the kits of euro 2016: groups a and b

June 10, 2016June 10, 20163 Comments

Euro 2016 has begun! While the British hold a referendum on whether to leave Europe (‘Brexit’ is such a stupid contraction by the way, and concept too), most of its constituent countries (except for, er, Scotland) are going to be spending the next few weeks trying to stay in. For those who aren’t aware, the European Football Championships are taking place in France as of today. I love it. We already have our Panini sticker album, I’ve made a wallchart, my son and I have made paper mosaic flags and hung them up on the wall, and now it’s time for me to start looking at the kits. I’ll do this over the tournament, but post them by group – A and B first, then, yeah. You might remember I did a similar thing for the last World Cup. All of these are made with old-school MS Paint, except for those with complicated gradients, where I’ve used Photoshop to create it and exported it into Paint. MS Paint is still awesome. And so let’s begin! Disclaimer: this is a fairly long and wordy post that makes little to no reference to the actual football and is of no interest whatsoever.

GROUP A

FRANCE

France-Euro2016 The host nation. My tip to win it (sorry France, you won’t win it now, I’m never right). I have the last French shirt, I wear it all the time, and this one is nice enough, but nothing special. Two shades of blue, and then for some reason, blue shorts instead of white. Come on UEFA. The away kit looks nice but those different colour arms will look a bit annoying after a while. So France, I lived there for a year, and back then they were the world champions (they never ever mentioned it ever, never came up), but I’ve got a lot of love for France. I met my wife there. I remember watching the 98 World Cup there, particularly the Brazil-Holland semi-final in the Place de l’Hotel de Ville. I read “France Football” (or used to when I could get it). Strasbourg is one of my favourite cities in the world. I had a nice few days there last summer with the French Urban Sketchers. I speak French, albeit terribly badly. For all my French friends, for all the stuff France has dealt with these past couple of years, I hope they win it. Well if Ireland don’t, or Northern Ireland. Or Wales. Belgium would be nice too. England too I suppose. But otherwise, Johnny Halliday, “Allez les Bleus!”

ALBANIA

Albania-Euro2016 Albania, sorry I don’t know how they got in here, of course Albania aren’t playing at the Euros. What? They are? Albania? Yes, it’s true. And Iceland, and Wales, and all these other teams who you don’t normally see at these tournaments (like Scotland, no hang on). Good luck to them, they have a few good players, like that one guy, who plays for, you know, that team. I remember Celtic had an Albanian player years ago. I don’t know any Albanian players I’m afraid, except that one who plays for Switzerland. Anyway…the kit (and they have three, one for each match they’ll play probably), it’s pretty smart, has a graphic meant to resemble the two-headed eagle. I met a woman from Albania once many years ago in a pub, “oh you’re from Albania, ah right. I met a waiter at a restaurant from there once.” That was pretty much the entire conversation. I know one word in Albanian, which I cannot pronounce, which means hello I think.

ROMANIA

Romania-Euro2016 The all-yellow of Romania, that was so exciting back in USA 94 wasn’t it, the years of Hagi, they were great in the 90s. They switched to red shirts for a while, but are back in the all yellow now which for me is their thing. Joma do a nice kit too, they make this year’s Sampdoria shirt that I own. How will Romania do? No idea. To be honest I’ve not really followed international football lately, I don’t even like it. I like the kits. I like talking about the kits, rather, or how I don’t like the kits. They have Chiriches who was utterly useless for Spurs but is supposed to be decent (sorry Vlad). I’ve never been to Romania but my mum worked with a Romanian guy when I was a kid, Ovidio, had who escaped Ceaucescu.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland-Euro2016 Switzerland are always decent, they have a lot of handy players and while they won’t win it, they might do alright. I like Switzerland the country, been there a few times when I was a younger man, and I love their chocolate. Remember when the current England manager Roy Hodgson used to manage them? My favourite Swiss manager was Christian Gross, who was utterly useless for Spurs (sorry Christian) back when we had a Swiss defender called Ramon Vega, also utterly useless for Spurs (sorry Ramon) (though he got a fair few goals). Right, sorry, the kits. Nice enough but looks like Arsenal. Away kit is nice though people might think they are ambulances. Hey, once I went to St. Gallen in Switzerland, to the Abbey library, and read the ‘Abrogans’, an original 1200 year old manuscript which is actually the oldest thing in the German language. I held it in my hands. As they say, “Dude”.

