Last Fall, I was invited to lead a ‘First Year Aggie Connection’ (FYAC) group on campus, under the theme of Urban Sketching. The FYACs are a special program for first year students on campus at UC Davis, offered on a whole range of subjects, and my one was of course all about drawing Davis and the campus. They are a way for first year students to get to know other first years with similar interests and also learn a few things too. It was not a for-credit course, but I did provide handouts with tips and tricks on different themes we’d be covering each week. I selected different places to sketch, and we would just get together, draw them, and then look at all our sketches afterwards. It was nice, very informal, and I was well impressed by all their work. In the very first session, I had them do a portrait party, sketching each other for a few minutes. Here are some of the sketches I did during that quarter.

The UC Davis Eggheads. I made a handout telling them all about the Eggheads and where to find them, and we drew these ones, Yin and Yang, outside the Arts buildings.

On one day it absolutely poured down, so we stood in the shelter of South Hall and drew the big trees outside. The them was trees that week anyway. There is one of the sketchers keeping dry from the rain.

The Bike Barn is always good to sketch, as you know I like drawing triangles. I think the theme was about composition that week, but I didn’t really think too deeply about composition in this sketch.

I did enjoy the week we sketched out at Wyatt Deck, in the Arboretum. That was very peaceful, and I sketched some of the other sketchers.

This was at the Memorial Union, by the campus bookstore. I can’t remember the theme now, probably perspective, but I didn’t have a lot of time to sketch to it was really about adding in a little bit of colour. The point of the course was to explore different places anyhow; many of the students were quite new to Davis. We didn’t really explore away from campus though.

This is Rock Hall, which we drew from the Student Community Center.

This was fun though, on the border between campus and downtown, on A Street. Not ‘a street’, that’s “A” Street. I drew the stop sign, with all the bikes whizzing past ignoring the “Stop” bit.

And this is Hart Hall, which we drew in late November. This was a really fun way to introduce new students to Davis and urban sketching, and I will be doing the same again this coming Fall in another FYAC, but maybe with a few other locations and themes thrown in too.