At work!

Today, we stayed inside. The weather is lousy at the moment...or quite frankly, the weather is always lousy....It became even more depressing, since Sven and Björn had bought "urban chairs" to be used during sunny urban-esk-meetings...

Urban chair....

However, Lasse, Sven and Björn decided to find different places and gather around a cup of coffee (and discuss our pieces of work) forty minutes later.
We stuck to our plan. Coffee was great, of course. So was the cake.

Today, Sven went wide screen!

Björn, on the other hand, did the opposite.

Lasses image from "krockplatsen"which translates to...eh..a place to crash?

/Björn

A view from a cake!

Yes, we went to Café Kaka (which translates to Café Cake...or Café Bisquit), which has a new owner, but about the same coffee and cake = great. We sat by one of the windows.

This tuesday, only Sven and Björn were able to attend the USK-gathering. The spine of the USK-Eskilstuna group, according to themselves.

Hopefully, some of the other members will send in some images later on.

Sven's image of "Smörparken"(the butter park...yes, this is a strange little town.)

Björn's image of the ...well, we have no idea, but it is probably some sort of a sculpture.

/Björn

Tuesday outside! Mälardalens university

This tuesday, we went outside, for the first time this season.
As always, we were short of time and went to a place close by – which happened to be part of Mälardalen University.

Sven and Lasse are using our most important tools when sketching: coffe and biscuits.

Our patio

At work!

Sven's image

Björn's image and a commet from the artist himself: actually I am a few centimeters taller than Sven, which explains my perspective. I have no comment about the world's largest drain pipe....how could Sven miss that???

Lasse's

And this one is from Roberto (from Italy).

The Fort!

As always, we were short of time and decided to go a building (no spring yet!) somewhere close by. The next building happens to be "Fort F", which is short for "Fortifikationsverket". I will add some photos later on, because this place is impossible to describe.

However, we (Lasse, Sven and Björn) did find a really nice "patio". Björn, being a man of the north, sat outside, while Lasse and Sven (both with rather sensitive skin) stayed inside. Unfortunately, a great number of smokers came outside and bothered Björn and his creative process.

 Sven's image!

 Björn's image!

Lasse's image!

More stuff will arrive shortly!

IDT!

TGTA! (Thank God, Tuesday Again!)

We stayed in the building this time because of the arctic winter outside (c.f The day after tomorrow or just about any movie with penguins).
Sven had yet another mission to Stockholm, and the rest of the USK-Eskilstuna were somewhere else. Not to worrry, Lasse and Björn completed today's sketching just close to our MUX-lab (our centre for usabilitity testing).

Lasses image.

Björn's version of some of our students

Björn's other image.

We had enough time to have a cup of coffee and do some more sketches of our students. Hopefully, they will forgive Björn for his rough versions of some of them. Please forgive him!

I suspect that more images will arrive shortly!

/Björn

S:t Eskil

Today we (Sven, Åsa, Roberto, Karl, Lasse and Björn) did something extraordinary [as always].
We transported ourselves and our painting equipment to S:t Eskils gymnasium (i.e an upper secondary school for kids up to 18 years of age).

Svens image of the corridor on the top floor.

Björns image of Sven (painting the corridor of the image above...this is really complicated).

Björns image of the chair he is not in, at the moment (as I said, this is VERY complicated)

Robertos image

Lasses image.

Åsas image

Karl's first image. A view from one of the windows on the top floor.

Karl's second image.

More images will arrive shortly!

/björn

All work and no play...

Today, work interfered with our USK-meeting. Where is the Geneva convention when you need it?
However, Sven went to Nacka (Stockholm) and held a lecture.  Also, and more important, he completed this great image. Lasse was somewhere else, like the rest of the group.

Svens image from Stockholm.

Björn, like Cinderella (!?) stayed in his room and completed this image during his lunch break.

Hopefully, we will be able to hold a "real" meeting later this week

Roberto sent his image all the way from Boston.

/Björn

USK-ESK go science parking!

Tueday, at last!

This time we (three students of illustration, Sven and Björn) went to Munktell Science Park (not far from our beloved art museum). Munktell Science Park contains a number of small enterprises and some representatives from banks, Mälardalen University and people from other places (Actually, I have no idea at all...).

Some clips from the area can be seen down below.


