the downtown aprils

May 11, 2024May 11, 2024Leave a comment

Here are a few downtown sketches from recently, I have more but why drop them all at once, this isn’t Netflix. Still you get four here, so that feels like dropping a mini-series and then dropping part two later. Maybe it’s more like a Disney+ series in that it’s got no real story and goes ultimately nowhere. Or it’s just a few more sketches of this place I’ve been living for the past eighteen and a half years. Right, above, that’s the side of the Natsoulas Gallery, and that big dog made of records and cat made of pottery, I’ve drawn them before. I know I should tell new stories to go along with these sketches, but I’m not going to, I’m just plodding on.

I think I have not drawn this building before, on F Street up by 5th. I mean, I’ve not had much reason to. This time, I quite liked the shadow I guess. There’s an eyebrow shop there, which reminds me of Ebenezer Blackadder’s moustache shop (in our favourite Christmas TV show). I saw an eyebrow shop in Riverside called “Eyebrows-R-Us” which made me look twice. I was going to pop in, hoping someone would ask me if I’m looking for anything particular, and I would say “No, I just came in for a browse,” but that would have been pretty a weak gag. Next door is the place that does these ‘Hump Bikes’, which are shaped a bit liked mopeds, but electric and silent, and apparently totally allowed in the bike lane, where they move much more quickly than regular bikes and appear suddenly beside me. They give me the hump. I drew this on a day when I was really risking things by being outside, because the allergens have been particularly strong lately. Sure enough, I ended up sneezing over and over, as per usual.

Here’s a place I have sketched before, on the corner of B and 3rd. I think it’s Sam’s Falafel Hut now, I remember it used to be Ciocolat. Things move around in Davis. I stood in the shade of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame to draw this. I’ve never been in there either. I ride a bike around all the time, but I suppose I’ve never been that interested in seeing the Hall of Fame for riding a bike. There was one time during the pandemic that I rode from downtown to home to pick up a key and then down to campus in the fastest time possible, because one of our visiting faculty had locked themself out of their office and needed to start their online class, and I was out for lunch while working from home. It was a legendary ride. Maybe it should go in the Hall of Fame, is that how that works? I don’t know. I watch the Tour de France on TV sometimes, it’s probably more stuff like that. I think the main reason I’ve never gone in is because I don’t really like drawing bikes. I’m a bit rubbish at circles. Don’t start looking at my car wheels now though, thank you.

The last one is from D Street or somewhere. I think they do hair or nails or moustaches or something here. I just like the shape of the triangular roof. I have drawn a lot of D Street lately. I draw a lot in general. I was going to do a sketchcrawl last week, another Let’s Draw Davis, on May the 4th. I made it Star Wars themed. It absolutely bucketed down that day. Normally I wouldn’t mind sketching int he rain, and I could go inside and sketch anyway, but it was one of those days, I wasn’t feeling that great, so I stayed in and stayed comfortable. That evening though we did go downtown to the Varsity Theatre to watch the rereleased showing of The Phantom Menace. Great stuff! More Davis sketches to come.

a block of second street

May 9, 2024Leave a comment

After Spring Break, the Spring Quarter began, another busy time but at least it wasn’t Winter Quarter. In my Quest To Draw Every Inch of Davis (not a real quest) I decided to go down to 2nd Street to sketch Logos Books, the little second-hand bookshop on the corner of the row, and Soccer and Lifestyle next door, the soccer themed shop that I first went into back in 2005 when we drove over to Davis for the day, and I wandered downtown while my wife interviewed at this university called UC Davis that I had never heard of until a few days before. I’m football shirt crazy, and I love a good book, so I’ve spent a bit of time in here over the years (admittedly quite a lot more time in Soccer and Lifestyle, I am really really obsessed with football shirts, I mean ‘soccer jerseys’), so a sketch of this block is long overdue. I came back a couple of days alter to draw the rest of the block, the part where Philz Coffee is located. I’ve never been in there, I don’t drink coffee (it’s not my cup of tea, literally) but I should pop in sometimes. Ach, I’ve really spent a lot of my time in this town. This used to be where De Luna jewellers was (that is what it was called isn’t it? The memory is going as the years get further away). I drew that once on a rainy day in about 2008, if memory serves (I usually remember drawings well enough). I stood outside the now-empty closed-since-covid Uncle Vito’s to draw this.

