trash talk

April 30, 2010April 30, 20104 Comments

Toddlers love fire trucks: the shiny red, the bells, the flashing lights. Toddlers love trains, hence the global popularity of Thomas the Tank Engine (who by the way should never be called ‘Thomas the Train’; Ringo will be cross). Toddlers love buses, school-buses, double-decker-buses (and he doesn’t even know about bendy-buses yet). But all of these pale into comparison with what toddlers really love: Garbage Trucks. Rubbish Trucks in the UK, Trash Trucks to others, whatever they are called kids love them. The arrival of the garbage truck can be the highlight of the week, a long awaited and much talked about event even more eagerly anticipated than the World Cup or the General Election (I’m sure some grown-ups will agree with the toddler section there too). The one above is perhaps a current favourite toy in our house. I can’t tell you how many times I have tripped over it. Oh, and if you ever get it for your kid, take the batteries out immediately – it has a way of making funny ‘garbage’ noises in the middle of the night completely of its own accord. Kids don’t care about the noises; they make their own sound effects.

think about a new destination

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010Leave a comment

Drew the UC Davis Bike Barn building…again. Well it has one of those looks, cant help but be turned into a drawing. The way one side of the roof is longer than the other, the shadow beneath the eaves, the unsketchable army of bikes in the foreground. I still have that brown paper cut up from envelopes.

I forgot to mention: Davis is now home to the newly opened (last weekend in fact) U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. That’s right, the actual hall of fame for bike-riders. I wonder if they have a special section for those ones who cycle up on the inside of buses as people are trying to get off, those cyclists deserve a medal, yeah. And the ones who go around texting or yapping into their cellphone with their ipod in their other ear.

Hang on, I’m starting to sound like a certain Tory politician on the eve of the election. “Last week I met a 70-year old nurse who told me he couldn’t get on the bus because all the unemployed eastern european immigrant asylum seekers were cycling around with their ipods and their mobile phones taking our jobs and claiming our benefits…” Oh, the UK General Election is only a week away now, and with ‘bigot-gate’ or whatever it’s being called, we’re already having our Joe the Plumber moment, or will if the Murdoch press has its way. I really hope the media leaves that poor pensioner alone, but have a feeling she’ll be used to the fullest extent by The Scum newspaper over the next week.

sunday afternoon

April 25, 20103 Comments

Leaving the apartment today consisted of taking out the trash.

It was very warm, and very sunny, but wind was blowing pollen all over the place, and the high pollen count is not my friend. April is the cruellest month. So I stayed in and made pancakes and washed up and watched Tractor Tom (“what would we do without you?“), then cooked a roast dinner. While chicken and potatoes were roasting I drew the view from the dining room table.

‘Taking out the trash’. I sound so American now. Or like a TV cop.

lock stock

April 24, 20104 Comments

The pollen count is high, very high, but I braved a trip to the outside world today and cycled downtown to draw Davis Lock and Safe on 3rd st. It’s a different sort of look for Davis than the usual buildings I draw, but every bit as interesting, and right by the railroad tracks; I have wanted to sketch this place for a while (I always say that).

the great outdoors

April 23, 2010April 23, 2010Leave a comment

Going outdoors is an adventure for me these days; it is high pollen season, and means itchy eyes and runny noses. I did some of this outside and the rest inside. Outdoor Adventures, the other half of the oft-drawn Bike Barn, at the oft-drawn Silo complex of UC Davis. The clouds really were plentiful and fast-moving. They are making the most of the Californian spring, before migrating north or south or wherever they go for the summer. They don’t let clouds into the central valley during the summer, just in case they lower the temperatures below a hundred for a few minutes. I’m not looking forward to the Davis summer heat. It will be my fifth unbearably hot valley summer. You’d think I would learn.

take a seat

April 23, 2010April 23, 20105 Comments

This is my sketching stool. It is an REI trail stool, foldable, very lightweight. I attached a camera-bag strap to easily carry it over my shoulder, and it is perfect. It has saved me from sitting on the dusty sidewalk on many occasions. In the past choosing a spot to sketch was often more important than what I was sketching. Now I can sketch anywhere (as long as I have good shade so I don’t burn to death). Hats and sunscreen obviously help there.

I’ve drawn this as an illustration to a new page on my site: Materials. Since I am so often asked what pens etc I use, I thought it would be nice to have a whole page showing what I use in my entire sketching experience, not just micron pens and cotman paints but my shoulder-bag and sketching stool. It’s not completely comprehensive however; I stopped short at revealing what I eat and what music I listen to while sketching.

https://petescully.com/materials

may the sixth be with you

April 19, 2010April 22, 20106 Comments

The UK General Election is upon us. Unlike in the US, where the election date is known years in advance and the campaigning goes on for about three hundred years, filling the airways with irritating paid-for campaign ads, British elections are called with only about a month of soapboxing and eggfacing until the big day, and the long swingometer-filled night. Also unlike America, Britain is not electing a President, but a party to govern. We’ve all become very comfortable with being uncomfortable at how ‘presidential’ our Prime Ministers are getting (ie, they brush their hair and grin a lot), so with thought in mind, which of the three below do you think will become our next ‘presidential’ PM?

