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

The fourth floor!

This tuesday we went to Drottninggatan 12 (i.e Queens way nr 12) where yet another of our "university"buildings are located. We took the stairs (of course) to the 4th floor. Up there, the view down on Queensway (as mentioned earlier) was – well – quite nice. That is, if you like busses, cars, people in winter clothes and melting, dirty snow (In swedish this is known (and hated) as "snöslask", pronounced with genuine disgust..)

Sven was rather successfull in finding the beauty in all this. How does he do it?

Björns image (which shows a part of the Best Western Hotel here in Eskilstuna. Björns says: I have not been inside, because people keeps telling scary stories of what happened in room 1408...)

When frustrated by the wiggly hotel building, Björn tried to sketch this car instead. Of course, the owner arrived and set off almost immediately...Sometimes it is really hard beeing an artist.

Åsas image of the central station building. This was created with Åsas magical super pens. (She keeps them in a strange bag and does not let anybody close.)

And of course, we are happy to welcome Professor Roberto Verganti from Italy. This image is his first (but not last!) made during an Urban Sketchers Eskilstuna-meeting. Roberto says that finally, Eskilstuna has become a bit more like Italy, thanks to USK-ESK! (That's us!)

Lasses image will arrive shortly! (When he is done photoshopping, we suspect...)

Finally, here it is!

Lasses sketch of Urban-Åsa!

/Björn

Faktotum!

Faktotum is a museum situated close to our work. And this time, due to the cold weather (about -15 degrees Celsius) we wanted to go somewhere close.

The museum contains a rather large department aimed at children (or parents with children), as we went in there, a group of (screaming!) school kids and their really tired teacher went out. Good for us.
What else? The coffee was great (and cheap), only 10 Sek for a really good cappuchino.

/Björn


Ja, gott folk! Vi gick alltså till Faktotum och tecknade idag. Bra ställe, vi går förmodligen dit nästa gång också – inte bara på grund av det goda och prisvärda kaffet. Det finns en hel del att teckna också, exempelvis ångmaskiner och sånt.

Vi hade lite ont om tid eftersom eftermiddagen var mötestid. Inte skoj...Stackars Jennie kom lite sent til Faktotum och gjorde det bästa av situationen.

På återseende!

/Björn.

Svens bild av utsikten från det innersta rummet.

Björns variant.

Jennys snabbskiss

Björns andra bild. Denna skildrar en del av utställningen.

Hela rasket!

This tuesday we went to our local swimming hall.
It looks about the same as in this video from 1933, when the place was inaugurated.
The results from our visit can be found down below. Feel free to leave us some comments!

Thanks for Your visit!

/Björn

Ja, gott folk, idag var vi i det helvetesvarma badhuset (åtminstone på läktaren). Å andra sidan var det extremt snöfall utanför (om någon nu missade det).

Sven har lyckats bra med detaljerna. Man kan ana vattnet till höger i bilden. Vatten är ju viktigt i alla typer av badhus.

Åsas första urban-bild!

Björns bild visar träningsmojängerna på Nautilusgymmet. Måste vara varmt att träna där...

Han hann inte ned till vattnet, men det finns där nedan någonstans.

Lasse fixade vatten! 

/Björn