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Here are some ipad sketches from Trondheim!

I haven't used it for sketching "real life" people until now...! It's pretty neat!

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I've been kinda low about my art lately and started knitting to get a break. I've nearly filled my first smaller 2018 sketchbook, but it's just doodles and croqus. Now that spring is here, I'm hoping to get back to good habits!!

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

Happy New Year + Finished sketchbook for 2017! 🎉

Happy New Year!

This year has been pretty structured so I haven't been traveling or doing crazy new stuff. I have been pretty busy with work, learning a lot of new things and having fun in my new home office space. I fulfilled most of my 2016 new years resolutions, except for the "learn one new thing", in which I planned to learn a song on the ukulele. In the end I traded it for... JAZZBALLET *jazzhands* (I'm am still a terrible dancer.)

I had great plans about updating my blog a lot this year, but life got in the way and I haven't had much time... I hope the "new year" feeling lasts a while so I have the energy to plan some stuff ahead... stay tuned. 

What I have spent some time on this year, is my sketchbook!
Which was finished...
IN NOVEMBER.

For the past two yearly sketchbooks I've had to catch up during the Christmas holidays, but this year I finished a whole month early! I think this is mostly due to me being sick of looking at a screen and spending more time with the sketchbook... and additionally using it to sketch all my inktober sketches... which I finished this year! (I bought myself a new pencil-case as a reward!)

Anyway, behold!
Here are some sketches from the sketchbook of 2017... most were smudged from the low quality paper and pencil combo that I enjoy so much so they couldn't be saved by heavy PS, but here are some that could be saved... and isn't a bunch of nude people.

Me + plants.

A good dog + People in Henningsvær.

Various self-indulgent doodling!
(Arc from Inktober!)

People (and hand) watching.

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

Instagram – from the sketchbook!

I have a sketchbook instagram where I'll post some snapshots from my sketchbook!

If you like the sketchbook summary posts I do once a year– then this is for you.

🌿✨ . . . #doodle #plants #succulents #sketchbook

A post shared by annem (@heiannemarit) on Jun 22, 2017 at 1:14am PDT

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

Saturday studio sessions in Bodø.

For the past four Saturdays I've been doing croquis of long pose studies at an art studio! It was amazing to be back in an art interested environment and hanging out with people who was up for discussions on drawing utensils, papers, sources of inspiration and so on while eating cookies after class.

Here are some of my favorites from the last session: They are my favorite since I did them in the cheapest markers I had, and for some reason my brain and eye works 100% better when there are no do-overs. Living on the edge..!

The other sessions were done in pencil and ended up pretty messy and smudged... oh well!

There was talk of doing another round of sessions in the summer or fall, but with some quick-poses before going into the long one...! So excited! :^D

*Model ended up wearing underwear– Which was good since there was a cold front and the models felt 100% more comfortable + The models were wonderful, had very elegant poses and were super nice and chatty during the breaks! They really joined in making it a supportive and relaxed environment!

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Last sketches from the sketchbook!

Looking forward to sharing sketches and doodles from 2017! :^)

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

2017: New Year + Finished Sketchbook!

Happy new years!

This year has gone by way too quickly and I have been much too busy to keep up with my side-projects, update my blog AND have a life, so the blog and life was nipped in the bud ;^)

I think I managed about.. half-ish of last years resolutions, which means I managed to finish the sketchbook and tried, valiantly, to get up early. The rest just fell off the wagon named "life." Oh well!

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:

• Run every week! Need to be in a good physical shape to be in a good mental shape! Which coincidentally lines up with my last years "Get up early", since I really enjoy running in the morning. One stone, two birds. 
• Get in bed early and read before sleeping. Since this makes me not only sleep better, but fills a "read more books" resolution.
• Fill a 2017 sketchbook.
• Finish one of the many projects I have outlined in my notebooks.
• Keep having fun Ketsjup meetings!
• Go to Oslo and hang out with Ketsjup IRL.
• Learn how to play a song on my ukulele.
  

SKETCHBOOK 2016

I finished my 2016 sketchbook after hiking up my doodlin' pants and filling the last pages during the Christmas holidays. I switched out the heavy paper sketchbook after realizing, I'm just not that kinda girl... thin, low-quality paper is where my heart lies. There are some 2015 illustrations in it from the Brussels trip, but whatever: Look at the flapping pages! Next year, I hope to finish well before the Christmas holidays and do even more digital illustrations since there were few this year...! Wish me good luck.

Some stuff from the sketchbook: Mostly pens, since pencils are hard to edit and the paper is super smudge-y. Hurray for my love of low-quality, cheap sketchbooks!

My dad napping! (Sorry dad.)

I had about... 5-6 pen doodles of my friend Hanne, who was kind enough to sit still while I eyeballed her. Thank you!

Unfortunately, I realized that almost all the people I sketch are nude, and I try to keep my blog PG-13 ;^) + I started doing small "thumbnail" sceneries from windows. It was pretty refreshing! 

Here's to 2017! 

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

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Some old-ish doodles and gesture drawings. My main go-to drawing utensils have been the mech pencil and my sketchbook lately...!

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

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Recent sketches! For some reason this past month has been really busy..! I want to make more time to do draw!

FINISHED SKETCHBOOK PARTY AT MY HOUSE!!