See, I’m glad Gordon Brown (above) is not a smiler, and has unbrushable hair. Makes him less presidential. David Cameron (below) on the other hand, old Etonian, friendly chap, cheeky grin, America will love him like they loved Blair. Like so many pop groups before them, our PMs probably feel they can only be truly big if they can break America.

He has a big forehead doesn’t he. By the way, America, if you’re following the UK Election, Blue means Conservatives and Red means Labour. Red is the traditional colour of international socialism; it’s only the US that has that the other way round, where it means the colour of Limbaugh-loving necks.

And then in the Yellow corner there is the Other Bloke, who by all accounts won the UK’s first presidential – i mean, prime ministerial – debate (it’s not like they don’t already debate in the House of Commons though, is it). These debates mean nothing, the Liberal Democrats aren’t ever going to really win a general election, because they are deliberately ignored by the Murdoch press (the true rulers of the UK). Unless…surely not? Nick Clegg (right) is apparently becoming swiftly popular, and let’s face it, Brits (like Americans, to whom we gave most of our reality TV shows) love nothing more than an instant overnight popular political hero – oh, what am I saying, there is one thing Brits like more, and that is knocking said hero off his perch and dragging said hero through the razor mill of the tabloid press (hello again, Mr. Murdoch).

No, he’s not smaller because my Murdoch-payroll editors have instructed me not to get in the way of their Tory revival saga (I’m not The Times, you know). More that the sketch simply looks nothing like him, but hey, I don’t really know what he looks like, or stands for. I know he looks a bit like Philip Schofield, David Duchovny, Kilroy and Jim Davison (shuddering at the thought). Time for me to do some reading up on this election. I won’t get to vote, but I also won’t get to live through the consequences, now I’m over here in Obama-world. I do really miss British politics, honestly I do, I want to watch Paxman, I want to watch Dimbleby, I want interactive 3d Swingometers, I want to see eggs on faces and Prescott punches (whoever the modern equivalent of Prescott is), staying up all night and watching the results of Haltemprice & Howden and Cannock Chase and other places I’d never heard of. This election even looks like it might actually be a three horse race (unlike the last few, which were definitely one-horse races). I drew a political cartoon which got onto the Channel 4 web site last time (Goldilocks and the Three Unbearables), I need to sharpen that pencil again (Last of the Summer Whine: Foggy, Compo and Clegg would be a start, cascading down the hill in a tin bath).

At least this time I won’t need to stay up all night. I’m eight hours behind, so hopefully it’ll all be decided by midnight. I suspect Labour may have to do a deal with the Lib Dems to keep the Tories out of Number 10; if not, Brown won’t have a Clegg to stand on. May the Sixth be with you.

if you go down to the campus today

April 17, 20102 Comments

Today was the 96th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, the largest university open house event in the United States. That means thousands of people, lots of events like dachshund derbies and cockroach races, food, music, and animals. Admittedly I’m not a massive fan (see the bit in the last sentence about thousands of people) but braved it, because I thought my two-year-old would like the fire trucks and the horses. I wasn’t wrong; he loved it, had a great time, and so did we. I drew one of the shiny old fire trucks (I intended to draw more things, but don’t really like drawing crowds). As I write, the Battle of the Marching Bands is still raging down by the lake.

the bridges of yolo county

April 16, 2010April 16, 20103 Comments

Putah Creek, running through the long UC Davis Arboretum, has a lot of bridges. Well, it has to, otherwise getting to the other side would be a very long walk. Some bridges ar wooden, like the one in the background, and even covered in foliage like some Monet painting, while others a big and concrete, which might not sound too picturesque but in this case I quite like it. I’ve drawn this bridge before.

It’s April in Davis, California. Tomorrow, the annual Picnic Day takes place, the largest university open house event in the country. It’s Davis’s day to show off. There will be thousands of people there. This year I might even do some drawing.

the sun bends light

April 11, 20104 Comments

And so we continue, post 1001, another curvilinear sketch of a UC Davis building: the Walter Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. It’s right opposite this building, which I drew a couple of weeks ago.

“I am an alumni,” is a phrase I hear all too often here. “No you aren’t,” I reply, “you’re an alumnus.” It is incredible how many highly educated people don’t actually know this, or think it matters. Maybe it doesn’t, maybe the language is changing and we should let it change, even stop using all latin-based singular words. But if you’re tring to get across that you actually are one, “I am an alumni” makes you sound like you aren’t. You wouldn’t say, that is a mice, I am a men, I just ate a bananas.

Anyway that’s quite enough prescriptive grammar for a Sunday morning. Besides, I’ve always been far more David Crystal than Lynne Truss. I’ve just had to suffer Spurs losing an FA Cup semi-final in extra-time, which isn’t fun. I want to point out that I drew this with a uniball vision micro pen, I’ve used them for years but almost always draw with my pigma microns or copics, because of better ink and finer lines. However, the nibs on those always run down quickly in my watercolour moleskines, which is frustrating, but the nibs on these pens last for way longer, an the ink is pretty black and does not bleed; just something to consider in future pen choices.