that ol’ man river, he must know something

November 16, 2010November 16, 20105 Comments

On Saturday afternoon I went down to old town Sacramento, sketched me some fire hydrants, but that ain’t all I sketched. After meeting with the SF Bay Urban Sketchers, who had just been to the new Crocker Art Gallery, we all stood by the Sacramento River and sketched the big golden yellow Tower Bridge. I have sketched this before (a sketch which made an appearance on Fox 40 News of all places last year), but it was a while ago, and I came to sketch this one with memories of sketching a similar (though less yellow) bridge in Portland in the summer. This is the River City, and an old-time sailboat passed by as I sketched, the golden Tower Bridge’s mid-section rising and dropping as she passed.

We strolled through Old Sac sketching a little more. Despite all the grand old cowboy era buildings, I like this little theatre and did a small sketch, drawn to those long diagonals and the long shadows.

This is also railroad land, and the railroad museum is just around the corner from here. I was just here a couple of days before with my wife and toddler son, and I promised him I would come back and draw a bridge and a train. I had liked the look of this little yellow diesel engine, so here it is.

A nice break from the fire hydrants…

build it up with iron and steel

August 11, 2010August 9, 20182 Comments

Urban Sketching Symposium, Day 2. Lapin led the Urban Line field session down to the banks of the Willamette River, to sketch the Steel Bridge. Portland is famous for its bridges. Can’t leave town without drawing at least one.

I was pleased to sketch this, as I wanted something to really sink my teeth into, or at least my micron pens. I felt once it was done that I’d got it out of my system. The morning started out overcast, and the stark, industrial structure provided quite the drama against the blank sky. The bridge moved once or twice, it’s bottom level rising to allow ships to pass, laughing at my previous assertion that I draw architecture because it stands still. Joggers and cyclists passed by as we sketched, freight trains rolled across the river, and the strange sculpture behind us made intermittent and unexplained noises not unlike a monkey smashing a cymbal. We all seemed to have our own approach; I watched how Lapin started from a detail and drew outwards, and how Gerard Michel (pictured right, drawing in the special Urban Sketchers Japanese style Moleskine) constructed it as an architect would, and I leapt in somewhere in between. I started in the middle, but had a rough outline of where I would be going (which I only marginally stuck to), but concentrated on small details as I went along rather than after finishing the outline. I purposely left it incomplete as I liked the effect.

The Sun came out, but I kept my bridge sketch colourless. I did add a little thumb sketch on the same page though of one of the spires of the Portland Convention Center across the Willamette, showing how the sky had turned blue, but the bridge lent itself to cold black and white.

At the end, we laid out our sketchbooks side by side and reviewed each others work. This is always one of my favourite parts of a group sketch, to see all of our different styles and interpretations laid out side by side.

the bridges of yolo county

April 16, 2010April 16, 20103 Comments

Putah Creek, running through the long UC Davis Arboretum, has a lot of bridges. Well, it has to, otherwise getting to the other side would be a very long walk. Some bridges ar wooden, like the one in the background, and even covered in foliage like some Monet painting, while others a big and concrete, which might not sound too picturesque but in this case I quite like it. I’ve drawn this bridge before.

It’s April in Davis, California. Tomorrow, the annual Picnic Day takes place, the largest university open house event in the country. It’s Davis’s day to show off. There will be thousands of people there. This year I might even do some drawing.

bay windows

September 1, 2009September 1, 20091 Comment

We spent the weekend in San Francisco, staying in a suite at the enormous Hyatt beside the Ferry Building. The view from our enormous wide-screen window was incredible, the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero, and we had blazing hot sunshine on Saturday morning. We even saw Robin Williams at the Farmer’s Market. Naturally I chose to draw just a small segment of this view, looking out at the Bridge (above). Sunday morning saw fog roll in and add the familiar cool summer grey to the City, so I drew again, looking down at the perspective lines racing up at me.

Below is a photo I took on the sunny Saturday morning, the best part of the view (I never had time to sketch it), with the Bay Bridge rising above a light blanket of mist. What a stunning city.