GROUP B

ENGLAND

England-Euro2016 Let’s get this out of the way – I actually like the shirt. Everything is a bit wrong with this kit, but the shirt by itself, actually one of the nicest ones they’ve had lately. I know, you’re thinking, “you know nothing Jon Snow”. But even with those unnecessary little blue stripes it looks…fine. The white shorts though I don’t like, and red socks, just go home Nike, you’re drunk. Same with the all red away except socks, which is just wrong. Brimming in wrongability. England, I’ve been there yes, well I was born there, spent most of the first 30 years of my life there, go back every year, sometimes more than once. My family are all there. I speak English, better than I speak any other language. I like their chocolate too. But this year, some of Spurs’s amazing and totally opposite of useless are in the team – Kane, Alli, Dier, Rose, Walker. So for those guys, Pete’s heroes, I hope they do well. Just get some blue shorts, dammit!

RUSSIA

Russia-Euro2016 Russia. From Russia with Love. Home kit is dark red and gold, meant to be like the old Soviet kits, while the away kit is like Russian kits from the 90s and 00s. Also, Adidas, can I just say thank you for starting to put the stripes down the sides instead of the shoulders and sleeves? Classy move. They have done it before, but I like it. The three stripe shoulder motif was getting so boring, it needs cupboarding for a while. Right, Russia. Are they any good? I literally have no idea. They will want to do well before their World Cup in two years though. They won’t win the cup though.

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia-Euro2016 I went to Slovakia in 1998 for literally an hour. It wasn’t a layover, I actually went to visit. I was in Vienna, and took a quick train to Bratislava. I say quick, the train stopped at the border and you had to get a bus. It was hot, sticky, and I really didn’t see much when I got there. The bus took so long that I didn’t have time to go and explore, and was a bit afraid of getting lost. I changed up 10 Deutschmarks – about $5 – and got back a wad of notes so big I could have wallpapered a shed. I bought a bar of chocolate which melted away upon contact, looked at my watch, and had to jump back on the bus to Vienna, completely confused. One day I will go back, as I know it is very pretty, but I’ll need more than an hour. As for the Slovakian kit, meh. One of those boring Puma all white templates with the Puma sign in the middle. The away kit at least has some vaguely interesting details.

WALES

Wales-Euro2016 I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT WALES!!!!! Honestly, I’ve waited years for the Welsh to get to a major tournament. All those great legends from the past, Giggs, Rush, Speed, Elvis Criddlington (ok maybe not him), all missed out, but now…BALE. I’m so stoked for Bale’s success post-Spurs and would love it, just love it if he took the Welsh all the way in this tournament. I have no personal connection to Wales, no Welsh family, I have never been there and have only met a few Welsh people in my life but it’s Wales dude! As Ali G famously said, Wales is only 400 miles from England. Actually I had a history teacher when I was 17 who was Welsh but he left teaching to become a pop star with his Welsh-language band called, er, “Ian Rush”. This is not made up.Their kit is an old school Adidas outfit like what they would have worn in the early 80s when Rushie was the goal monster, while the away kit is HOLY TOM JONES grey and dark grey with lime green trim? Dear UEFA, and your love of all-white away kits, Wales are in town now and they will do what they like. I cannot wait.

Join me again sometime for Groups C and D, then E and F.

celebration time

June 10, 2016Leave a comment

Here in the world of academia, this week is graduation week. Thousands of students undergrad and graduate receive their hard-earned degrees this week and step out into the world. In our department at UC Davis we held a special awards and graduation ceremony a week before the official commencement, honoring our young statisticians and biostatisticians. I did a couple of sketches at the event, but mostly got award certificates ready and took photos and applauded enthusiastically. Great job, everyone!

And a few days later, on by far the hottest day of the year, we held our annual Spring Picnic, and I did this one sketch below. The banner is part of a poster I had made to advertise the event. It was really, really hot, but we had a good turnout, and it was a nice way to round off the year. And so, on towards summer…

Sketching Wren’s London

June 7, 2016June 7, 20161 Comment

While we’re talking about sketchcrawls..!