24 hours in Vegas

May 8, 2024May 9, 2024Leave a comment

At the end of the Utah trip, we spent the night in Las Vegas. We stayed at the Venetian – well, the Palazzo, the equally fancy and lavish massive hotel next door that’s an extension of the Venetian. It was very very nice. Our room was on the 45th floor, the hotels in Vegas can be pretty enormous. Our window overlooked one of Vegas’s newest curios, The Sphere, an absolutely massive ball covered in a wraparound LED screen, displaying all sorts of animations and advertisements. There’s a big concert venue inside, I know U2 were playing there last year. I had to draw it. There was a giant animated emoji that would come up, that was easier to sketch than the goldfish bowl. Sometimes it would turn into a big basketball. Honestly, it’s really made to be turned into a Death Star isn’t it. There’s a lot of Vegas behind it, with an airplane landing way below us. Strange being so high up. It’s been a little while since I was last in Vegas, actually I think it was the layover I had in 2019, when I stayed at the seriously aging Luxor. It’s twenty years this year since my wife and I got married in Las Vegas! Before our wedding we stayed at the Luxor, and for the wedding itself we were at the Rio. For our honeymoon, we went to the Venetian, which was our favourite of the big themed resorts. It’s brilliant. That shop Michael Jackson used to buy his tacky junk in is still there. Back then in 2004 we had a nice dinner at a restaurant called the Canaletto, on the indoor St Marks Square; we went back all these years later for a lovely meal. This time was our son’s first trip to Vegas, and we were going to see the Beatles ‘Love’ show by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage. My wife and I last saw that show in 2011! It’s a brilliant performance, and my son loved it. And a few weeks later, we learned after 16 years the show is closing. What a shame! I’m glad I got to see it (twice). Anyway, before the show we walked down the Strip a bit, and it was pretty packed, bit too busy for me. After our Utah trip and the long journey across the desert, and dinner and shops and the show, we slept well that night. Of course, I was a little nervous about scorpions; I’d heard that a man last year had been stung on his (ahems) in his bed at the Venetian by a scorpion in his sheets. I triple-checked the sheets that night!

When I got up I went out sketching on the Strip, which was a little less busy than the night before, but not without the lads carrying around those long plastic margarita containers and those ladies dressed as showgirls getting people to take photos with them for tips. I stood in the shade underneath the bridge next to the traffic and sketched the Strip, until I got a bit bored of standing there, and left it at that. We didn’t do too much more in Vegas, except we drove down the Strip towards the older downtown, looking for the place we got married, Cupid’s Wedding Chapel. It’s a little rougher down there, and one block just off the Strip was cordoned off by the cops. We looked for the chapel, with its distinctive red heart-shaped sign, but unfortunately, it’s gone. That was a shame! Nothing sits still for too long in Vegas…

Kolob Canyons

May 6, 2024May 6, 2024Leave a comment

It turns out the next national park we would visit was actually Zion again, but a completely different (almost completely separate) part of the park called Kolob Canyons. We were on the long long drive from Bryce Canyon to Las Vegas, so this was a good place halfway to stop for a while (but that was a long journey across the desert, and an otherwise boring busy freeway). We stopped and went to an overlook where you can see the panoramic vista, with arches like huge wheels forming in the rich orange rock; I used that new Daniel Smith Aussie Red Gold to bring out the colour in this one, that paint is a bit strong (and a lot more golden yellow than the reddish brown that comes out of the tube, it’s a way stronger pigment than my other paints). We stopped in at the Visitor Center on the way in, where I got my souvenirs, but we didn’t have time to do any hiking, we were off to spend the night in Vegas.

Bryce Canyon

May 5, 20248 Comments

It was a fairly long drive across southern Utah from Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park, most of which was filled with bluish grey scenery with mysterious mountain backdrops, until we passed through an area called Red Canyon, where the rocks suddenly took on a bright reddish orange, and we had to drive through two archways in the rock. Snow was falling, and got heavier as we pressed on to Bryce Canyon City, which is not exactly a City, more of a village, but one that has an excellent big hotel and restaurant called Ruby’s Inn. Though we stayed across the street at another nice hotel, we had dinner at Ruby’s both nights, hearty all-you-can-eat grub in a cowboy setting. We were spending just one day hiking Bryce Canyon, and while the landscape was covered in snow, it was another blue sky day for our exploring. It was busy, and not easy to find a place to park, but we started out at Sunrise Point, where my son and I hiked into the surreal landscape of the Queens Garden. Bryce Canyon is famous for its distinctive ‘hoodoos’, tall rock formations that look like the surface of an alien planet. While hoodoos exist elsewhere too, Bryce has the largest concentration of them, and to look down upon the valley from the plateau is like looking into an impenetrable maze. The trail felt like going on an adventure, and as we got deeper in the path got muddier and muddier. We had special metal devices for our boots to give extra grip, but our boots were absolutely caked in orange mud when we were done.