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media mentions

May 27, 2009May 28, 20094 Comments

Surreal moment this morning: I was mentioned on Fox News! They showed one of my sketches of Sacramento, drawn over two years ago with pen and watercolour pencils (see right), on the local morning news during a piece about Sac’s Tower Bridge. I thought that was pretty cool, and very nice of the presenter Paul Robins to give me a mention. (I don’t mind that it’s Fox; next: the Daily Mail!). I remember drawing this (seems like forever ago), I like this bridge but wasn’t able to do it justice before but I did like this sketch. This has reminded me, I think it’s about time I went and sketched it again. It’s nice by the River.

Speaking of mentions, I forgot to say that I had a drawing – one of my ‘You See, Davis’ pieces – published in the local Davis radio station KDVS’s magazine, KDViations, this quarter, for their fund-raising issue. It didn’t print too well though, I think the resolution I gave them was too low.

I also forgot to report (since we’re talking media mentions) that I was featured in last month’s excellent Ripperologist magazine, their special 100th edition. It’s the premier journal – online only – for researchers of Jack the Ripper, a subject I know only the general details of (he killed girls, right?). But I did a drawing of the infamous Ten Bells pub a while back, which was also published in the London Walks book (for the Jack the Ripper section), and because the East End’s an old haunt of mine, I had the wonderful honour of appearing in their special edition alongside features of other talented Ripper-themed artists. Cool, huh!!

cross over the river, where they feel safe and sound

May 13, 2009May 27, 2010Leave a comment

A sketch by Putah Creek, in the UC Davis Arboretum. I braved the heat and the allergy-inducing winds to sit and sketch this. Putah Creek is a great place to come in Summer if you want to catch West Nile Virus, from all the mosquitoes that hang out here. Speaking of hanging out, the bridges such as this one are home (or sign the sign says) to many bats, (who eat the mosquitoes). If you fancy catching rabies, I read somewhere it’s endemic in local bats. And then there’s the black widows. Don’t get me started.

Dangerous place, is Davis. And it’s going to hit a hundred degrees this weekend.

frohe geblogstag

April 9, 20098 Comments

Today is one year since I set up this blog (and four years since I started the original blog). Over two hundred entries, or eight hundred in four years. Most of them with drawings (the past couple of years’ worth anyway).

To celebrate, a drawing of the golden gate bridge (which i drew for my sister, whose birthday it is today – happy birthday!) Thank you to all of you who have been following my sketches and drawings this past year and beyond.

the sad songs of doom and gloom

November 16, 20084 Comments

With the raining coming down in meows and woofs, I took the Subway to Brooklyn, down under manhattan bridge overpass (I believe this area of town is named after a disney movie but I forget which). Too rainy to sketch. I took a lot of lovely photos from the shores of the Hudson, looking across at the grey fog where Manhattan should be. On my way back to the Subway however I remembered my friend Simon, sketching in the downpour on the South Bank in London back in May, and said to myself I could not leave without one sketch of these amazing views I may not see again for a long time. As I sat on my stool, the rain stopped, and I drew the Manhattan Bridge above – it really does make all the difference, actually sketching on location, than later on from a photo, and I’m please with the result (and yes I counted all the details as I was drawing them).

I went on the the Lower East Side. I got a big messy sandwich from “tiny’s giant sandwiches”, and ambled around in the fading light looking for some urban to sketch, and there was lots. It felt like I was in London again, in Holloway or Camden or Whitechapel, or maybe even Soho, with the narrow grid streets. Chose a street corner that is home to rosario’s pizza (my wife’s maiden name) and sketched in the dying light, the rain now passed but the streets still wet and shiny.

I walked around in the dark streets taking in New York City at night, this big far away place from the movies and the album tracks, and then got the Subway to Union Square area, stopping off in a cool art store and a great kid’s bookshop (to pick up a board book for my book-loving nine-month old; he’s very literate and loves a book he can really sink his two bottom teeth into). I was looking for Pete’s Tavern, apparently the oldest bar in the city, and I thought it might be good for some interior sketching. Fat chance. Sure, nice old place, and I got a Brooklyn Lager, but the bar area was very busy while all the tables were empty, reserved for some work thing happening later on. Annoying; my feet hurt. Pete was not amused by this (it’s for this reason I never reserve tables in pubs, I hate to be that person). So I sodded off, back to Long Island.