worldwide sketchcrawl 38…

January 20, 2013January 22, 20132 Comments

Januarys are busy, and this week has been busy, busy, busy. Busy weekend too, what with a super-hero themed kids birthday party to prepare for, but yesterday I stopped and took part in the 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl here in Davis California. We met outside the Pence Gallery on D St at midday, and immediately set about sketching the fabulous Antiques Plus antiques store. I drew using my dark brown uni-ball signo um-151 pen, and had intended to colour this, but you know how it is, there are sketchers to talk to, and I sketch more slowly when I chat! But it is great fun all the same. There were about eighteen of us in all, some new faces and some regular sketchers.

The courtyards and alleys between E and D Streets are very cute and with the trees so leafless, full of interesting shadows.

It was a mild sunny day, warm in the sun but nippy in the shade. At the end of the sketchcrawl, we met up at De Vere’s Irish pub to warm up and chill out, and checked out each others sketchbooks. I have wanted to sketch this bookshelf for a while so took the opportunity to get stuck in, wearing down the brown micron. It was very nice to meet some new sketchers, catch up with sketchers I haven’t seen in a while, and to see the regular faces too, all with great and stylistically varied sketchbooks. I definitely picked up a few tips.

Check out the rest of the world’s results from the 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl on the SKETCHCRAWL FORUM!

let’s draw america’s coolest campus!

August 17, 20122 Comments

I wasn’t able to schedule an August sketchcrawl (and boy, was it hot this month!), but Let’s Draw Davis in September instead! This time we will meet on the very calm and quiet UC Davis campus – calm and quiet, before the thousnads of students return shortly afterwards! UC Davis was recently ranked ‘the coolest school in America’, and how much cooler would it be if we all sketched it? A lot cooler!

We will meet at the Silo, in the middle of campus. The Silo itself probably won’t be open for food, being the weekend, so you may want to bring a packed lunch. It’s an interesting area to draw, and we can meet at the tables bewteen the main building and the Bike Barn. From there we will sketch around campus, on your own or in groups, before reconvening outside the main doors of Shields Library (or just inside if it’s too hot) to check out each other’s sketchbooks.

START: 11:00am, @the UC Davis Silo (map)

FINISH: 3:00pm, outside Shields Library (map)

If you can’t find your way around campus, I recommend visiting the UC Davis website where they have an excellent online campus map: http://campusmap.ucdavis.edu/. Why not check out the UC Davis Virtual Tour as well?

As always, everyone is welcome to join in, regardless of sketching ability. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on, and once you start looking you’ll be amazed at what you find.

Hope to see you there!

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

worldwide sketchcrawl 36, downtown davis…

July 13, 2012Leave a comment

While the urban sketchers are all busy at the Urban Sketching Symposium in sunny Santo Domingo, I’ll be here in sunny Davis, sketching away this Saturday on the Worldwide Sketchcrawl! It’s WW Sketchcrawl #36, and there are similar sketchcrawls happening all over the globe – see the Sketchcrawl forum for details, there may be one near you.

If you are in Davis tomorrow and fancy some sketching, why not join us at 10:30am outside Mishka’s Coffee on 2nd St – from there we will sketch all day around downtown Davis (in the shade), and then meet up again at Davis Commons (that grassy area with the tables and shops on 1st St, at the end of E St) at 3:00pm to check out each other’s sketchbooks. Anyone can join, it’s totally free and all you need is something to draw with and something to draw on. Hope to see you there!

Sketchcrawl #36 forum

Let’s Draw Davis!

Let’s Draw Davis! Flickr Group

Let’s Draw the Arboretum! Sunday, March 11

March 2, 2012March 2, 20122 Comments

It’s time for another sketchcrawl in the lovely city of Davis. This time around we will sketch at the UC Davis Arboretum, which I must say is lovely at this time of year. Might be a good idea to bring a packed lunch though. We’ll start at 11 at the Wyatt Deck, on the east bank of Lake Spafford (or is it the south bank? The one on the freeway side…), and sketch as you wish around the Arboretum, before reconvening at 3:00pm back at Wyatt Deck to check out each other’s sketchbooks.

