turn back time

November 9, 2011November 9, 20116 Comments

I hadn’t drawn for two weeks!!! I’m not joking. It’s very unlike me. Oh, I’d scribbled endless scribbles on whatever piece of paper was in front of me, but no actual drawings, actual sketches, until I finally broke the hiatus on Sunday and cycled about looking for something to draw. Eventually chose the Hattie Weber Museuem of Davis, which I drew before on a sketchcrawl but didn’t like much. It was closed, so no big schoolbell outside (my son loves to ring it).

Drawn on 10×8 Strathmore hot-press with uni-ball vision micro and watercolour. The clocks had gone back the night before. Our clocks go back later than yours back in England. This year I was actually caught out – I didn’t know that my fancy alarm clock was one of ‘them’, that changes the time for me, meaning when I wake up and see that it says 7:55, I think, oh it’s really 6:55, when in fact it’s actually five minutes to Spurs v Fulham! Still that was worth getting up early for, and I still technically had a lie in. Confused? I was. Spurs got run ragged by Fulham, yet still managed to win 3-1. Seven wins in Eight now, with the other being a draw. Come on you Spurs!

you saw the whole of the moon

October 6, 2011October 6, 20113 Comments

Davis Community Church, by Central Park in Davis. Drawn on a nice Sunday afternoon, while there was live music playing in the park behind me. The band were tecnhically very good, though I’m not sure about the choice of songs they played. They did play some cool stuff by Elvis Costello, but there was a fair bit of 80s rock, and when they played “You Saw the Whole of the Moon” all I could think of was that episode of Father Ted, when Father Noel (Graham Norton) was singing it dancing around that tiny caravan. Appropriately, I was drawing a church. I’ve drawn it before a couple of times, a couple of years apart each time.

thank you for the music

October 6, 2011August 26, 20161 Comment

This big old building on campus, right by the Music Building, has been set for redevelopment for some time now but doesn’t appear to be moving along. It is supposed to be knocked down and turned into something modern and fantastic. I like this building though. I have drawn the rusty pipes on the side before, and this view is the rear, drawn from the path that runs by the Arboretum (Cushing Way).

I just wanted to point out, because it needs pointing out, that Spurs beat Arsenal this past weekend. I just wanted to mention it. Nothing to do with the drawing.

This, as were many other in this ongoing series, was drawn on a piece of 8″x10″ hot press Strathmore watercolour paper, with a micron pigma pen and some watercolours.

the little house downtown

October 3, 2011October 3, 2011Leave a comment

I’ve wanted to draw this pretty house downtown, on the corner of 3rd and E, for some time now, and last week after work I finally did so. A few people spoke to me as I sketched, fellow admirers of this gorgeous building, and I told them that this is part of a series of Davis urban sketches I am doing for my upcoming show in December… It’s a lovely building, but I have to admit that the feature which excited me the most to draw was the TV antenna, you don’t see them too often nowadays.

…but some of us are looking at the stairs

September 22, 2011September 22, 20113 Comments

Lunchtime, and I decided to draw this building (back of North Hall, UC Davis) again, having done some of it last Saturday. This time I used to uni-ball signo brown-black pen on creamy Canson paper. It makes it look almost wintery, doesn’t it. Your eyes can decieve you, don’t trust them (I heard a wise man say that somewhere, far far away). This week, though they are calling it Fall, Summer is giving us a last hefty whack, with temperatures in the upper 90s and low 100s. Some days it’s too hot to draw. On this day, I found a nice spot in the shade. I always do though.

