a plant store, fabric store, clothing stores, cute cafe's, and more. I found the grocery store and was in there for 45 minutes, I probably spent about 30 minutes in there just exploring and then 15 minutes actually grocery shopping lol. One of my favorite moments was learning that "noodles" in Swedish is "nudlar" when I saw a brand, "Yum Yum Nudlar". I also explored the harbor nearby where I saw a two-foot fish in the water and people enjoying some ice cream. Today was surprisingly warm outside, I believe it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit, I better enjoy the warmth before the extremely cold winter here! There was a handful of pizza places around too. I feel much more comfy in my place now that I added decorations making it more home-like. I thought it was so crazy, I decided to bring a lot of butterfly-themed decorations like magnets and a tapestry from home to put up in my apartment and one of my favorite things I experienced today was the immense amount of butterflies everywhere!! I even got scared by them a couple times cause there were so many that some flew in front of my face, surprising me haha. I also walked by my school today! Videos: Grocery Store and of Butterfly Video: Apartment Decorating Wow! What a journey. I went from San Francisco, CA to Phoenix, AZ to Heathrow, UK to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a series of three plane flights, luckily I slept during most of them so the traveling time went rather quickly. Once I was in Copenhagen, I took two train rides to get to my final destination in Sweden. Then, I went on a short walk to get to my apartment which was a little tricky with my luggage wheels on the cobblestone but it didn't matter much because I was just in awe (at 12am) at the town with their giant flower arrangements along the sidewalk and the brick & timber architecture here. My landlord was kind and stayed up late to welcome me in as one of my flights got delayed so I arrived later than anticipated. I'm so glad I made it safely. During my journey going from one destination to the next, I couldn't help but feel extra grateful for my parents. My previous experiences traveling with them were a great help to my solo endeavors. They also instilled a yearn to explore in me which is one reason why I initially looked into art schools abroad. It was so funny, my landlord said at the late night hour that I arrived that "the town probably feels dark and desolated (the tourist season is nearly over). A bit like the end of the world, I'm afraid. In the morning you'll see that it's actually populated." I love his honesty. But with that, I can't wait to see what the town looks like during the day. My Journey from Cali to Sweden in a 30 second video I thought the last time I would see Madi before my trip was when I left my cousin's bachelorette party but I was wrong. She surprised us at the airport! It sure was tough to say bye to my family but I just remind myself that we'll keep in touch frequently and that I'll see them soon enough in January. Dylan went out of his way to take a plane to the San Francisco International Airport that I was flying out of so that we could be together during the couple hours in the gate area before I boarded the plane. It's scary leaving to a place where I don't know anyone and that I've never been to, but I'm staying positive knowing that those circumstances would soon change as I meet people and become familiar with the culture and area. Sweden, I'll see you soon!
TikTok Video of my Airport Experience Lots of activities during this last week! I went to my cousin's bachelorette party, celebrated my dad's birthday early, spontaneously went to two concert/music events, and did some exploring and hanging out with my parents and sister. It was a memorable week to say the least! |
AuthorHi, it's Ashlyn! I post about my journey in Sweden as I continue my art studies at the Swedish Academy of Realist Art (SARA). I'll be posting updates on what I'm doing at the academy and any adventures I do during my free time outside of my studies. This is my first time doing a blog, thanks for checking it out! |