DATE: Sunday, March 11, 2012

START:11:00am, Wyatt Deck (east bank of Lake Spafford)

FINISH:3:00pm, Wyatt Deck

As always the sketchcrawl is free an open to everybody who has an interest in drawing. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on. There is parking nearby at the UC Davis Mondavi Center for those with cars. For a nice pdf map of the Arboretum, please go to: http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/documents/visitor_map.pdf

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/239244632836918/

Hope to see you there! If you need any information please let me know by commenting below.

worldwide sketchcrawl #34, let’s draw davis

January 22, 2012January 23, 20121 Comment

On Friday there was a massive rainstorm in northern California, with flood warnings and downpours so loud I could barely sleep. “But Saturday is the sketchcrawl!” I sighed. Not to worry – it all magically stopped, and the sun came out and the world warmed up and what a lovely day for sketching. It wasn’t a massive group, but it was a fun day sketching by the farmer’s market. I always sketch more slowly on these events, because I spend a lot more time talking while sketching, but that’s one of the fun things about sketchcrawls, meeting and sharing experiences with other like-minded folk. I started by sketching the other sketchers:

Above left is Marlene Lee, sketchcrawl regular and an inspirational artist; right is Jennica Forrest, who I met on the last sketchcrawl at the community park.

Above left is Leah Jin, who I know from UC Davis, and above right is Morning Waters, an artist from Fair Oaks, California on her first Davis sketchcrawl. Nice to meet you!

This was the day of the 34th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, and people in cities the world over were out braving the cold to sketch their cities, and be part of a global sketching community. Check out their results on the sketchcrawl forum...

More Davis sketches to come!

33rd worldwide sketchcrawl

October 18, 2011October 18, 20112 Comments

Last Saturday was the 33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl event, and here in Davis it was the latest in our ‘Let’s Draw Davis!’ sketchcrawls, that started exactly a year ago. I invited local sketchers down to sketch the ‘hidden’ spots of downtown, starting at Mansion Square on E Street.

There were about ten of us at the start, expanding to twelve in total (I keep a sign-in sheet!), regular faces as well as some newer sketchers. We were joined by a reporter from the student-run local newspaper the California Aggie, Ramon, who I sketched above. He wrote a nice article about the Davis sketchcrawl in today’s Aggie (link to today’s edition at bottom of this post). Mansion Square is an interesting place, quiet and off-strip, behind the old Hunt-Boyer-Dresbach Mansion. When I first came to Davis, I went for an interview in the Kaplan center there (which doesn’t appear to be there any more), doing well in my presentation (what did I talk about, I don’t recall, interactive theatre or ghostly black dogs or something) but less well in the SAT and GRE practise tests (it was the math that did it for me, I aced the language bits).

I don’t know what the brick thing above is, but it looks a bit like a slice of pork. Anyway, off across the street the sketchcrawl went to Orange Court, where I knocked out this very quick-looking sketch above right, and a few of us ate lunch at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen (one of the tastiest eateries in Davis). Below are Tiffany and Christine, two fellow sketchers.

Finally, some sketching in the alleys between E and D. There are some really interesting spots back there, hidden away, cool little tea sops and cute gift stores. This one, Creme de la Creme (which made me hungry for Creme Eggs, oddly enough, but then I’m always hungry for Creme Eggs)

The next Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl will be on November 19th in Community Park. The next Worldwide sketchcrawl will be, well I’m not sure, probably in January – find out by checking out www.sketchcrawl.com! (Can I just point out, for the 32nd ‘crawl I was in Lisbon? Thought I should remind you, because that was brilliant! And i still need to post some more stuff about Lisbon, if ever I gte the time…)

33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl forum

Let’s Draw Davis Flickr group

California Aggie Oct 18, 2011

let’s draw hidden davis!

October 13, 20112 Comments

It’s nearly the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of LET’S DRAW DAVIS! Our first sketchcrawl meeting was held on October 16 2010, a year ago, and we’re still sketching Davis monthly.

Join us for the next sketchcrawl here in Davis, California, this coming Saturday October 15th. It is the 33rd Worldwide sketchcrawl, when sketchers from all over the planet will be out drawing their cities on the same day (see sketchcrawl.com for more details!).

START: 10:30 Mansion Square (E St/2nd)
MIDWAY: 1:00 Orange Court (E St)
FINISH: 3:30 Cloud Forest Cafe (D St, between 2nd and 3rd)

We’ll meet at 10:30am at Mansion Square on E Street, and explore the ‘hidden’ spots and courtyards of downtown Davis. Starting at Mansion Square, behind the historic Hunt-Boyer-Dresbach House, we’ll move on across the street to the charming Orange Court, for more sketching and maybe some lunch, before moving on to the curious alleys, cafes and shops between E / D st, and 2nd/3rd Sts. We’ll finish up at the Cloud Forest Cafe, near the red phonebox, to check out each other’s sketchbooks.

Everyone is welcome! All ages/levels. Just bring something to draw with and something to draw on. Invite your sketching friends!

For more info, please leave a comment below or send me a message.

Pete

let’s draw uc davis

September 10, 20111 Comment

Next week, it’s time for another sketchcrawl in Davis! This time on the UC Davis campus, which will be starting to bustle with the incoming new students.

START: 10:30am, Memorial Union bus terminal (by the red phonebox)

FINISH: 3:00pm, at the Eggheads near the Art Building

As always, this is free and everyone is welcome, all ages/levels. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on!

For more info leave a comment below or visit our Facebook event page.

See you there!

lisbon symposium, day 3: worldwide sketchcrawl #32

August 15, 2011August 15, 2011Leave a comment

The final afternoon of the Lisbon Urban Sketching Symposium was the 32nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. For those of you who know, the worldwide sketchcrawl (see sketchcrawl.com) was started about seven years ago in San Francisco by Enrico Casarosa and quickly established itself across the world, encouraging sketchers to just meet up with other sketchers, pick a spot, spend all day drawing, then share the results online for the world to see. As you can see, I’m sharing rather later than I usually would (had a bit of a backlog!). Most sketchcrawls I’ve been on in the past have usually been finished by 4:30, but we had barely begun!

We met at FBAUL and moved en masse, snaking down the hill (see above) to Praco Comercio, where we would be meeting with many non-symposium sketchers. I got distracted and sketched a fire hydrant, but made it down to the group eventually. I decided to sketch off on my own a little though, and drew the big arch from Rua Augusta (see top). As I sketched, people gathered around (one smart young lad pointing out how long it had taken me to draw the picture, by looking at the clock in the drawing!). At one point, a group of people were all around me taking photos. I wandered up Rua Augusta, I wanted to have a look around Baixa district not having explored this part of town much. It was full of shoppers and tourists (and pickpockets, quite likely), as well as street musicians like the one I sketched below, looking like a snake charmer. It was very ‘world music’ and not very good to be honest, quite repetitive, but people still stopped to watch (or sketch). I also sketched a dress in a shop window (oh no!), to illustrate that this is a shopping district.

What I REALLY wanted to draw though was the building below. Inever got a chance to go up the Elevador Santa Justa, but I was not going to leave Lisbon without attempting to draw it. I found a nice little spot, looked up and sketched away. It’s an interesting neo-Gothic building, essentially just a nicely decorated lift, with an impressive view from the top (one of the workshops I never attended, ‘Panoramania’ with Simo Capecchi, was held there – that would have been so cool! But I hear it was windy). It was built at the end of the 19th Century to get people up from Baixa to Largo do Carmo.

I sketched another hydrant (see previous post on fire hydrants), and went back up to FBAUL to meet with the returning sketchers for the final get-together, and to look at eveyone’s sketchbooks…

let’s draw davis: farmers market

April 22, 2011April 22, 20111 Comment

Time to announce the next ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawl! If you’re interested in drawing and sketching, why not join us in capturing our little city on paper in pen, pencil, paint or whatever you choose! The event is free and open to everyone, regardless of drawing ability – from the humblest beginner to the humblest master. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on. We’ve had good tur-outs at our previous sketchcrawls, and they are a nice way to meet (and learn from) other people who also like going about drawing stuff all day.

We’ll start off at 10:30 am sketching at the Farmer’s Market, and then sketch in the park and surrounding area all day until about 3:30 pm.

DATE: Saturday, May 14, 2011

START: 10:30 am, entrance to Farmer’s Market (3rd/C St)

FINISH: 3:30 pm, Central Park (by the Carousel)

The Davis ‘Tour de Cluck’ is also that day, so there may be some interesting folk about to sketch. See you on the 14th!

petescully

postcards of the hanging

Category: sketchcrawl