imperial garbage truck

January 28, 2011January 28, 2011Leave a comment

This is my son’s new AT-AT. When he first saw one (its brief appearance in Return of the Jedi) he called it a ‘garbage truck’. It makes perfect sense – it sounds and moves just like one, and to a toddler the connection is obvious. The name has stuck and I’m glad, I always disliked the name AT-AT when I was a kid (but we still said that rather than ‘Imperial Walker’, which is what they’re called in the film, because ‘AT-AT’ is what it said on the box, and Hasbro boxes tell no lies). I remember getting mine for Christmas when I was a kid, it was like the best thing ever, but the little plastic guns kept snapping off. This is the ‘Galactic Heroes’ version, which I must say is really cool (and a lot sturdier). Sketched in blue Micron pen in my WH Smith sketchbook (first sketch in that book in a year and a half).

let them eat soup

January 28, 20118 Comments

A lunchtime sketch, after a bowl of soup. It’s that lovely Thai soup I used to eat all the time for a few years, that disappeared from campus for over a year but came back late 2010. It’s really good soup. I used to have to choose – eat soup, or sketch, because I never had time to do both. On this day, though, I made time. Anyway…this is South Hall, one of two such Halls (the other is North Hall, just to the north). It’s an old building, having been on UC Davis for a long time. (Hey, that’s so informative Pete! Well what do you expect, I spent my lunchtime eating soup, not reading local history). I didn’t have time to draw the other half of it though. Maybe some other time. (And I meant to leave the trees blank. In fact the soup told me to…)

breathe in, breathe out

January 26, 20112 Comments

This is the South Silo, UC Davis, as sketched from the steps of Bainer Hall. I sketch this scene every six months (with leaves, without leaves, breathe in, breathe out) and have done so since about 2007. It was a pretty chilly day, last week (sunny, but not as warm as later in the week). I like this time of year; you get leafless trees, and the shadows they produce.

Here are the previous ones…

we all drew davis!

January 26, 2011Leave a comment

Here are the sketchers who made it to the end of the sketchcrawl in Davis on Saturday. We had over twenty-five sketchers on the ‘crawl, which is a great turn out – it was wonderful to see so many sketchers out on the streets of Davis! The weather helped, I’m sure. Spot the sketchers dotted around the E Street Plaza below…

Here I am being interviewed by Aggie TV, the local campus TV station, about the sketchcrawl. That was a surprise! I’m glad I brushed my hair.

You can see more photos from the sketchcrawl (and previous crawls) on the Flickr group “Let’s Draw Davis!”. This third ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ meet-up went really well; I hope to organize them monthly, so look out for news about the next one very soon. Sketching on location is so much fun, and it’s great to meet so many other people who like drawing stuff. The new catchphrase, “it’s ok to spend all day sketching”…

And check out the rest of the world’s sketches from Worldwide Sketchcrawl #30 on sketchcrawl.com!

Ok…back to scanning my London sketches…

movies, comics and frilly underwear

January 24, 20112 Comments

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 30, Davis Caliornia, continued… after lunch, I was eager to get back outside and do some sketching in the glorious sunshine. And I did, too – I sat right in the sun, almost getting burnt. Forgot my hat; colars went up, and sketched quickly. January in Davis, lads, gotta love it. I sketched the Varsity theatre on 2nd St, yet again. Against a blue sky, it’s impossible to resist.

I then sketched the window display of Luxury OutHouse on F St, which sounds like a showroom for RVs or garden sheds, but actually sells fancy bathroom soap and dressing gowns and stuff, and interesting looking lingerie. I had to sketch it.

And my last sketch of the day, Bizarro Comics on E Street (because lingerie and comic shops seem to go together, for some reason). As I crossed the road after sketching this, an SUV with cowboy-hatted driver almost ran me over, though I was on the crosswalk already – he wasn’t looking ahead, and didn’t see the crosswalk. I raised my eyebrows at him as he passed without stopping, and he shouted ‘asshole how am i supposed to see you?’
‘If you were looking where you were going, you would have,’ I replied, but he was already driving off making unnecessary hand gestures at me.
At which point I used my super lazer eyes to shrink his car to mouse size, and my mutant powers over magnetism to force lift him into a tree full of crows. That might make a good comic…

Photos from the sketchcrawl to come!

it was a sunny january day…

January 23, 2011January 23, 20116 Comments

Yesterday’s “Let’s Draw Davis” Sketchcrawl in Davis was quite an event! We had glorious weather, warm and sunny, and an amazing turnout – I met lots of new sketchers, plus some familiar faces, it was a great sketchcrawl. There were at least twenty-five of us, maybe more. We were even joined by Aggie TV, who filmed us sketching and interviewed me about our sketchcrawls, and that this was part of the 30th worldwide sketchcrawl happening in cities across the planet. We were also joined by ‘Walking Bob’ Schultz, who wrote a piece about us in Davis Life magazine on Friday. You can see that article on DavisLifeMagazine.com. Pretty cool!

