in the town where i was born

June 8, 200810 Comments

A familiar skyline to all Burnt Oakers: Watling Avenue, in the rain, leading downhill towards the tube station. While most of the shops change over the years, the skyline of sloping chimneys has remained the same. Actually one shop that’s been there all my life is Vipin’s, the stationers where I bought my pens and paper growing up. It hasn’t changed a bit. (I do wish they’d stock Micron Pigmas though!)

This is my contribution for Drawing Day 2008. Micron Pigma .01. It’s also my Illustration Friday entry (theme: ‘forgotten’, because I felt like I’d almost forgotten what it was like in Burnt Oak, until I went back just recently and was quickly reminded; this skyline, however, will never be so quickly forgotten).

euro 2008

June 7, 20083 Comments

Euro 2008 is about to start, but I won’t be seeing it; I live in the US, and don’t have the particular channel that it’s showing on. I don’t even have the sticker album this time. However I have asked my prognostic friend Mystic Pete to watch the games for me in the future, and he has told me to relay the following predictions to the earthly realm: France to win beating Germany in the final, the Swiss to get through their group but the Austrians to go out bravely, Portugal to suffer a shock setback and go out in round one (and more big clubs to sack their managers hoping Big Phil Scolari will come to them), Holland and Romania to fall in the group of death (for not wearing enough blue), Wayne Rooney to get a suntan watching it from his holidays.

For those of you who are of the american persuasion, euro 2008 is, well, look here for an explanation.

Yes, I’m disappointed no home nations or Ireland are taking part. In the UK the BBC are running the tag “who will you support?”. Well I think the criterion should be the design of the kit. I like Germany’s home kit a lot, and Sweden’s new dark away shirt, whereas all of the Puma kits are like, totally lame. I have a soft spot for the Czechs but their current kit is rubbish. Maybe I’ll ask the baby, though I suspect his answer will be “poo”. As good an answer as anyone’s, I guess.

knows not where he’s going to

June 6, 2008June 6, 2008Leave a comment

I continued the ‘how to save the world’ sketchbook project in London, but did far fewer entries than I’d hoped. It was an emotional place. Below are parts 7 – 9, preceded by a short intermission, in which the fictional terry follows the steps (a click will bring you to the flickr page). You will see there is a real cup of tea and a real mars bar. the mars bar is normally dipped in the tea. Sometimes i eat the edges of the mars bar, then the top, then the rest. Sometimes.

Part eight shows the view I saw for many, many years, every single day.

fast to westminstar-ward i went

June 6, 2008Leave a comment

I regret not sketching as much as I now do when I lived in London, for there is so much history and life to draw. I’ve drawn these railings before (with a burnt bike), and I thought I should start my sketching here. I met Simon and we proceeded on a sketchcrawl through a surprisingly sunny London. We walked through the narrow streets of St Giles and Covent Garden, as the city I’d not seen in a year came flooding back. After drawing the pic below (a whisky shop in covent garden; i was trying out a new brown micron pigma, i need to work on that effetc though), we stopped off for a Belgian beer (I had Maredsous) and some frites at the Bierodrome in Kingsway.

And then, through my old haunts of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Chancery Lane (to see the spectacular Maughan Library), and Fleet Street, before crossing Ludgate (pointing out the face of King Lud) and reaching St. Paul’s (and doing the sketch on the right, previously posted). More to come!

london lickpenny

the boy and his grandad

June 5, 20081 Comment

Baby Luke just took his first trip back to London (where it rained every day, unlike in California), where he met the rest of his family, who naturally all absolutely adored him.

Here he is with his very proud grandad, who was celebrating his 60th birthday.

This is my illustration friday entry for this week (theme: baby), drawn in Luke’s journal. I might finish it with colours but kind of liked the simple version here.

long to rain over us

May 29, 20083 Comments

I got out and sketched today – I saw the sunshine – and before long it was raining. I don’t get much opportunity to practise my rain-sketching back in scorching Davis. It’s a good job my paper is for watercolours. I enjoyed walking about in the rain, and with my sketching stool I could sit aywhere: this was drawn beneath the shelter of a theatre awning on st martin’s lane, the angel and crown pub, a very typical old pub in central london. I finished the colour off in the warmth of the ship in wardour street. I’ll post the rest of my sketches later; scanning here is more time-consuming!

þe mayster-toun hit evermore has bene

May 27, 20085 Comments

I’m back in London, for the first time in a year.

After such Davis heat, I am happy to say that the rain I had wished for has come in abundance, though I got out to sketch on Saturday with my old long-missed sketching (and lightsabering) buddy in some great sunshine, drawing from St.Giles to St.Paul’s. I stocked up on pens before coming and have really not had many chances to wear them out yet; but I have been eating hob-nobs, drinking millions of tea, looking at old photos, spending time with family, catching up with friends over many a cider in Camden, gettig frustrated with the sheer amount of people gong here and there in this mad mad place. How did I ever survive here for so long? But I did, and this is still my town. The town I know so well. More to say have I, but not the energy just yet.

By the way, ten points (or an MA in my case) to they who can guess the reference in the title.

on the last bus out of town

May 21, 2008May 21, 20084 Comments

Appropriately as I am red-bus and red-brick city bound, an old routemaster which has travelled wide and ended up in Davis. (Hence my illustration friday for this week, theme “wide”). I sketched & painted this (and it was a proper sketch, not a drawing, as i was sat waiting for my own bus) in just over 15 minutes before another bus and some people got in the way. I had better get used to that where I’m going. this is a little bit of London in California. I can relate to that.

If Mayor Boris Standard-endorsed Johnson really does get rid of bendy-buses (at a cost of millions which could go into, say, crossrail) perhaps they too will end up in Davis.

Illustration Friday…

“Knock Knock”

“Who’s there?”

“Wide”

“Wide who?”

“Wide don’t you open the door and find out?”

(kids! don’t open the door to strangers! especially if they tell bad knock-knock jokes!)

round midnight, round midnight

May 20, 20082 Comments

Saving the world makes you hungry. Even Superman eats noodles (super noodles obviously). Batman must eat bat noodles, Darth Vader must eat dark noodles (he probably sucks them through his breathing mask), and Wonder Woman eats wonder noodles. I went to see that Iron Man film, pretty good, lots of big explosions and confusing scientific gadgetry. One thing I couldn’t get is that in the middle of huge fiery explosions, Iron Man chooses to be walking around in a huge tin can. Does it not get hot in there? I wonder if Iron Man does his own ironing, or gets Pepper Potts to do it.

floating in a most peculiar way

May 18, 2008May 18, 20083 Comments

Parts 4 and 5 of saving the world, with shoes and sketchbooks. The top one shows three beloved sketchbooks, the first a regular whsmith one used between june 06 and october 07, the second a lovely black material bound whsmith sketchbook, i used between december 06 and may 07, and the bottom is the first watercolour moleskine i used in the second half of last year. I won’t describe all of the shoes in the second drawing (two pairs of adidas though; funny, like most Brits I stress the first syllable of adidas, where Americans stress the second, ie, adeedas)

By the way: it was 105 degrees today in Davis. It has never ever been that hot in England, and believe you me, you don’t want it. I’ll be back in the UK soon to cool down a bit.