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.