newman center on fifth

5th St Newman house 070625 Here is another one from July, drawn on 5th Street, the Newman Catholic Center building. There was work being done on this place and it’s large green area on the corner of C St, where the grass in front of the building had been paved over. I’m always drawn to triangular shapes, and the way that the overhanging shadows create an interesting contrast, and I like blue and old wood with character. I’ve drawn the building before (even drew it a few months before in April, from across the street. This is another panorama over two pages that I like to draw because I think, oh yeah this would be good in a book about Davis in that specific format, and as yet more than a decade after having the idea I have not published that book, but technically I am working on it because I keep doing more drawings, that’s the same as writing. I stood behind the picket fence, and you can see the top of it. I love a picket fence, it reminds me I am in suburban America, which twenty years later is still funny to me. I don’t love drawing picket fences though, it becomes tedious very quickly. Anyway I sketched not realizing the view would change very soon after and this would be the last time to catch it in this particular guise, I am glad I got the picket fence in.

Here it is in October, sketched from across the street. As you can see, it’s now a different colour, creamy, the picket fence is gone, even around the grassy enclosure which now has a more solid wooden fence. There are two metal structures (pergolas? I’m not good with architectural terms) in front of the building now to create some shaded space I suppose. I love drawing that tree, so I focused a lot on that. You can see the bench commemorating Natalie Coroner, the young police officer who was killed by here several years ago. The city just opened a new splashpad for kids in the down the road named for her memory.  Newman center 5th St 100125 sm And here is the sketch I did in April for comparison from roughly the same view across the street, stood maybe a few feet to the left, and a bit more coloured in. You can see the grass that was there (behind that picket fence, it takes a lot more effort to colour in the areas behind a picket fence). It is interesting to see how a place has changed over the course of just a few months. Here again is one of the reasons I sketch, the track the changes in the place where I live, even if I don’t always realize that’s what I’m doing, I don’t necessarily sketch places knowing they will soon change.  5th St 040925 sm