varsity blues

September 2, 20111 Comment

The Varsity Theatre in Davis, drawn last Friday evening after work. I had considered finishing this at home with some additional colour, but I got back and realised I quite like it like this. This place shows a lot of art-house and independent movies, though I’ve only been to see a film there the once (An Inconvenient Truth back in 2006). In fact it only reopened back in 2006 (I was working at the bookstore acros the street the day it opened), but the building dates back to 1950. It makes this place feel very ‘Hill Valley’; I fully expect that it will be showing Jaws 19 with a holographic shark some time in the next four years (but only if Jaws 19 is considered art-house, which is unlikely. More likely we’ll see a Jaws reboot before then – you heard it here first!). People always have great memories of cinemas. For me they are like Tardises, you step inside and suddenly space and time mean nothing, I can never fathom how so many big screens fit into what look like fairly smallish buildings. They are full of memories too; sweeping movie moments, first (or last) dates, that smell of popcorn. This place is no different, is a beloved Davis part of the Davis community. I should know, I’ve drawn it enough times.

underneath the arches

August 24, 20112 Comments

One from London I forgot to post: Admiralty Arch, at the entrance to the Mall. It had been a sunny morning, I had drawn Buckingham Palace and had a nice look at an exhibition of amazing airplane paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries, speaking to a nice artist who encouraged me to join the British Aviation Artists Guild (I forget the correct name), only problem being I don’t live in Britain any more, and I haven’t drawn that many planes (except my son’s toy planes, of course). Still I really want to draw some, I was inspired by what I saw. I grew up near RAF Musuem at Hendon so I will for sure sketch there on my next trip back (I did attempt to last December, but got caught in that huge blizzard).

I went and sketched Admiralty Arch, standing underneath a huge heavy tree canopy, and a good job too, for it started to bucket down. I kept on drawing all those windows, but was sad that the sunny day had turned so rainy again. Now I remember British summers, I said to myself. I spent the rest of the day getting wet, and bustled about in crowds, and through shops looking for things to bring back home. Next day, I went to Lisbon, and everything was sunny again…

the more i see, the more i know

August 22, 2011August 22, 2011Leave a comment

I wonder how many times I have sketched this building over the past few years? I don’t think I ever sketched it as directly head on as this. The UC Davis Bike Barn, drawn on Strathmore watercolour paper. I actually omitted one element from this drawing, a rather weedy looking mini-tree in the foreground that I didn’t want to draw, as it would take away from the detail of the building. I don’t like the tree anyway. I still miss the bigger tree that used to stand to the left of this drawing, which was a nice place to sit beneath and eat lunch or sketch, until it blew over in a big windstorm back in October 2006 (wow, I’ve been here a while). I remember that day; the smell of grassfires was everywhere, as the wind blew across the tinder-dry landscape (it has been a hellish hot summer), and trees were down, and fire tucks were busy. It’s always a shame when a big tree just goes. So it wasn’t really a shame for me to eliminate the small little tree from the drawing. It’s still there in real life.

It’s another hot Davis summer. Well, when I say hot I mean it’s been in the 90s, so therefore not a hot Davis summer. We’ve hit the hundreds a few times this year but not as often as in the past, thankfully. It’s still pretty toasty when you’re cycling home in it though. I’m not a fan of the heat, though it’s better than the bad weather I’ve had on my last two London trips. I’m Californian now, but still British enough to moan about the weather, hot or cold.

upstairs, downstairs

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011Leave a comment

North Hall – or the back of it – at UC Davis. Isn’t it always the way, you start sketching and you just keep going, and then you run out of page for the top of the building. Well, you can imagine what it looks like. It wasn’t topped with a flashing reindeer or anything. This is a cool staircase though, I have drawn it before, four years ago or so, but I don’t remember where that sketch is. As you can see in the distnace, still some blossom on the trees. My allergies have been pretty naughty this year, but on this day they were behaving nicely, so I ventured outside and survived. Spring in Davis – a battle with the pollen count.

i’m your venus

March 31, 20116 Comments

It has been so sunny and so warm that sketching outside has become extremely necessary. I cycled downtown again at lunchtime today, and sketched the very Davis cafe, the Delta of Venus. It’s not a place I go myself (not really my cup of herbal tea). As I sketched though, a man cycling by said to me, pointing at a fire hydrant, “there’s the hydrant over there, draw that!” Or words to that effect. Either way, I was officially recognized, ‘that bloke who draws fire hydrants’. But I haven’t drawn a fire hydrant in months!!