We all met at the E Street Plaza at 11, and sketched about the square in clusters, sketching in different styles and sketchbooks. Above are actually three separate sketches which I drew attached to each other. In the middle, the sketcher with the orange hat is Cynthia Sterling, who drove over from Napa. After a while, some of us stopped and went for lunch at a Thai restaurant in Mansion Square, just off E St. I sketched a few fellow sketchers below…

More to come!

for there is in london all that life can afford

January 20, 2011January 20, 20115 Comments

While back in London I was fortunate enough to sketch at the house of Dr. Samuel Johnson, in Gough Square (off Fleet Street). The doctor himself wasn’t home, having died a couple of centuries ago or so, but the very nice curator Stephanie gave me a cup of tea and a tour of the house. I love this area and all its history and Johnson’s House is a jewel. He was the archetypal Londoner (well, he was from Staffordshire) from whom we get many famous quiz-night quotations, his most well-known being that one about being tired of London (let’s not forget he said it before the invention of the Northern Line). Beyond his famous dictionary and his appearance in Blackadder as Robbie Coltrane, many people don’t actually know much about him. I certainly learned a lot more about Johnson, and he was a very interesting man, and quite ahead of his time. I enjoyed being brought back into the eighteenth century learning the stories behind regular household objects. For example, his very thin chair (sketched above) – Dr Johnson was a pretty portly man, but apparently he would sit on it backwards and lean his arms on the back while watching cock fights down at his local pub (as you did).

i sketched this - johnson's cat hodges with the house in the background - a couple of years ago

That’s the dictionary up there on the left, first edition print. Not the original manuscript, but still pretty cool to be in the vicinity of this famous (if Scot-mocking) book, so I had to sketch that too.

If you happen to be in London, head down to the Fleet Street area, and visit Dr Johnson’s House in Gough Square. You’ll really like it. and then, go and explore the narrow lanes and old pubs of the area. As Johnson himself said, “Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts.” And he was right an’ all.

Website of Dr. Johnson’s House

sketching rita

January 20, 20112 Comments

So here are the sketches I did at last week’s Friday ArtAbout, during Rita Hosking’s performance at Armadillo in Davis. I was amazed at her music, it reminded me how much I love country/folk music. She is a singer-songwriter from northern California, who lives in Davis. She plays all over, though, and in fact toured the UK last summer. After a very busy week, I found it really relaxing listening to her and her band, Cousin Jack, while sketching (and as you know I’m trying to practise sketching musicians, as I’ve always found it tricky). People were coming up to watch me sketch as well, and because some of the younger audience couldn’t see what I was sketching, I sat on the floor. From that angle I was able to sketch looking up at the fiddler, Andy (see below).

Check out Rita’s website and Facebook page. Her music’s great!

By the way, my prints are still on display at Armadillo Music for the next few weeks, so pop down and have a look at them.

you read me like an open book

January 17, 2011January 17, 201117 Comments

Friday was fun!

I exhibited some of my sketchbooks and prints at Armadillo Music in Davis as part of the 2nd Friday ArtAbout event. Having just come back from London, and being in the middle of a massive amount of work, I didn’t have much time to prepare for it but decided that what I really wanted was to show people the sketchbooks, and have a few Davis-centric sketches blown up into prints. As always with me, deciding which to show took forever, but I settled on a few select images, and chose Moleskines #4, #5 and #7 (the current one), along with the Davis accordion moleskine, the fire hydrants sketchbook and the ‘How To Save the World’ sketchbook as well.

The event was highlighted by an hour of live music from the incredible Rita Hosking and her band. Rita is a Davis-based country-folk singer-songwriter, who recently won best country album at the independent music awards, and it wasn’t hard to see why – her music was utterly beautiful, reminded me of why I like country music, and after what had been an incredibly busy and stressful week, standing there sketching and listening to that music made me feel totally relaxed. I’m honoured to have been on the same bill.

My artist reception was straight afterwards. A lot of people came for that, a surprising amount, many of whom I knew, plus some who had seen me on Urban Sketchers, plus some who were passing by. I had leaflets ready talking about ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ (sketchcrawl on Saturday!!) and Urban Sketchers, plus many of my new Moo cards (some of them are of Pele). I talked, and talked, in fact donkeys in Davis no longer have hind legs, I talked so much. I hope some of it made sense. It was great though, to enthuse about urban sketching and micron pens and what not. I enjoyed showing kids my waterbrush and letting people watch me sketch. I met some great people, and hopefully got a few people interested in drawing Davis (again, sketchcrawl on Saturday folks!).

Many thanks to Melanie at Downtown Davis Art About and to Josh and co at Armadillo Music for arranging this event. And to my wonderful wife Angela for your support (and for taking these photos), and my son Luke for saying “daddy! that’s what you drawed!” every time we pass a fire hydrant. And thanks to everyone who came along, I really appreciate it. Cheers!

my dark passengers

January 12, 201113 Comments

Now I have started Moleskine #7 (or the third trilogy, perhaps) I thought I’d show you the first six. They’ve travelled everywhere with me, and are fun to look at and chart my development as a sketcher.