I was on the couch, not feeling too well, and I wanted to draw in red pen, so I looked at the cat (number 1 of 2), lying there asleep, and drew the living room looking towards the kitchen. Drawing in red pen is interesting. Not a lot interesting to add here though.
I was downtown, early September, and I decided to draw the Kobe Mini Mart, a small Japanese store on E Street. It’s a cool little store that has nice pens, as well as lots of different Japanese foods and other goodies. It’s right next to the pub formerly known as De Vere’s. I stood across the street to sketch, outside Nick the Greek, and got bumped into more than once by people coming round the corner not looking where they were going. I stood as out of the way as possible, but still. There was a car parked in front of the store for a bit, but thankfully it moved and I drew that part of the street quickly, hoping that it wasn’t replaced by some really tall vehicle. That’s always a worry with urban sketching, tall vehicles. That said, the sidewalk is pretty high on this stretch of road. I liked sketching this.
I did that thing where I used some masking tape to make a perfectly lined rectangle, so that I could draw and paint over the edge, and then peel it off satisfyingly for a lovely straight line, like all the proper artists do on Instagram. I went downtown and drew the brand new TKE frat house, which replaced the older looking frat house that was there for years, that I definitely sketched a few times over the years. It’s next to the Natsoulas Gallery which has that massive cat outside, part of which you can see here. It was a pretty hot day when I was sketching this. And then I pulled the tape off, and yes I got that dead straight line, but it was less dramatic than I’d liked, and I remembered that actually I like non-straight lines don’t I. Also I am not as smooth as those Instagram artists, and managed to pull up half the page with me when pulling up that tape. I mean that’s fine, it has a bit more texture now. I found myself wondering what TKE stands for. ‘Total Kinetic Energy’. ‘The King’s Elephant’. No, I got nothing. It looks a bit like the word ‘TAKE’ without the A, so I suppose you might look and say ‘Take Cat’ and then start singing Take That songs, but that’s a stretch. It’s a bit hard to ignore those big red letters though.
Here are a couple of sketches from the start of this month. I found this fountain pen that had been in my office for years, it was from China, given by a former student I think, I’m not even sure how long ago. I thought I should put some ink in it and see if it worked ok. So I filled it with some Platinum Carbon ink and did a few sketches (including the one of the lemonade stand downtown), and the one below against the pink background. I decided I didn’t like it enough; it drew ok, but the ink definitely leaked a bit, and you don’t want that ink on your clothes. So I decided against using that pen any more. I did however dig out my old Lamy Safari, assuming that it would be all dried up and unusable. It was not difficult to clean, so I filled that up with platinum carbon ink and drew the scene above, the view from my bed. I was watching an old episode of Anthony Bourdain. You can see my electric guitar leaning up against the bookshelf. It’s also in the sketch below, it’s a Squier Telecaster in Lake Placid Blue, and it’s very nice to play. I love playing my guitar; I may not be very skilled technically, but I can play decently enough for what I like. I realized a while ago, I can’t play all that fiddly stuff you see guitarists do, I love strumming chords and rhythm, and that’s because that is the sort of music I like. I don’t listen to fiddly guitar hero stuff, so I don’t play it. I’m always a bit embarrassed about my guitar playing, because ‘real’ players play ‘properly’, but I only play for me and I get better where I want to get better. Now I wish I were a better singer, that would be nice, but I don’t even like my speaking voice let alone my singing voice. I am sure my neighbours growing up didn’t much either. We liked a sing-song in our house though, that’s where all the Irish music came out. Anyway, do I like drawing with fountain pen? I think so (because I just bought two more Lamy Safaris in different nib sizes) but we’ll see. I just don’t want to have to refill my ink thing while out and about, because my ink well is well messy. Bedroom sketching. Reminds me of the heady days of the Pandemic, when that was our cocoon.
