no fears, no worries, just a golden country

July 28, 20083 Comments

I spent the weekend in San Francisco, joining the dots, travelling on buses, walking through to my soles and drawing. I noticed that time travels extremely fast when you cannot decide where to go; this was my first SF sketching trip of 2008 and I wanted to make the most of it, while covering some new ground, making discoveries. I discovered that the Nob Hill hotel is staffed by nobs, for one thing. Above: a very famous bridge. This time I walked beneath it and around to the rocky Pacific coastline, what an incredible sight. Below: first drawings of the day, courtesy of the amtrak train. There’s my muni bus transfer, there; a kind driver gave me one that lasted all day. I travelled by bus everywhere in the city for less than a quid. Ever had that in London? Didn’t think so. More to come.

a knight in

July 25, 2008July 25, 2008Leave a comment

Went for a quick pint of Krusovice (Dark, appropriately) after watching the Batman sequel, and drew this in copic 0.1. Good film; Heath Ledger was pretty incredible as the Joker. Then, a long walk home in the evening heat. Right now, I’m up watching Superman II (richard donner cut); speaking of saving the world, I’d better send off that sketchbook… Off to San Francisco tomorrow morning for some sketchery.

just the same as all the rest

July 22, 2008July 22, 20084 Comments

It’s summer, there is no thai soup, and that means I sketch more at lunchtimes. Lately of course the weather has been too hot and smoky, but now it’s a bit cooler, and so it’s outside to draw all the same stuff I always draw at work. This is the Outdoor Adventures building: seems like I’m drawing something new, but looks the same as all those bike barn drawings i did (see right) – because it’s the other side of the same building. It’s currently Summer Sessions on campus, so there are more students around than you’d expect in a break. It’s a mixture of strangely quiet and too busy.

hold the front page

July 21, 2008July 22, 2008Leave a comment

I hate the first page of a new sketchbook; never know what to draw, for some reason. So on opening my third watercolour moleskine I just drew what was right in front of me, on my desk. There’s a glass, almost completely empty (or very slightly full, depending on your worldview, ooh link that to bush’s take on the economy). There’s the Beatles crossing Abbey Road (trivia question for you – are they going towards or away from the studios?). There’s Magneto, master of magnetism, rendered (in cruel irony) in plastic. Scissors I bought six years ago in Aix. A couple of microns, plus a copic. The pc screen (watching “south park” online). A Spurs badge – I’ve had this since I was ten, bought at a game at the Lane in ’86 when we beat Man City – it’s known as the “lucky spurs badge”, and is a famous relic (my mate Tel will tell you, should you see him). I wish it would still work, we seem to be selling most of the team. There’s Greedo, having reeked revenge on Han Solo, but with Cyclops behind him about to shoot first (I just had an image of Cyclops shooting Greedo under the table and wow, it was not pretty). And a half-hidden Vader behind him in the shadows. And there’s a couple of post-it notes with stuff about milk supply and stuff on them.

Now that’s out of the way (and you’re thinking I’m a geek, well maybe I am, or just untidy), I can move on with the sketchbook. Back to trees and buildings. It’s a little cooler here in Davis now, and not as smoky.

and the holy roast

July 20, 20087 Comments

happy feet

July 17, 2008July 20, 20083 Comments

And so Luke has learnt how to eat his toes! At five and a half months. He’s getting bigger every day, and very funny! Hey if he keeps putting his foot in his mouth, he might be President some day…

Drawn in his journal.

your architects were madmen, your builders sane but drunk

July 16, 2008July 16, 20087 Comments

Which is the odd one out? Oh I love that game in “Have I got News For You”.

Answers on a postcard, in the meantime I will concoct a convoluted answer.

Images of London, for a project. Do not adjust your tv sets, this is black and white. No, I haven’t lost my coloured paints.

saints within

July 15, 2008July 16, 20082 Comments

The old legend goes that if you vote in a republican president you will have global warming for forty years, or something. Drawn at lunchtime today in the Silo, with purple micron in the wh smith book. I will, I promise, go back to colourful ink and wash drawings soon.

en grève

July 14, 2008July 16, 20082 Comments

I’ve started drawing and writing in my small wh smith book, some of what’s happening on the day, loose and unplanned, and usually at lunchtime. Today was July 14, Bastille Day; also today there began a strike of service workers on the UC campus. Having lived among the French (and the academia French at that) I know their own love of a good strike, no matter how small (one bus strike I experienced in Strasbourg lasted, bizarrely, 59 minutes). In fact I think was even technically on strike once, when Fac des Lettres librarians downed datestamps for the afternoon. It’s hard to remember.

the night tel drank the kwak

July 12, 2008October 16, 20087 Comments

My entry for Illustration Friday (I haven’t done one in a while), theme: Foggy. Yes, I had all these ideas of San Francisco or Prague or Strasbourg, of buildings half-immersed in grey, but I’ve been drawing so many buildings in grey lately that I wanted a change, and came across an old pic from an interesting evening in Belgium in late 1999.

This is my oldest friend, visiting me when I lived in Charleroi. We went, as always, to my local, La Cuve a Biere (an excellent and warm little place), and I got one of my favourite beers, Kwak (it comes in that funny shaped glass and is pretty strong, and tastes incredible). Tel did too. He liked it so much he downed it and ordered another. The Belgians on our table were surprised (and possibly nervous), for these sort of beers you have to enjoy, not chug down – for a beer like Kwak can be a bitch.

The room went foggy, the walls started spinning, the speaker above us started changing shape – at least that’s what Tel told me at the time. He suddenly got up, went into the bathroom, and pretty much didn’t come out for almost an hour. From what I heard, it was not pretty. When he emerged, we wisely decided not to get another, and walked home in the snow, not even stopping for a kebab. He has not so much as sipped a Kwak since. I can’t say I blame him.

This is faber-castell warm grey pen, with pilot varsity ink as the wash, on bristol paper. Yes, I’m trying something new for a change. I might illustrate other chapters of my life in strip form, if I get around to it.