I forgot to bring my sketchbook with me, which was unlike me. As my wife didn’t come on the hike into the steep valley, she walked along the rim, before heading back to the hotel to get some snacks and pick up my sketchbook. The drawing above is one I did afterwards at the hotel, I really wanted to catch the unusual shapes in this place. The sketch at the very top, the distinctive and famous ‘Thor’s Hammer’, I drew quickly at the trailhead when I got my sketchbook. I did want to try to draw a panorama of the landscape though, so I drew the whole scene below from the Sunset Point – though in pencil outline, I did start some of the ink but decided to go and hike along the rim a little more, so I ended up drawing most of that at the hotel too. We loved this place. It’s not often you get to see a place so spectacular. It took a long time to get there, but these are the parts of America you just have to see to believe. And it was so red!

The Queen’s Garden merged with the Navajo Trail, which took me and my son through more muddy oaths and snowy vales, before leading us upward in a steep zigzag, and passing the aforementioned Thor’s Hammer. Here it is again, below. You really get the sense of mythology here, and it reminded me of the Valley of the Mystics in the Dark Crystal. We felt pretty great when we made it back up to the top, that was a good achievement for us both. We watched over people starting their trail wearing nice new trainers, not exactly waterproof hiking boots, and we were like, good luck with that. It took me a good while to clean my boots.

You can find out more about Bryce Canyon here. It’s another National Park off our list! We walked along the Rim Trail looking down into the mass of hoodoos; some trails were not open due to conditions, but we were not overdoing the hiking that day, more taking in the amazing scenery. Still, it was busy and so we headed to the gift shop/information centre so I could get all my usual postcards and stickers and pins, and get my sketchbook stamped. I wonder which national park we will go to next?

Zion (part 2)

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024Leave a comment

After our day one post-hiking rest at the hotel, we walked down to Zion Village to have dinner at the pub-restaurant there. We had to wait a while for the table, which = more sketching time. I sat and looked at the huge ridge that acted like a giant wall to the geological theme park beyond it. Dinner was nice, I had a refreshing local beer, and we got a good night’s sleep. More hiking next day!

We slept in a bit more the next day, and when we got up to hike the park the lines for the shuttle bus were already so long that if we’d waited in line it would have been nigh on three hours before we got a ride, that’s what people were saying. Worth the wait? Maybe, but probably better just to start out earlier. Zion is ridiculously busy. Most people I’m guessing were headed out to the Narrows, looking at the number of waterproof outfits, but there are a lot of interesting hikes in Zion, ranging from “Easy”, “Moderate”, “Difficult”, “Strenuous”, and “Turn Back Now All Ye Who Dare Enter”. The last category I think is saved for the famous Angel’s Landing, which is on the Scout Lookout via the West Rim Trail, and you need a permit for that bit. This morning however we were not taking the shuttle bus, nor hiking up no strenuous and terrifying trail, but walking the easy peasy lemon squeezy Pa’rus Trail, which is a simple pave trail starting at the Visitor’s Center and following the Virgin River through some stunning scenery. The main hazard was from all the e-bikes whizzing by and rumbling over the bridges, but that was much less hazardous than a walk across the UC Davis campus when classes get out. The immense cliffs around us made us feel tiny. It was great to walk through, and we caught a shuttle back to the starting point again when we were about done, but I definitely wanted a bit more hiking, and to see things from higher up. So when my family had a wander around Springdale, I hiked the Watchman Trail (moderate).