A couple more from August, working in the Stillman and Birn Alpha book for the first time in a few years, getting used to that paper again. Summer sketching, that long hot summer passing me by, I went out to A Street to do some sketching. Not ‘a street’, but ‘A’ Street. I know, it’s confusing, I always have to explain it. Like when I was a kid and would have to explain to my parents that I wasn’t watching ‘a team’, I was watching ‘A-Team’, in fact it was ‘The A-Team’ which confused them further. “Which is it, ‘The Team’ or ‘A Team’? It can’t be both!” My parents didn’t talk like that. In fact The A-Team confused nobody, except me. I first heard of The A-Team when my cousin was telling me about it, when I was about 7, and I thought he was saying ‘The 18’ (he was from Norwich and they have a slightly different accent), so when I finally first watched it I always wondered where the other 14 members of the team were. Anyway, I was sketching on The A Street, I did the one below first on the corner of A and Third (they number the other streets here according to divisions, so this is Third, the next street up is Quarter, before that is Half and before that is Full Street), fully intending to go all colourful, but then getting bored, and the next day I drew the building above, The Belfry, which I have sketched before, I love its interesting shape. This was a month ago now. This week, the first of Fall quarter, all the students are back, and the place is about to be packed with bikes and excitement.
Time for an update on the Chemistry Building at UC Davis, since I can’t help but keep drawing it. If you’ve been following you may remember that they are building a great big wing on the side of the building, and in my last sketches it had been covered in some kind of lurid green plastic, before starting to morph into an orderly orange. As you can see from above it was completely orange, and the window spaces were covered in woodchip boards. Some vertical strips of shiny metal were also appearing, as this building reached a new stage in its long metamorphosis. I feel like I’m a nature documentary commentator, watching this building grow from a cocoon. It’s nature’s way.
Years ago, I posted a series of sketches showing part of what used to be this view in four different seasons of the year, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with trees being the indicator of change, and the gleaming white building standing ever-present and unyielding in the background. You can see that here: https://petescully.com/2017/01/13/to-everything-turn-turn-turn/. I’m still here drawing. Those trees are gone now, and the building has changed. Things have to keep changing, to give me something to draw. As you can see above, the orange has given way to a new black skin, like a leather jacket, replete with shiny metal studs and more long metal strips. I observed this from a different angle, outside the old Hog Barn building. Below, you can see where I sketched the building again this week, stood in a different place near the Bike Barn, and by now the building has gone full Fonzie. Those metal spots look like stars. It’s a shame it won’t stay like this, but it would look out of place; Rock Hall is nearby and this would be the heavy metal wing. As you can see, it now has glass windows installed. I wish we could get a new building for our department, I’d help design it, and then spend most days sketching it until it was ready. This one is nearly ready. It needs to hurry up, I’m running out of angles to draw it from.
This is a little snapshot from the Davis Farmer’s Market that I drew one Saturday morning earlier this month. I was using this Chinese fountain pen that I had had in my office for a number of years but never yet used, so I thought I’d fill it with platinum carbon ink (very black, very waterproof) and see how it worked while sketching out and about. Well it worked ok, but was a little bit leaky, leaving me with inky fingers. I was drawing directly onto a light pre-prepared watercolour wash, which was in a perfect rectangle because I was trying that idea out again, putting tape down to create a nice clean border. The sort of thing that works for a painting on its own but just doesn’t sit right in my sketchbook. I might go back to doing some sketches with a drawn border like I used to, shaky pen, allowing some things to pop out of it. Anyway I stood and drew this little scene, the bright yellow lemonade stand (slightly dimmed by that wash underneath perhaps) alongside the Handmade Pies truck (I’ve never eaten there but should like to try it sometime). I’ve never had that Lemonade either; it was a hot morning, Labor Day weekend, but I didn’t fancy anything too sugary, I was in preparation for my Labor Day Race a couple of days later. The market was busy that morning, lots of people out, lots of food, families playing in the park, of course you also get the other stalls at the far end, including the Flat Earth wallies, I can’t even. As for this pen, well it was ok, but didn’t really draw how I like to draw, and not as smooth as the Lamy Safari for a fountain pen. I went back and got the old Lamy out, assuming that since I’d not used it in a long long time that it must be completely dried up with old ink and unusable, but in fact it did not take much washing to bring it back to life. So I ordered a couple more Lamys in different sizes, and I might start sketching with those again. They seemed to leak less, but of course at some point you have to refill the ink while sketching out on location, and I always make a mess of that. We will see. I’m going to try fountain pen sketching again for a bit, but I’ll still mostly use my nice trusty brown-black Uni-ball signo.
