frat luck

February 19, 20092 Comments

A frat house downtown. I’ve mentioned before about the frat houses in Davis, all running along the edge of campus. They are so sketchable, yet I rarely get around to drawing them.

Did I mention the Amgen Tour of California, kind of like the Tour de France of California (like, dur), started here in Davis (amid a massive rainstorm) on Sunday? Well I missed it, sadly (hey, I stayed warm and dry, don’t feel too bad). Huge event. Lance Armstrong. Serious stuff. Davis is the bike capital of America and didn’t want anything to go wrong, this is a showcase. Now Davis did do really well, however… Lance Armstrong’s bike got nicked. No, not in Davis, and not while he was riding in the race; it was his one-of-a-kind time trial bike which he’d used the day before in Sacramento. Someone actually half-inched it. The most famous cyclist in the world.

I hope he didn’t chain it to a bollard, like David Cameron.

clock wise

February 18, 2009Leave a comment

The grandfather clock at the Avid Reader in Davis. You may recall I used to work there a while back, at a little desk under the stairs at the back there behind the language books. I drew that desk once.

coup de foudre

February 14, 2009February 15, 20094 Comments

Happy St.Valentine… This is the Place d’Albertas (Aix-en-Provence), most romantic place in the world; well, our world. P xx

ain’t no sunshine

February 13, 2009February 13, 2009Leave a comment

Hey, it can’t be sunny all the time in Davis.

Storms have been rolling in, and I’ve watched them roll away again. More storms to come. While the rain stopped I was outside during lunch today capturing part of the Silo complex, but then drips and drops started falling from the sky. I ducked beneath a shelter to finish the pen and write some notes on the colours (‘cos you know, not like I’ve sketched here before or anything), and did the wash at home. This is page 1 of moleskine 4, it’s so nice starting a new book.

all’s well that ends well

February 13, 2009February 13, 20096 Comments

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
(William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Nights Dream, V-I)

end-of-moley-3

The back cover of the watercolour moleskine number 3, drawn in cobalt copic. I’ve enjoyed this sketchbook in particular; it has covered a lot of ground. You can see all of the pictures in this particular moley right here. I hope I learn as much in my next ‘moley’, which is waiting patiently to be started.

Speaking of moleskines, I got a very nice mention on the ‘moleskinerie’ site the other day. An honour!

to the manor born

February 9, 20095 Comments

I turned 33 at the weekend. We left the baby with his nana, and went to Healdsburg to stay overnight at the most excellent Madrona Manor, an amazing building from the 1880s overlooking the magnificent valleys of Sonoma County. The heart of the wine country. Easily the best hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (and the door had a key, not one of those bloody card-swipe things; it was great!). The furniture was old, ornate and well-kept. It was pretty foggy and cold, but I was able to do a few drawings; I’ll have to come back up in sunnier months to draw the grounds. We wandered about the vegetable gardens, and were encouraged to pick an orange or two from the pretty orchards by the friendly owner (and I don’t remember the last hotel I stayed at where I chatted with the owner; no soul-destroying corporation this). And speaking of fresh oranges, the freshly squeezed orange juice was te perfect way to start the day. There is very little better than freshly squeezed orange juice, but particularly if you can see the trees where they were grown from the breakfast table.

A sketch of the bed. Very, very comfortable. The rooms are sans-TV, a big plus for me. And below, a drawing of the main mansion. I’m glad we were lucky enough to stay there.

simon says

February 8, 2009Leave a comment

This is my friend back in London, Simon, actor, presenter and fellow on-street sketcher. I’ve attempted drawing him before, but couldn’t quite get it, but this time I think I got it pretty close. Used the sepia micron 0.5, nice for drawing people with.

picture book

February 5, 20099 Comments

The late January sunshine has been replaced by early February rain (much needed, considering California is running out of water as well as money), but here are a couple of photos of my sketchbook in the weekend’s sunshine. I’ve nearly finished this one; a new one is on the way…

the warriors of winter gave a cold triumphant shout

February 3, 2009February 3, 20094 Comments

who needs remote control

February 1, 20093 Comments

Perhaps… we spend too much time looking at the shadows, and not at the trees.

Or vice-versa, take your pick.

This is the old city hall in Davis (now part of a restaurant), sketched on Saturday afternoon on the last of january; see how warm and sunny looking it is. I hear you are having huge snowstorms in Britain. Sorry about that. I recall the arctic blast of 2003, that night I never got home to crouch end (but instead walked through the icy storm several miles to burnt oak). And then the second one a year later, when finchley central station closed because nobody had thought to grit the platform (but i made it home thanks to my boss giving me a lift, and managing not to get frozen in a slippery traffic jam on highgate hill, for which i’m very grateful). I love snow, it makes the world look so peaceful, except when it is causing utter flipping chaos.