Tag: brown paper

call the engines, call the engines

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toy fire truck

Above: a toy fire truck, drawn in my brown paper book. This was actually in the course of being played with while I was on the floor sketching it. At one point, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi – volunteer firefighters, didn’t you know – jumped on board and went to rescue a kitty. I find I’m drawing things I think my kid will like. Below is UC Davis fire station, drawn during a lunchtime this week. Did you know the firefighters here actually have collectable baseball-type cards that kids can collect? It’s true, and they’re pretty cool, they tell you about the fireman or firewoman, and they have a safety message on there and everything.

UCD fire station

ghost of a steam train, echoes down my track

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railroad museum

We went to the Railroad Museum in Sacramento this morning. A train-obsessed toddler’s paradise, for sure, but I loved it too – I could go back some time with the regular sketchbook and spend a whole day! As it is, I had my small brown-paper book (only 89 cents, it’s great) and made a couple of quick captures, 5-10 minutes each one. The engines there are absolutely enormous, much bigger than I had expected. I can see why train-anoraks get so excited.

railroad museum

on a chinese envelope

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uc davis, on a chinese envelope

I wanted to draw on some different surfaces, try out some new things. I get a lot of mail from all over the world in my job, mostly from China, and my recycling bin is chock full of interesting looking envelopes waiting to be drawn on. So I cut one up, pasted it into my moleskine and drew the view from the stairwell today, the UCD water tower on a foggy January lunchtime. I don’t remember which university this envelope came from, nor do I read Chinese, but I thought the effect of the red writing looked really cool on the brown paper. Oh, and yes I know it is upside down.