Here are a couple of sketches from campus drawn in August. Above, the side entrance to the MU, next to the campus bookstore. Below, the view from the big round table in the Silo, where I was eating lunch. It was too hot out to bother looking for something to sketch, so I drew Peet’s Coffee. I don’t drink coffee, and I don’t go to Peet’s very often (they can’t even spell Pete) because they always take so long and have long lines of coffee people, and it requires several people just to get a pastry, and I don’t even like their pastries that much. It’s the same with all these coffee chains, I never go in them if I can avoid it. I love the chocolate croissants at the MU, so much nicer, but they only have them half the time, and never at all in summer. Summers are long. The Fall quarter begins next week, everyone will be back and it will be a bit chaotic, but it’s always good once things get going again. Still the quieter times are nice.
Sad tree update. We thought after all those big storms at the start of this year that we had seen the last big tree loss in Davis for a while, but this one is particularly sad. In the UC Davis Arboretum by Lake Spafford, very close to Mrak Hall, stands a tree called a Japanese Zelkova, out on its own and in a perfect spot to provide loads of shade not only to students and picknickers, but also to the many ducks and geese that call this part of the campus their home. This tree was planted back in the 60s and was so well loved. So when they discovered a serious crack in the trunk last month, likely caused by the weight of the many branches (which have always been meticulously managed), which was not possible to fix, the tree was deemed too dangerous to leave and so scheduled for removal. Here’s some information about the tree: ucdavis.edu/news/damaged-lake-spafford-tree-slated-removal . The UCD Arboretum IG account also posted the news, with a photo of how Lake Spafford looked back when the trees were first planted in the sixties: www.instagram.com/p/CxGiZm_husi/?img_index=4.
I went down there last Wednesday, the day before it was going to be taken away, and sketched it one last time. What a beautiful tree it was. There were already a couple of workmen there with a machine taking away the bench. The poor tree probably knew something was up. Trees aren’t just furniture, they are actual living things, but it was going to die. I mean, yes they often become furniture afterwards, but I’m trying to be sensitive here, I love trees. I said goodbye to the tree (in my head, not out loud, obviously), and went back to work.
I came back next morning, to see if the deed had been done. The main trunk remained, but completely removed of all branches. It reminded me of Aslan, shaved and murdered on the Stone Table, but I heard no crack of Deep Magic to bring it back to life while my back was turned. I sketched it (see below), and went off to a meeting about temporary visas elsewhere on campus.
By Friday, it was completely gone, just a stump and a sign commemorating the tree left. I did not feel like sketching it. This area has a lot less shade now, and shade is good for keeping the ground cool during those long Davis summers. Goodbye, lovely old tree.
We all got up at 3am, for the second time in a week, to watch England playing in the final stages of the Women’s World Cup. The midweek semi-final was a fantastic win. The final, in those wee hours of a Sunday morning, as sketched here, did not go quite as well. Spain were the better team on the day, and deserved to win 1-0. Of course we all know what happened next with that awful Spanish FA president, it’s been quite a drama. The Women’s World Cup overall was a really fun tournament, even though we could not watch too many games live (as they were in Australian and New Zealand), we watched all the highlights each day. The USA were not so good this time, but I was pretty happy with how England did overall. European Champions last year, beaten World Cup finalists this year (I guess we start counting ‘years of hurt’ again now?). Congratulations to Spain though. This was nearly a month ago now, and these days we are back in the Premier League fun times, and Spurs are doing great so far under Big Ange Postecoglou. However now I am getting right into the Rugby World Cup, of all things. I’ve never been much of a rugby fan, I used to watch it sometimes on telly when I was a kid, but never really understood it like I do with football. I still don’t, but it has been fun watching these huge guys smash into each other this past week. Sport, eh. It’s the big distraction from all the other shitty things in the world, and there are increasingly shitty things in the world, that my mental health just can’t deal with, so I go back to watching sport. I was up at 5am this morning watching the Formula 1, and what a race (Carlos Sainz won; Max Verstappen for once did not win, coming fifth). Earlier this summer we watched pretty much all the Tour de France (well, all the highlights each day, I’m not actually watching them race live). At this rate I might even start watching cricket (no, let’s not go that far). But we loved the Women’s World Cup. And I’m now a big fan of goalkeeper Mary “F***-Off!!” Earps.
petescully 