“SKETCHING WREN’S CITY”… Join us for a sketchcrawl in London, through the City of Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral and so many other churches and buildings in the years following the Great Fire of London, 1666. Hey, that was 350 years ago!

Starting at 10:30am outside St.Paul’s Cathedral, and finishing up at 4:00pm at Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire, we will explore the city in groups or individually as you prefer, looking for the London built by Wren after the Great Fire.

This sketchcrawl is FREE and open to anyone of any age who likes to sketch. I will provide Pete-drawn maps and some handy info. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on!

This sketchcrawl is a reversed re-run (or “re-Wren” if you will) (or “re-Pete”?) of the 2014 Sketching Wren’s City event, which was a lot of fun. I’ll post reminders closer to the event, and you can sign up for the sketchcrawl on Facebook if you like: https://www.facebook.com/events/265601303793686/

Tell your England sketching friends! This being the weekend before the International Urban Sketching Symposium in Manchester there will be a few sketching events around that time of year. The day before (July 23) there is a sketchcrawl with the London Urban Sketchers at Trafalgar Square – should be fun!

Hope to see you in London!

Let’s Draw Davis! July 9

June 7, 2016Leave a comment

“Let’s Draw Davis” is back! Join us for a sketchcrawl around downtown Davis on Saturday, July 9th.We’ll go from the Central Park near the Farmer’s Market and sketch in a group or individually as you prefer, heading downtown towards the E Street Plaza to look at each others sketchbooks.

DATE: Saturday July 9th, 2016

START: 10:30am, Central Park (at the picnic tables by the carousel)

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

This sketchcrawl is FREE, and open to anybody at all, beginners or seasoned artists, anyone who wants to just get out and do a bit of drawing and meet others who like to do the same. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on! (And maybe a hat, and sunscreen). And afterwards, if you like we can cool off in De Vere’s Irish Pub.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below!

Facebookers: Here’s the FB event for Let’s Draw Davis: https://www.facebook.com/events/581331518693535/

**I have been rather busy on weekends these past couple of years and had little time to organize these once monthly sketching meet-ups, but I felt that it’s time to start getting us sketchers together again! I plan to start organizing more in the Fall, likely on Sundays (those Saturdays belong to AYSO soccer these days…) so if you can’t make this one, stay tuned!

Pete

digital sketches from the UCAAC

June 6, 2016June 7, 20163 Comments

Here are a few different types of sketches from the recent UCAAC in Santa Barbara. I don’t know if they need to be presented in this odd tiled fashion that WordPress has but I quite like it; click on the images to get a bigger view. I’ve been trying to use my iPad Mini to sketch, using an app called Paper by 53. Digital sketching is a whole new ball game and I am very much learning as I go along. I have a little stylus, nothing fancy, it just has a soft rubbery nib. It’s not an expensive iPencil and this isn’t a top of the range iPad Air or a Surface Pro or any of that. There is a very slight lag in time when making my digital marks and working out what the different tools do, the few there are, is interesting. It’s different from the stuff I do in MS Paint, which is more pixel by pixel football shirts, and quite unusual compared to using actual paper and actual pens but it is relatively quick, coloring in using big blocks of colour is intensely fun, you can go back if you accidentally put a big thick turquoise line through the middle (yeah, touchscreens) and you don’t need to scan them. Hey, you DON’T NEED TO SCAN THEM! That is actually huge. Literally years of my life have been lost crouched over my scanner pressing sketchbooks against glass while a slowly moving light trundles underneath me. But I’m a digital beginner, and still exploring, tentatively. If you need any tips…well, there are more experienced digital sketchers out there, but I hope you like these. I’ll enjoy looking back on these early efforts in years to come. The big one is the keynote speaker of the conference, Lester P. Monts of the University of Michigan, who gave a very interesting talk about being a Global Citizen. I included the pre-coloured-in version of that sketch so you can see what it looked like before the colourful blocks were added. The other sketches, two are very quick ones of breakout sessions I attended, and then there is a quick sketch of a curvilinear grid with a sketch of the room I was in (I won’t say the session but it was less fun than some of the others, I was starting to think about going to the pool). The other sketch is one I did in the observation carriage of the Amtrak Coastal Starlight train I took from Davis to Santa Barbara. Fun times!

