March 2018 – petescully

This is the courtyard of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the UC Davis campus. In January we had our monthly sketchcrawl here in Davis (we missed February; the next one will be on March 17, details to be posted later today at facebook.com/letsdrawdavis), and it was held at the Manetti Shrem. Regular viewers will recall that I drew this building from its first days of construction right through to the grand opening, and I was even invited to the big fancy party for artists and donors on the night before the opening, which was amazingly fun (the ice cream lollipops made on slabs of nitrogen were incredible). It’s a complicated piece of architecture, and I have not drawn it very often since, so I was overdue a sketch. After a morning of coaching a game of under-10 soccer (we lost 9-2 that morning, ouch) I needed to spend some time on a complicated panorama. This is a complicated panorama. Fun though, and it was nice having chats with people passing by, either other sketchers, or local Davis people I knew who happened to be visiting the museum, or students who were interested in art. One young bloke asked me about perspective and how I approach it. Well, get me on that subject! I told him about the multiple vanishing points, both up and down, and the horizon, and the sphere, curvilinear perspective, but said that with a building like this you just have to throw caution to the wind and say, ah just draw it all and see how it comes out. Don’t worry about it. Also another trick, on a two-page spread when the big valley is in the middle of the page, I used the large yellow pole that was in the foreground as a good place for a middle. Saved all those lines getting screwed up in the centre, falling down the gap. On the right, across Vanderhoef Quad, is the Mondavi Center. We’ll be going to see John Cleese there later this month. I’m sure he will be all grumpy

You can click on the sketch for a closer view if you like. Or maybe if you are in Davis, for an even more close view of the museum why not visit? It’s really cool there: https://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/

Also, try to draw that roof. Honestly, it is fun, like a puzzle. And if drawing that roof gets too much just put on a Jack Nicholson voice and say …

This is another from late January. It is Steve’s Pizza on F street, Davis. Or is it Steve’s Original Pizza? It was called that for a while. No, the sign says it is Steve’s Place Pizza. (It might be Steve’s Pizza Place). My son tells me that no, it’s Steve’s Pizza Pasta and Grill. I think it says Steve’s Place Pizza Pasta and Grill. Whatever it is called, if you go there you will get pizza, and presumably it will belong to Steve. Until you buy it. Presumably also it is Steve’s Pizza, Pasta, Grill, Salad, Alcoholic Drinks and Non-Alcoholic Drinks. I don’t know if it’s necessary to say everything on your menu in your name. There is also a sign that says “Now Open Late”. So this probably means that if it says they open at 5 you should probably go around 6, in case they aren’t open yet. I don’t know, I have trouble with signs. I really like Steve’s pizza, I must say, we order it at work, and also this was the first pizza that my son would ever eat, having always turned his nose up at pizza up to that point. Honestly, I didn’t know what sort of kid refuses to eat cheese pizza. Any cheese pizza, he just refused it all. He should try the sort of pizza I used to eat when I was that age, the frozen solid mini-pizzas from Asda, microwaved and eaten with baked beans to give them some flavour (always makes me think of watching Rod Hull and Emu while eating that, for some reason) (remember that? Grotbags and the Pink Windwil, that was one weird show). Well ever since going to a Pokemon birthday party at Steve’s and trying their pizza, he has loved pizza. Only cheese though, nothing too extravagant.