easy sits the crown

June 16, 20118 Comments

I found an AMAZING pen. The Uni-ball Signo UM-151, seemed harmelss enough, but when I picked it up for the first time and wrote my name it was like that scene in the wandshop in Harry Potter, “the pen chooses the artist”. I have to try this out in a drawing, I said to myself. It flowed amazingly, it stayed wonderfully black, and it was just so easy to use. Sure, it could not take a wash – that’s ok. I have a lot of pens that can. But would it work on that waxy smooth regular Moleskine paper found in their non-watercolour sketchbooks? That yellowy paper upon which I have tried and failed to find a pen I enjoyed using on it? (For my Davis Moleskine I settled on the Pitt pens, as the micron just wouldn’t work with it. The one I sketched this in is one I began back in 2006…) Oh yes, it worked alright. I spent a lunchtime drawing the Old Crown pub on Highgate Hill (above) from a photo, and just fell in love with the pen. I’ve already started planning out whole drawing projects around it, like a surprise midfield playmaker. I may even take it to London with me, to meet the family. I only hope the ink doesn’t run out before Lisbon, as these pens aren’t easy to find (I see stocking up online somewhere in my future).

Incidentally, I only ever went to that pub once, but I lived a short walk from here on Hornsey Lane for three years. I used to catch the 143 bus from just across the road every day (that mad dash in the morning, oh London commuting I miss you…), and one day I did sketch it in my old long-ago ‘blue’ sketchbook, but never drew it again. I took a photo on a trip a few years ago and am only now drawing it. It’s a cool building, in an area of cool buildings.

The pens have a new king.

sir fergie

June 15, 2011June 15, 20111 Comment

Sir Fergie. He’s happy because he looks a bit like John Craven in this drawing. The football season is over, and it has been a long long time since I drew anything in the football book started last year, despite having an amazing football season to report on (namely, Spurs in the Champions League). I thought I’d make up for it with a few drawings of the faces of the season. Well, one drawing. Sir Alex Ferguson won yet another Premier League title this year, Manchester United’s 19th (a new record), and though they ultimately lost the Champions League final (once again to Barcelona), he’s without a doubt cemented his place as the best and most consistent of all managers in English (maybe even British) football history. Fair play to him. Refs hate him, Arsene Wenger doesn’t send him Christmas cards, and the FA seem to have an automatic ‘fine Fergie for something’ reminder on their Outlook calendars. I tell you what, football will be very different when he’s gone. He is the embodiment of the manager truly being the Boss, and for those who argue with him, he has a hell of a lot of silverware, and he’s not afraid to throw it at you.

return of the dragons

June 15, 2011June 15, 2011Leave a comment

Haven’t done much drawing in my large Urban Sketchers Canson sketchbook since getting it at the Portland Symposium last year, but while I am ‘between watercolour moleskines’ I’ve been sketching in all sorts of places. A colleague at work asked if his daughter who likes to draw could sketch with me one lunchtime, and since she likes to draw dragons I suggested we draw these things, which have always reminded me somewhat of metal robotic dragons. Backflow Preventers, that is their Latin name, but I give them more fun industrial dragon names like Zmorg and Xfafnir-31 and Metal-Pipe-Thing. These ones are on the UC Davis campus, sketched as the weather was getting warmer. The Davis summer has finally arrived, we had 99 degrees yesterday, though thousands more degrees than that were given out last weekend. Do I say that joke every year? I think I probably do. Anyway, after a hiatus I am back drawing the big metal pipes that come out of the ground.

“i’m leavin’, on a jet ski…”

June 14, 2011June 14, 20111 Comment

This is the Robber, which came with the jet-ski as part of my son’t Playmobil Police Helicopter set. It’s great fun in the bath; that little metal thing at the bottom helps it stay upright and afloat. It’s funny how we know he’s supposed to be a robber because he is unshaven and wearing sunglasses (footballers and movie stars beware); I’m surprised Playmobil don’t make a little Hoodie, with a little toy Staff. Maybe for their ‘run-down estate street corner’ set. Maybe the title for this post should be ‘Thievin’ on a Jet-Ski’. This was drawn in Copic 0.05 multiliner in the small WH Smith sketchbook (one page until that one is finished!).

The fire-truck below however was sketched in my large ‘Urban Sketchers’ Canson sketchbook, from last year’s Portland Symposium. I realised that I’d not sketched this in a couple of years, since my son first got it at his great-grandma’s up in Oregon, and though it’s pretty beat up it’s his favourite of the fire trucks. I sketched it while watching some ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’ cartoons on tv, and wasn’t really paying attention when drawing the wheels – oops – but the rest is all where it should be.

Finally, I drew this a week ago or so, but another of the toy cars (and amazingly a toy that isn’t red). It’s the ‘muddy’ Techron car. These ones are fun to play with, and were given by his cousins. Plus every time we watch the San Francisco Giants play, they show up on a billboard at the edge of the field.