However, the building itself it quite interesting. This actually used to be part of the Bolinder Munktell Factories (nowadays it is well known as Volvo BM). Urban sketchers on historical ground!

Mr Theofron Munktell as himself. Mr Bolinder was somewhere else when this image was created.

Afterwards, we went for a fika (i.e coffee!) in the café (just by the art museum). Not by any means the best café in town, it is more of a restaurant.

Svens image shows the meeting area, one of the offices and the entrance with the information desk.

Björns image...

Karls first image.

K2!

K3!

Åsa E:s image of the MSP-kitchen!

More pieces will arrive shortly.

Café Bönan

Dagens Urban Sketchers utflykt gick till det lilla trevliga cafét "Bönan" beläget på Köpmangatan i Eskilstunas gamla stadsdel. Dessvärre var vi idag en liten skara (endast Sven och Lasse) då några valt att besöka lite varmare breddgrader så här i sportlovstider, men det var trevligt ändå.

And finally, Björns image from Maspalomas (Gran Canaria):

  

Högvarv!

Image: The högvarv-event!

This snowy tuesday we went to the Högvarv-event. Högvarv is an annual event, that give students and employers a chance to meet and talk. And to eat lots of candy.

A few more images will arrive shortly! :)

Best regards,
Björn


Och nu – på svenska!

Tisdag! Efter ett tips från USK-Eva begav vi oss iväg till Högvarv, ett årligt event som syftar till att låta studenter och arbetsgivare mötas och äta godis. Bland annat.
Vi satte oss längst in och iakttog det hela.
Björn, som värderar sitt liv mycket högt, placerade sig framför branddörren, Sven i en mjuk soffa och Lasse även han på någon sorts soffhistoria.

Det obligatoriska efterfikat intog vi på Café Nyckeln. Underbaaaaaara havre-choklad-kakor.

Sven använde sina fyrtio minuter flitigt. Najs!

Lasses bild visar myllret av arbets- och godissugna studenter.

Björns bild visar ett annat utsnitt av verkligheten. Kvinnan till vänster finns dock

med även i Svens bild. Gissa rätt och vinn en fin överraskning!

Roberto's sketch from today...

From the window of my office in Milan... (what you see is an old gas tank, that nowadays is not working anymore, and is a museum in the bushes of the perifery of Milan... industrial archeology... :-))

Sporthallen, Sälen och Lancaster!

Idag gick Sven och Björn till Sporthallen. (De övriga var bortresta, hemma och väntade hantverkare och/eller gjorde något annat). Åsa, som var i Sälen fixade en bild därifrån. Se nedan. Så gjorde även Roberto, fast han skickade sin från Lancaster university. Se nedan, den också.

Bild: Sporthallen, innan man inträder i själva hallen.

Vårt ädla syfte var förstås att dokumentera detta historiska monument, innan det rivs, pulveriseras, kapslas i cement och läggs till slutförvaring i urberget femhundra meter ned i underjorden. Varför detta säkerhetspådrag, undrar ni kanske? Man måste nog vara på plats i något av omklädningsrummen för att förstå. Alla kvarglömda strumpor, kalsonger, susps etc. är inte helt fräscha.
Varning utfärdad.

Svens bild känns lite för snygg. Det känns som om man skulle kunna äta mat på det polerade golvet, eller hur? Björn vill gärna kritisera hans skönmålning som ger en skev och rent felaktig bild av den ruffiga känslan av depression, gammal tobak och regelrätt undergång, som byggnadens innersta sänder ut till medborgarna i Eskilstuna. Låt oss hoppas att det kommande monumentet, Receiver, ställer allt till rätta igen.

Björns satsade alltså mer på äkthet och socialrealism istället. Varenda snusfläck är vacket återgivna på den gamla biljettkuren. 

Bläcket i LAMY-pennan var dessvärre vattenlösligt, så planen att stänka medeltjockt avloppsvatten över papperet fick läggas ned. Tyvärr. Istället gick han mot sina principer (nej, detta händer sannerligen inte ofta) och använde kemikalier (tuschpennor) till den orangea bakgrunden. Dessvärre hade han inte rätt färg.

Åsa, som var i Sälen, skickade en bild därifrån. Härlig fjällkänsla!

Robertos image sent by airmail from the U.K.

Some info from Roberto: A "thinking igloo" in the woods next to the University of Lancaster, UK. 

/Björn