I started my ASDA sketchbook when I was in Manchester in 2014 during the summer and have been drawing in it on-and-off. It's a little bit smaller than A4 and the paper is not too thick, so it feels really nice to draw in with pencil and micropens (prismas bleed through tho!). I really wanted to keep it a 2014/2015 sketchbook, so I hiked up my drawing-pants this past month to finish it and now... it's finished! :^D

I don't think I've finished a sketchbook completely (I do have some which are close to finished) until now, tho not for the lack of trying. I keep buying new ones because new sketchbooks are seriously the best and if I find a nice sketchbook I gotta have it... but since my sketches are divided on digital and by hand, they just don't get filled in that fast.

Here are some sketches from it!
Taken by phone and edited in PS, so the ones that came out looking OK were the ink sketches and some of the stand-alone doodles...no bakgrounds! I guess they will remain a mystery in my sketchbook until I buy a scanner.

Super excited to start my 2016 sketchbook! It has slightly thicker and texturized paper... saving my last ASDA sketchbook for 2017! I will try my best to finish it too! (I will need more stickers for the outside...)

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

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Recent (and oldish) sketches and doodles, some practice stuff from music videos + Bonus doodle animation that I did on the train!

PRIMARY feat. Lena Park "Hello"

Azealia Banks feat. Lazy Jay "212"

Tanks for looking!

xAnneM

INKTOBER 2015 | Week #02 + ?

Woah! Inktober ran away from me and I managed to totally lose my streak of drawing one every day until the gap was so huge I couldn't manage to finish. Oh well! there is always next year! I feel like all in all I had a good time and maybe next year is the year I actually manage to finish... third time is the charm after all :^) Hopefully the quality won't be as terrible as this year! I am so rusty at inks and my undo button skills are useless on paper...!

Here are my ink doodles that I edited in PS. The missing ones (and super terrible) are on my instagram account: Happy Galaxy! They were sporadically done since I spent a whole week in Brüssels + some late ones done at home.

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

Brüssel trip + sketches!

Last week I met up with the bf for a weeklong adventure in Brüssels, Belgium! My bf came directly from a three week bicycle trip through Etiopia (It's not vacation, it's exercise), so he was on board for the way I enjoy spending a vacation: Eating and looking at stuff!

We went to a lot of great food places. One of them was right near our hotel and was a Pho-fastfood joint called PhoPho: Cheap and really delicious! Another was a Lebanese restaurant where we were lucky enough to get a table before it filled up for the night. We ordered a ridiculous amount of food that we barely managed to finish, but did because it was so good! The flavors were so fresh and smooth I am still dreaming of their falafel! 

I also ate a lot of soup-of-the-day and cannot recommend it enough. Even the shabbiest places in Büssels had really nice, thick and smooth soup in leek, potato and cabbage flavor served with warm and fluffy bread, and they were just the thing when the weather turned sour on us! Brüssels really is more than clams and chips with mayo! (Which we did try... odd, but surprisingly good!)

Bonus mention: We stumbled upon the restaurant "Balls and Glory" which serves, you guessed it, MEATBALLS! I didn't eat there, but my bf did and he was all mmms and ahhhs over the dish he ordered. It's a new establishment and the staff was so friendly and enthusiastic! The guy we chatted to most, was an illustration graduate like me and we bonded over talking about why not to study illustration (which a hint of humor, of course!) + Their wine is really nice and you get apples and pears for snacking while you wait for food!

We visited several great museums and places, but my top three recommendations for doing Brüssels are: 

1. Belgian Comic Strip Center (10€)
   Totally worth the entrance price! Has features on history and mediums + So many lovely comic book originals and features a broad range of different Belgian/French comic book creators.
2. Museum of Moden Arts (8€ to 14€)
   We bought a ticket for the three permanent exhibitions (+ selected modern pieces) and even though we were there the whole day we couldn't get through it all! I recommend buying one ticket for either the Musée Fin-de-Siècle or Musée Oldmasters since they are huge and feature some amazing art! Modern was tiny and the feature piece you get to see either way when you wander in the Oldmasters section ;^) If you are a big fan of Magritte, the Musée Magritte is very nice, but if you only have a few hours, I'd do one of the two mentioned above.
3. City Tour (0€)
   Take a few days to walk around: Check out the different comic-strip-walls, find the pis-statues (Menneken Pis, Jeanneken Pis, Zinneke Pis), the main square, the general architecture + the "student" places near the mid/south part. So many nice second-hands shops and eateries/bars!

BONUS: Right now there is a free-for-all graffiti wall near Mont des Arts where I did a little doodle for inktober!

Bf was a good sport and brought books to read while I sketched in cafés and restaurants... what a great boyfriend! We ended up finding a "favorite" coffee place that was almost always full of people so we only managed to drink and sit twice: Café Capitale. Great coffee, nice seating areas, great people-watching-views and the nicest staff ever! One of the guys working there is going on a coffee tour of Scandinavia soon, so bf got to recommend some places and people to meet in Oslo/Bergen. Nerds. (JK!)

I didn't really want to do a lot of shopping since I had just bought myself new glasses before leaving, but my bf was adamant on going to every store since he is in dire need of updating his wardrobe to become less "youthful" to more "professional". I ended up splurging on the loveliest (and unpractical... seriously, it doesn't even close the whole way) coat from Benetton that I have been lusting after since I saw it in a shop window in Bodø. It was a a couple of 100NOKs cheaper in Brüssels, so I went for it!
So pretty!

We also took the short 1 hour train ride to Brugge, which is an amazing preserved medieval town: It felt like walking through a fairytale village and we popped into any and all tourist things we walked by. Just walking around was an experience, and I am contemplating moving there when I am an old lady and deserving of it's beauty!

Recommended for sharing: Belgian waffle with ice cream! It's so big I don't know how anybody can eat a whole one...!

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM