My take on this week’s Illustration Friday theme, ‘flying‘. Speaks for itself. Incidentally this is the last drawing I’ll have done with that cobalt copic multiliner 03 that drew that entire series i finished recently.
stout hearted
For one reason or other, not been easy for me to sketch lately, but I found myself in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday afternoon, doing a little shopping, a little reading, and I stopped into the Stout Brothers pub to do a little writing, and perhaps a little drawing. I had a couple of beers and a big glass of water (I’m trying to drink more water these days), and drew the bar. I really did need a wee, but didn’t want anyone to nick my seat, and lose me my vantagepoint. So I held on until I finished. I’m sure you don’t need to know that, but hey, these are the realities of being a modern urban sketcher.
assumed by arts unknown
I’ve been having a little sketching break – I don’t know if I meant to or not, but my mind has been under important things – but managed to draw on tuesday lunchtime. It’s not a good drawing, and is just of the Silo once again, but even during these periods it is important to at least exercise the fingers (in fact I brought two end-of-life micron 01s to a shuddering end with this particular sketch). I feel as though this drawing is like a few words spoken in the middle of the night, before going back to sleep. I’ll be back drawing again, I know it.
I like October, the month of changes. I don’t know if I like this October in particular much, but at least the air is cooler, crisp and inviting.
to L and back
Been on a little drawing hiatus this past week: the sketchbook will be open again soon! All need a break during stressful times. Meanwhile, did this quick sketch while changing buses in Sacramento, waiting to go to the airport to meet my wife and son. That’s the Capitol Park on L street, as the sun sets.
second thoughts
Second Street, Davis; the Varsity Theater. Today was hot and bright; I sat and drew this in the shade of a tree. The Fall quarter began this week, and there are lots of new students milling about in packs, impressing each other. It’s new year’s day in a college town.
I remembered that exactly ten years ago I moved over to Belgium for my year abroad, and it rained constantly for the first couple of weeks that I was there. A million miles from here, with nigh-on 100 degree weather. And another thought: it is exactly four years since I emigrated from the UK to live in America. The first job I got here was in the bookstore on this very street, directly opposite the Varsity. I don’t think I imagined we’d still be here now. Funny how the years go by. I got myself a strawberry lemonade smoothie, and went home.
my mind been bent on rambling
A very long and busy week, ending with a haircut and a beer, and some thoughts rolling out of my head and onto the page. Trying something else out. #1 in a series of 1.
drawing to a close
#30 of 30, and that’s that. This sketchbook is finished. These are some of my current sketchbooks – the moleskine is in between the big watercolour one and the small wh smith one. I’ve had a pen, or a crayon, in my hands ever since I had hands. I’ve always drawn, always, even if for some years I didn’t really draw all that much. It’s funny though, but I feel it’s just the last few years that I have really come back to it and put myself into it, drawing daily and posting online. It’s like, full circle; I have had many many interests, and things I’ve tried out, and I still do, but drawing was the first thing I did, and it is still what I do.
So the series ends. This was a series of thrity things about me, that you may or may not have known. I specifically chose a mixture of fairly mundane things and fairly interesting things, but these are not necessarily the most important things. Similarly, I’ve drawn different views around the apartment (similar to the How to Save the World series), and kept the words as unkempt and off the cuff as possible.
Here then is the final list. Makes sense when you look at it like this.
I hold my pen in an unusual way
telly-apathy
Penultimate entry, #29 of 30. Funny I should do this on the day of the Emmy’s. Don’t tell me, oh you should get BBC America. If I wanted to watch back-to-back repeats of crap shows like ‘Coupling’, I would have gotten it by now. But they don’t show Match of the Day, so sod ’em.
If you want a vision of the future, they say, imagine a reality tv show, stamping on a human soul, forever. But isn’t Big Brother ending next year in the UK? Long, long overdue, that show, from the man whose ancestor gave us the London sewage system.
And so, this particular reality series is almost over (in fact I just drew the last one), a series of mundane facts about the author, not the most important or interesting parts, but just what I happened to come across while rearranging my head. And my apartment. And it may even be fluff, but hey, I’m fluffy.
a very mini sketchcrawl
Yesterday was the 24th worldwide sketchcrawl. I went to the zoo in the morning, so my son could see the monkeys and, er, tractors, and afterwards I popped into Sacramento to do some sketchcrawling. Against my better judgement; it was so hot, and I had such a headache, that I only managed the one before wandering about and calling it a day.
This old building is on the corner of L and 15th, Sacramento.
one falling leaf does not an autumn make
#28 of 30… the autumn of the series, “I hold my pen in an unusual way“. This is how it was last weekend. May be about a hundred today though. When it’s a hundred out that means it is still Summer, according to the Wikipeteia. One leaf does not an autumn make. Even so, the halloween candy is in the store. I love autumn, season of changes; but changes can sometimes be a pain, sometimes it is nice when yesterday is like today. I’m just looking forward to when I can wear nice warm jumpers again. I have so many, and yet I live in the scorching Central Valley.
petescully 