if there was a sequel would you love me as an equal

June 2, 20168 Comments

On the second day of the Long Weekend, in the morning while my son went to a birthday party, I cycled downtown for some pre-lunchtime sketching. Another panoramic two-page spread, as you do. I decided to return to First Street, which is a block away from the similarly named Second Street (I know, makes no sense). Here, outside the Natsoulas Gallery, a huge cat is being erected, covered in mosaic tiles, next to the already installed colourful dog on the corner. While sketching, a guy working on the structure came over and chatted with me about art (he draws stuff as well) (hello by the way if you’re reading this). This is turning into a most colourful corner. On the other page, the fraternity house of Theta Xi (no, sorry, no jokes about taxis today). This is a bit like a sequel (or a prequel, technically, being First Street) to the sketch from the day before. I should do a panorama of Third Street to keep it up, like. Maybe I will wait 30 years and then sell my sketchbook for billions to Disney and they can get J J Abrams to sketch it, but as much in the style of the Second Street sketch as possible, with a fire hydrant and a bit of lens flare, forgetting that First Street with its giant cats and midichlorians even exists. Or maybe not. It’s getting hotter, hotter, hotter. This weekend is going to be a scorcher. Time to get out of Davis…

why the panoramic face?

June 1, 20165 Comments

Long weekend here in America, which meant longer drawings. Ok, a horse with an injured tail walks into a bar. “Why the long weekend?” asks the barman. No, no it was a bank, he walks into a bank on a holiday. “Why the long weekend?” asks the bank clerk. Maybe not an injured tail, maybe his tail was all overgrown rendering it useless for whatever tails usually are for, hence not being as strong as his front end, for example. So a horse with a less strong, very hairy tail walks into a bank, while on holiday, and the bank clerk says to him, he goes “why the long weekend?” Maybe there’s nothing wrong with his tail at all, maybe he had just been in a race, and had originally been one of the front-runners (that’s a horse racing term) but towards the end he had started to tail off (that’s another one), finally just ambling over the line, not even trotting, just going really slowly, like he had no energy, maybe he was already thinking of his holidays on the beach, before finally he walked into a bar, I mean a bank, and the bank clerk who had been watching the race on the TV, he asks him “why the long, weak end?”. Or maybe, maybe the horse is Bryan Singer and the race is X-Men Apocalypse and I am the bank clerk and maybe I asked exactly that question after seeing that very movie, which I in fact did, not long after finishing this drawing that you see here. (You see I was going somewhere with all of that, I wasn’t just ambling on, or trotting). This is Second Street (though in my opinion, it’s first), Davis. I sat on the corner of F Street (which in my opinion is more of a B+) and drew this familiar scene. In the middle there, the Varsity Theatre, historic centre of the Davis downtown, right opposite the Avid Reader bookstore. I sat drawing for a couple of hours, drawing furiosuly with my uni-ball signo UM-151 brown-black pen, and doing some of the water color on site and the rest at home; pizza dinner awaited me. And then, X-Men. While it was not a bad film (it was not quite Batman v Superman level of “what-the”, there was no “Clark Kent gets into the bath with his shoes on” moment), and it had some good moments and good call-backs to the previous films, it really suffered in its storytelling. I know that sounds ironic given that I spent five minutes trying to tell a joke about a horse at the start of this post but my budget is a little lower. I just felt the narrative started to fall apart somewhere around the middle of the film. It doesn’t stand up to the other X-films. A few good bits – well X-Men The Last Stand had good bits too but overall gets a terrible rap (deservedly if we’re honest). Even “X-Men Origins – Wolverine” was a good idea, though Logan’s (spoiler alert) cameo in this is (spoiler spoiler spoiler) totally unnecessary, inconsequential and utterly shoehorned into the film (you might say it spoiled the movie). Still, Magneto saying “Who the fuck are you?” to Apocalypse was fun. Everyone knows I love Magneto. As I say though, the ending of the film was long and weak, and since it could be said (not by me, but I’m about to say it so I suppose it is by me) that Fox is flogging a dead horse, then that brings us nicely back to “Why did the chicken cross the road? To stop the rights going back to Marvel.”