The Watchman is a tall mountain that stands sentinel near the start of the park, but this trail wasn’t taking me up there, rather going up a decent uphill trail that landed at a plateau with an amazing view of the Watchman. Who Watches the Watchmen? I tried not to talk to myself on the way up in Rorschach’s voice, it’s been a while since I read that book. I remembered all the exploration of this area I had done in the Horizon game. The few clouds in the otherwise blue sky were comforting, but not threatening to get me wet. It was a nice hike and when I got to the top I sketched the scene above with the tree in the foreground, trying to get the pink-hued colours and the fluffy sky, and then did a quick pencil sketch of the Watchman itself (also above, which I coloured in later). It was a long hike down, and at the end I spent a bit of time in the Visitor’s Center shop, always one of my favourite things about visiting the National Parks. I always get way too many little souvenirs, postcards, pins, stickers. We had to get a move on though, because we were off to Bryce Canyon that afternoon, and it was a long old way. See you Zion, that was a lovely place.

Zion National Park (part 1)

May 1, 2024May 1, 20241 Comment

For Spring Break this year we took another trip to southern Utah, to visit some of the beautiful national parks down there. In 2021 we had been to Arches and Canyonlands, staying in Moab after a very long drive from northern California; this time we flew into Vegas and drove to Utah from there, across the desert, passing through a little triangle of Arizona. We were headed for Zion, one of the most famous national parks in America. We stayed in Springdale, a long narrow town that hugs the Virgin River, and our hotel was footsteps away from the park entrance. We are racking up the national parks now, over the past few years. Our room was nice, with a view of red-rocked mountains right from our bed. Zion is one of the most popular parks, and the crowds can get a bit heavy. There is a shuttle bus from the park entrance to get to most of the trailheads in the long canyon, and the lines for this can honestly last 2-3 hours if you get there at the busy time. We went down early, not too early but it was about 8:30am, and there weren’t many people there yet. We got on the first bus, although it’s fair to say the bus was still full, mostly with hikers wearing full waterproof overalls and carrying long thick sticks of wood. They would hiking The Narrows, a well known trail through a series of narrow slot canyons down which you must wade in the cold waters of the river. Usually that might be up to your ankles or your knees; at this time of year it’s more like up to your chest. We weren’t doing that this time, although seeing everyone getting ready for it, I was kind of feeling a little like actually I wouldn’t mind doing that. Then I had a vision of tripping on a rock and going under, and I kept thinking of that one “Charley Says” where the cat falls into the canal and it all gets very sinister. “Charley says, never go into the Narrows when it’s really deep ‘cos you might sick from Toxic Cyanobacteria Bloom.” You might have to be British and from a certain time period to understand Charley Says. Anyway, the Narrows can wait for another time. We got off the bus right at the end to stop #9, at what’s called the ‘Temple of Sinawava’. I drew this sketch above from right there where you pick up the bus. We walked along the Riverside Trail, which leads down to the Narrows, and it was through a deep and pretty gorge, a fairly easy hike.

The whole thing reminded me of the big valley where you have to spend a lot of time hunting machines and fighting bandits in the brilliant game Horizon – Forbidden West. It turns out, that whole area (known in Horizon as ‘The Daunt’ is basically Zion in the far future, so as I explored the park for the first time ever, I felt like I knew it really well, it was all so familiar. We got the bus down to stop #6, The Grotto. We hiked up the Kayenta Trail up to the Emerald Pools; the Middle Emerald Pool wasn’t all that, but it was a steep climb up to the Upper Emerald Pool was worth it. It wasn’t really Emerald exactly, more brown, as I think every single person up there pointed out, like it was the most original comment in the world. Having started out quite chilly in the morning, it was turning into a pretty warm day, with blue skies and sweaty legs. I stopped at the top and sat by the pool, which had a waterfall coming into it from a sheer cliff face, and I sketched this large almost cubic rock that was wedged into the waters. I then made my way back down, and rejoined my family to look around the dramatic sweep of Lower Emerald Pool. I definitely recognized this from Horizon. We ate our packed lunch and I did a quick sketch of the rocks above it (see below). We eschewed the busier trail on the way down (“eschewed”? I don’t talk like that) and walked down a less populous route, peace and quiet, towards the bridge. Of course, the bridge was closed, and it was a good couple of miles before there was another crossing. I mean look, in the video game I could just hop across the water and not even get wet. Life isn’t a video game. In video games, you spend most of the day looking at a screen and pressing buttons, while in real life…more drink! (with cheers to Father Ted there) We walked a long way, being passed at one point by a big group of people on horseback being led by a real-life cowboy with spurs on his boots. I wish I had some spurs, I don’t know what I’d need them for though. I’d wear them on the bus to Wembley just to get a cheap Instagram laugh. We did rest after while, and I did another sketch, see below. I drew this with the brown fountain pen, which was really nice for drawing Zion. I also stamped it later that day at the Visitor’s Center, which for some reason had the wrong date on it. We walked further until we crossed a meadow of long grass and tree branches, and saw a big deer hiding. After going through all the deer puns I could think of, which was surprisingly not many, we managed to find a bridge to cross and caught the bus back to the hotel, where we got straight into bed for an afternoon lie-down. Within minutes of hitting the pillow and daydreaming about maybe hiking the Narrows the next day, a massive rainstorm came into the valley and washed all those silly ideas away. It was nice to be inside and in bed, I can tell you.