To see more toy drawings, go to my Flickr set “Toys“. Drawing toys is a really great way to remember a fun age!

somewhere between rage and serenity

June 12, 2011June 12, 2011Leave a comment

Finally I went to see X-Men: First Class. As a big X-Men fan (and of Magneto in particular; that’s my little magneto figure I sketched above), I was looking forward to this one, and wasn’t disappointed. Work finished early on Friday, and Davis was jam-packed with people in town to watch their young relatives graduate from UCD, so it was nice to go into the cool movie theatre and escape the afternoon crowds. The film was nice and long as well, and very well placed into its sixties theme. I’m not going to give too much away, but Magneto was pretty great, particularly the scenes of his revenge against former Nazis. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier was superb and fun to watch, really brought amazing personality to the character, and Mystique’s performance was excellent. Rose Byrne too was pretty wicked as Moira MacTaggart, and Kevin Bacon was a great Sebastian Shaw, but January Jones’s Emma Frost was a little uncharismatic. I also wish that Hank McCoy hadn’t become blue-furred Beast in this one, it seemed a bit unnecessary but mostly because I had enjoyed seeing Marcus out of About A Boy all grown up and being a scientist. There were a couple of cameos that I enjoyed as well, and thankfully neither of them was Stan Lee, who amazingly did not appear in this film. Nor, by the way, was there any hidden scene at the end of the credits, which I am very pleased about but wish I’d known beforehand (Take That did the song for the end credits apparently, I didn’t want people thinking I was staying to listen to them. Ah, nobody knows them here anyway, and it was empty, and I’ve never ever bought a single Take That CD ever, except for that one time at Our Price when my friends weren’t looking). All in all, despite the slightly cheesy ‘mutant and proud’ line, I loved the movie, can’t wait to see it again and I hope there’s a sequel. And Erik Lensherr would make an excellent dentist.

drawing downtown davis june 25

June 10, 2011June 10, 2011Leave a comment

It is time for another Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl folks, this time on Saturday June 25th! It will begin at 11:00am from the Davis Amtrak station (it was nice sketching there before, lots of benches, lots of history) and will amble through the old downtown area, before finishing up at the E Street Plaza at 3:30pm.

This is as always FREE and open to everyone, regardless of age or skill level. It’s a good chance to met other sketchers and artists, to see how they do things, to learn from each other. Plus the summer sun has finally arrived in Davis so it’s another excuse to get outside! (I’d wear a hat though…)

All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on. I personally use ink and watercolour in a sketchbook. In fact if you’r interested my materials are all listed on my ‘materials’ page.

DATE: Saturday June 25th, 2011

START: 11:00am, Davis Amtrak Station (2nd & H)

FINISH: 3:30pm, E Street Plaza (by clock fountain)

See you there!

Let’s Draw Davis: June 25 Facebook Event

Let’s Draw Davis Flickr Group

Aggie TV report about our January sketchcrawl

‘Let’s Draw Davis’ posts on petescully.com

how does your garden grow

June 9, 2011June 9, 20112 Comments

This is a house in Davis that I drew as a commission last month. It was an interesting house to draw, with lots of colourful foliage in the front yard, and so I tried to capture the house’s interesting character without getting lost in the greenery, and I’m quite happy with the result. The image is 7″x5″ and was done with ink and watercolour on watercolour paper.

Looking at this hortuculture again reminded me of a page I kept from my ‘Forgotten English’ calendar (by Jeffrey Kacirk – each day gives you a word no longer used in English. Today’s is “Alfridaria”, which has something to do with the supposed power that planets hold over people). The word was ‘hortyard’, meaning a garden or orchard, and it describes how that and the word ‘orchard’ originate in the Old English ‘ortgeard’, the first element being related to the Latin ‘hortus’ (‘garden’). It’s funny because I’ve been talking about gardens and yards here thinking of the way I use the word back home – when I say I’d like to have a garden, I just mean a back yard, but over here people naturally assume I mean I want to plant flowers and shrubs, and I don’t – I’m not a gardener!

If you would like an original drawing of your house, or of someone you know (would make a nice present), or even of a place in Davis or elsewhere I’d be happy to hear from you! I can draw from photos, and usually draw at 7″x5″ but can go larger. You can also find original drawings and prints to buy on my Etsy store – see the nice button I have added in the right column on this blog, or just click here: etsy.com/shop/petescully.

that was some rescue

June 7, 20111 Comment

My son’s beloved toy ‘rescue boat’. I knew this was a winner when I got it at Toys R Us, only ten bucks. But it’s a rescue boat, definitely not a speedboat. Hey, three-year-olds know best. He always corrects me when I play with his fire trucks – “no daddy, not ‘woo-woo-woo’, it’s ‘nee-naw-nee-naw’!” Different fire engines make different siren noises in his world, but hey, he’s the expert, he should know. Jeez, before long it’ll be, “Daddy, Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language, don’t you know anything?”

taco bell du jour

June 6, 20112 Comments

Taco Bell at the UC Davis Silo. I eat here every so often (though one time they mistakenly charged me 16 times for the same item – oops!). I’ve been sketching my places-of-lunch lately, so here it is, in dark blue micron pen in my wh smith sketchbook.

the wheels on the bus go round and round

June 5, 2011June 5, 20112 Comments

Yesterday was Drawing Day 2011. I had intended to do a big complicated many-windowed much-detailed drawing, but never really made the time. I did draw my son’s toy bus though, while he was eating lunch. This is from London and he loves double-decker buses, which he calls “ducker-buckle-bus”. I love the side of the bus, “We Go Everywhere”. And apparently they do – From St.Pauls to the London Eye via Oxford Street and Madame Tussauds? That’s a roundabout route, for sure, but good for the tourists.