Month: September 2011

she may not look like much but she’s got it where it counts, kid

3 Comments

train engine in davis

I had wanted to draw this train engine, moored on the railroads near the Co-Op, during the last Davis sketchcrawl but it was not there. I went back a week later and there she was. I drew an engine like this (in brown pen on cream paper) as part of my Davis Moleskine (it may have been the same engine, I’m no trainspotter) but really wanted to show its bright, patriotic colours. I sat in the shade and sketched with my uniball signo un-151 pen, which actually does take a wash pretty well, but more importantly it draws like a dream.

Drawn on Strathmore hot press paper. Including colour (added later) it took about two hours, mostly in the on-site drawing. There is the penwork below.

train drawing

cannery row in monterey in california

1 Comment

stohans gallery

Cannery Row in Monterey is an interesting place to sketch, and I’ve had my eye on this building above for a few years now. This ramshackle former gallery sits right on the waterfront, grizzling in the Ocean fog, timbers presumably shivering. I got out one afternoon while other family members tried to take an afternoon nap (not an easy task given the noise of seagulls and traffic), and sketched down Cannery Row.

 

cannery row monterey

This end is closer to the Aquarium, and is a tourist-trap mecca. Signs everywhere offer quotes from Steinbeck to people who go, ah yeah, must read that book some day, get an idea of what it was like, and then never read it, because they don’t really need to know what it was like beyond what the signs in the street tell them (that would be me, then). I can imagine the smell and the noise and the seagulls following trawlers because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea, and I can say it probably isn’t too different from today, except the smell is more likely to be chipotle grilled popcorn or something. Still it’s fun, and not quite as trashy as Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf pier (popular with pelicans and parolees on the day I went there). I’ll keep going back.    

 

monterey hydrant

Finally, of course, a fire hydrant. While sketching this, a group of young men stopped to look at my sketchbook, and one of them, a black lad decked out in hip-hop gear, was so impressed he said, “Man, you got a motherf*#*#r’s details, man!” I cracked up; that was hands down the best compliment I’ve ever received. Especially for drawing a fire hydrant! And so, I went and met the family for a cold ice cream and a hot brownie. I do love Monterey. We go there every year.

and i swear it is a new day

3 Comments

old city hall, davis CA

Old City Hall, yet again. Hot weather is still the name of the game in Davis, though summer is cresting. This was drawn on the last day of August. That’s always a strange time. As a kid it meant summer would soon come to an abrupt end, and school would begin. Now I work for a university in a university town, and though I work all summer it still feels like the days are counting down to when the great hordes will arrive. There are a lot of students here in the summer, with summer classes being so popular nowadays, but in a few weeks it will be Fall and the craziness begins. New students, returning students, returning faculty, bikes and new cyclists everywhere…

Drawn on Strathmore 8 x 10 inch hot press watercolour paper, with the uni-ball signo um-151 which, I am pleased to report, did pretty bloody well with the watercolour wash!

varsity blues

1 Comment

varsity theatre davis (in progress)

The Varsity Theatre in Davis, drawn last Friday evening after work. I had considered finishing this at home with some additional colour, but I got back and realised I quite like it like this. This place shows a lot of art-house and independent movies, though I’ve only been to see a film there the once (An Inconvenient Truth back in 2006). In fact it only reopened back in 2006 (I was working at the bookstore acros the street the day it opened), but the building dates back to 1950. It makes this place feel very ‘Hill Valley’; I fully expect that it will be showing Jaws 19 with a holographic shark some time in the next four years (but only if Jaws 19 is considered art-house, which is unlikely. More likely we’ll see a Jaws reboot before then – you heard it here first!). People always have great memories of cinemas. For me they are like Tardises, you step inside and suddenly space and time mean nothing, I can never fathom how so many big screens fit into what look like fairly smallish buildings. They are full of memories too; sweeping movie moments, first (or last) dates, that smell of popcorn. This place is no different, is a beloved Davis part of the Davis community. I should know, I’ve drawn it enough times.

under the sea

Leave a comment

monterey bay aquarium

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend in Monterey, staying near Cannery Row. We like it down there – it’s a nice cool place to escape frm the central valley heat. The place we stayed at was a little noisy though, not just from traffic, but from seagulls, bloody seagulls all hours of the day and night. I love the sea, really really love it, I feel at home beside the big blue, but for the seagulls. Always folloiwng the trawler, thinking that sardines will be thrown into the sea, zut alors. Give me the things that swim below the waves. To see them, we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This was the third time we’ve been. The first time was nice and relaxing, while the second time was less so (it was the addition of a constantly-running one-year-old, you see). This time was nicer; the one-year-old is now three, and a little more interested (but not as interested as he was in the trolley buses outside). I did what sketching I could (fish move pretty fast), and it was not easy in those large rooms with the deep sea tanks, it was dark and like drawing blind (and my green and blue microns were near invisible). That Ocean Sun Fish was an odd fish – absolutely huge, it was shaped more like an enormous chicken nugget than a fish.

hovden cannery pipes

The remnants of the old sardine canning industry can be seen here still, and there were lots of cool pipes and industrial features to draw. I love these sorts of things, they remind me of the game Mouse Trap. Thankfully, no little cage rattling down a pole, just a lot of people crowding in the gift shop.