More to come!

as sure as eggs is eggs

April 28, 2024April 27, 2024Leave a comment

Before I show you all my Utah sketches, I’m fast forwarding to this month, which was the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Eggheads by UC Davis professor and renowned sculptor, Robert Arneson, who dies in 1992. The campus has been having special celebrations in honor of Arneson and his beloved Eggheads, which are a series of egg-shaped sculptures all over campus. I’ve drawn the Eggheads before of course, but over the past few weeks I decided to draw all of them again, starting with “Yin and Yang” (above) which is outside Turner Wright Hall, a pair of eggs having a bit of an argument. One of the big parts of the Egghead celebration was a special event at the Manetti Shrem to which I was invited, where Robert Arneson’s widow Sandy Shannonhouse (a renowned artist herself) gave a short talk, and Robert Arneson’s son was there, and the Chancellor Gary May, the L&S Dean Estella Atekwana, and above I sketched the Manetti Shrem’s director Rachel Teagle talking about Arenson’s legacy and his famous Eggheads.

Above, this Egghead is called ‘Stargazer‘. It’s over behind North Hall near Dutton, staring up at the sky. It was installed in May 1994.

Back to the Manetti Shrem event, I sketched people talking, including an MFA Creative Writing candidate Trevor Bashaw who had written a poem dedicated to the Eggheads, I tried to write some down while I sketched. I was sketching in the fountain pen that I had used while sketching people talking in Riverside; for some reason it wasn’t quite coming out so easily, perhaps it was because I was standing (I hold my book in a funny way when I stand) as opposed to sitting at a desk, usually I would use a different type of pen for this sort of thing. Still it was fun enough and I still love that brown ink. The food at the the event was quite nice, I had a nice bowl of ice cream and a glass of wine. I did speak to a few people, some I knew, and the folks who invited me gave me a nice bag of Egghead related goodies. I also bought some big stickers at the little pop-up Egghead shop.

Above is “Bookhead“, I think the earliest installed Egghead, which is located outside of Shields Library. It’s a slightly different colour, being ever so slightly blue around the edges, and the tradition is that students rub or kiss Bookhead for good luck when taking their exams. I haven’t looked at those particular statistics but I am going to guess it has made marginally less difference than actually going into the library to study. This is a fun one though. I think if Arneson had lived he may well have created a new Egghead just staring at a phone.

This one is another fan favourite Egghead, an upside down laughing face with an ominous eye on the back, staring upwards at Mrak Hall. It’s called “Eye on Mrak/Fatal Laff“, an older sketch I did of it recently appeared in Sactown Magazine. In fact I think I even did a sketch of this back in 2005 on that very first sketchcrawl.

Here’s the last sketch from the event at the Manetti Shrem. There was an interesting video being played on loop so I sketched people watching it and mingling. There were media people there and a photographer going round. I was not feeling too well due to those seasonal allergies so I was starting to flag a little, but I had a look around the Deborah Butterfield exhibit “PS These Are Not Horses” which was pretty amazing. I had planned to walk over to the public events celebrating the Eggheads over at shields Library and the MU, which would culminate in the ‘Lighting of the Eggheads’, but my tiredness totally beat me and so I just went home to bed. It was a fun event though and I’m glad I went. You can see the video they played on UC Davis YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/aPmQf-oqnFU?si=UYA2uudwhmbDmzWT. It’s really interesting, and you’ll probably recognize some of the places from my sketches.

The last ones I did were a couple of days ago, on the other side of Mrak Hall outside King Hall. They are two Eggheads called “See No Evil/Hear No Evil“. I do remember they were in a slightly different spot when I first came, outside King Hall, but they were moved into the current spot when King Hall’s new wing was built. I drew all that from the Arboretum years ago, I’ve been here for ages. Anyway, I wanted to draw a few angles of this, so I stood behind one and drew looking out at the other (above), before sitting down right in front of it to capture its bizarre expression. I liked that one, but the sun was shining down on me, and suddenly a big group of schoolkids on an outing arrived and started rolling down the little hillocks the Eggheads are located on, so I got up and went over to the shade, where I grabbed a quick pic of the other Egghead before going back to the office (I actually added the paint while I was in a Zoom presentation, while also taking notes about summer courses). It’s fun drawing small quick sketches.

And so these are Arneson’s Eggheads, happy thirty (or so) years. You can find a tour of the Eggheads at https://www.ucdavis.edu/campus-life/arts-culture/eggheads-tour, and read “The lasting legacy of Arneson’s Eggheads” to find out more about them and about Arneson. Big characters on our campus these, and look! I managed to get through a whole blog post without making a single egg-based pun.

a beer at the shoppe

April 27, 2024April 26, 2024Leave a comment

After that last sketchcrawl, it was raining on and off a lot. My legs were in need of more rest after that 7k run, so I popped into the Davis Beer Shoppe for a nice beer and a sketch, while outside the day flitted between heavy rain and spots of sunshine. We were off to Utah next morning, I was already packed so not really in a hurry. The Beer Shoppe was fairly busy, and on the TV screen they were watching the end of Life of Brian, a film I know word for word pretty much. I found myself mouthing along to it all, “…Swedish separate from Welsh…” “…I’m Brian and so’s my wife…” “…you silly sods…”, it’s been a while since I last saw it but I did watch that film a lot when I was a teenager, that and Holy Grail. I settled into a beer and just started sketching the scene, because I can’t stop drawing for a minute can I. I last sketched inside this bar about ten years ago, a similar view, some of the details on the wall have changed but otherwise it’s not really different. After the film was over some people started playing video games on the big screen, Mario Kart 8 I believe, looked like a fun way to spend the afternoon. The couple nearby me were playing chess. Got me thinking, chess, Mario Kart, Life of Brian, beers… sounds like a typical night with my older brother. If there was a game of pool and a Spurs game on, that would be it.

Here’s that one from before, it was actually August 2013, a long old time ago now. I remember coming in here once and saw that they had it as the screensaver on their computer screen, which was funny. I don’t come in here very often to actually sit and have a beer, I usually only come in to buy from the shop, they have a really good selection of beers. I’ve become a bit unconvinced about beers lately, so many of them just taste very samey, or are getting too silly and gimmicky chasing the craft beer craze with new names and labels every season, it is a bit like the football shirt fashion trends in a way (though I still keep buying those football shirts). I am still sad that Anchor Steam is gone. Still it is nice to come to a local bar that has a good atmosphere and have a two or three pints while it’s raining outside. Shame they didn’t have any of the Holy Grail Ale, that’s a Python-themed beer I used to really like.

sketching a rainy day in davis

April 26, 2024Leave a comment

Last month we held another Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl in downtown Davis, this time on 2nd Street. It was a really rainy day too, but we had a good turnout of sketchers not minding that. I sat beneath the shelter of the Varsity Theatre and sketched the Avid Reader bookstore, a local favourite spot (and where I worked a long long time ago). the rain was really hard, absolutely bucketing down. That was a busy day for me; I had woken up early and taken part in the annual Lucky Run, and this time I ran the 7k distance for the first time ever. Usually I run the 5k, but I wanted a bit more of a challenge. I’ve not been running as much and am definitely heavier, but I smashed that 7k and want to run more. I am aiming to go for the 10k by the Fall, so I had better get back to training, cut back on those milkshakes. Next week, maybe.

I went into Mishka’s Cafe to do a last sketch, and several of the other sketchers were there. I sketched the scene in my brown fountain pen, and had a big fruity smoothie (which took several straws to drink, because their plastic straws are a bit too weak to be used in their smoothies, I must remember to bring my reusable metal straw next time). Then we all got together afterwards to look at each others’ sketchbooks, there were some great styles on display.

I recently posted the next Let’s Draw Davis event which will be on Saturday May the 4th, so I made a Star Wars style logo for this one. Check out details at the Let’s Draw Davis FB page.