a red BMW for Florian

July 19, 20163 Comments

I walked around downtown in Davis yesterday looking for a car to sketch in tribute to Florian Afflerbach – Flaf – who passed away recently, far too young, far too soon. I could have drawn any of the scores of beige Toyotas or silver Hondas parked along the street – it was Florian who taught me to see the beauty in the form of a car, or a modern building – but I saw this red BMW parked along 2nd Street, and immediately I thought of the BMWs Florian, himself from southern Germany, had drawn. I sketched in pencil and watercolour, with Florian in mind. I felt pretty sad though, remembering Florian; in the spread about drawing cars in my book Creative Sketching Workshop, I mentioned Florian as one of my main inspirations. I think it’s hard to sketch cars and not think about him.That’s a feeling that will be shared by many at this year’s Urban Sketching Symposium in Manchester. The participants in this year’s symposium were asked to draw a car as a tribute to Florian, and this one is mine.

I sketched this on Stillman and Birn ‘Alpha’ paper, in pencil and watercolour rather than my usual pen; I think Florian would have been proud of me. Still can’t believe he is gone.

how are things in your little world

July 16, 2016July 16, 20164 Comments

Here’s a view that I used to sketch a lot more, but I got bored of it, as it never really changed much. It’s the South Silo at UC Davis, as viewed from the steps of Bainer Hall. I used to sketch it every six months in fact, once in winter, once in spring, tracking the changes. This past week I noticed however that it had changed quite dramatically – the big wild tree to the left of the leaning one was cut down, as were several other smaller ones near the Bike Barn, as the UC Davis South Silo area undergoes a major redesign. This is going to look pretty different. Here’s an article in The Aggie detailing how it will eventually look – quite a change, I think. More dining locations will be added (hooray!), plus a convenience store (I still miss the little one that used to be the Law Bookshop). It won’t be all done until next year.

While we are waiting, let’s go back in time and see what it used to look like….

January 2015

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July 2011

January 2011

June 2010
January 2010

June 2009

January and March 2009

June 2008

January 2008

July 2007

I will miss that tree.

saturday summer sketchcrawl

July 12, 201611 Comments

This is the Davis Farmer’s Market, a sketch that I did while standing up for the best part of two hours, occasionally talking to people. It was busy, though by the time I was finished all the people had gone and the market stalls had all but packed up. This was the longest sketch I did as part of the “Let’s Draw Davis” sketchcrawl on Saturday, the return of the sketching meetups I used to organize monthly for a few years until my weekend days got just too busy. It was really nice to get out there and sketch with others again, see some old familiar faces, and meet some new sketchers too. We started off at Central Park, and I did some quick people-sketching in my Fabriano sketchbook, using pencil and watercolour. There was an even going on speaking up against oil trains, those big hulking freight trains that carry oil dangerously through residential areas (such as Davis). It was interesting to listen to, I support their cause and I sketched some of the speakers.

Look at me sketching people eh. Below, some of the other sketchers. In the first sketch, of Sonja in the purple hat, I showed off my favourite tip for drawing people, draw a massive hat and avoid the face at all costs. No I’m only kidding, but it looks like that’s what I’m doing! I’m quite pleased with this sketch though, I like the way it turned out, full of character, showing the sketcher busy at work. The other sketchers drawn below are Kim, Sam and Peter, three different seated poses, three different angles.

I used three sketchbooks on this sketchcrawl because I enjoy carrying loads of stuff around with me. No, Seawhite #4 was at a close (the Farmer’s Market sketch was the last double-page spread, though the penultimate sketch – I actually finished it next day sketching the Euro final). I enjoy the Seawhite of Brighton sketchbooks now, after seeing what other sketchers did with them when out in France last year, and I was pleased to see another sketcher, Peter, also using a Seawhite. I opened a new sketchbook, the Stillman and Birn ‘Alpha’ landscape, my third one of this particular model (though I have a few other sizes of the Alpha, it’s my favourite paper I think). I drew the newspaper boxes outside Peet’s Coffee in E Street, while my legs started to hurt from all the stand-up sketching. I need to use my stool a little bit more (but I do like having the elevated view of standing up).

And then the remaining sketchers met up at the end to look at each others sketchbooks, which is always nice. We got a lot of very nice sketches done that day. Here is a photo I took of everyone holding up their books. By the way, we didn’t lay them all out on the floor and stare at them from six feet up like too many sketchcrawls do these days (pick them up! Pass them around!). Some of the sketchers that didn’t make it to the end did come and find me before they went and I got to see what they had done, and a few others met me at De Vere’s afterwards having not been at the E Street Plaza end point, so overall it was a very nice day full of sketching in Davis. I do plan to restart Let’s Draw Davis on a monthly basis, but not until October, to coincide with my sketchbook exhibit at the UC Davis Design Museum. In the meantime, Davis sketchers, keep up the good sketching work!

constructing the manetti shrem, part seven

July 12, 20164 Comments

I last posted construction pictures of the forthcoming Manetti Shrem museum of Art on the UC Davis campus back in April. A lot has been done since then – the canopy is now finished, the landscaping is ongoing, and (something I’d not thought much about) the interior is already pretty much complete! So, I was invited along for a special viewing of the inside (many thanks to Prof. Tim McNeil of the Design Dept for the opportunity!), and it was one of the first days that hard hats were not required inside, meaning I didn’t get my photo-op of sketching in hard-hat and fluorescent jacket (I only wanted that for the urban sketching street cred), but I got the full inside experience of how a brand-new museum is designed and completed. Every corner of it was so modern and cool, and the most amazing aspects were the sudden views outside, looking at how this building interacts with its environment but from an interior perspective. This really is going to be the most spectacular new building on campus, not simply functional but enlightening too, I think. After having a good look around at the future gallery spaces and imagining what artwork will grace its walls (I know that Wayne Thiebald made a big donation of art recently), I was able to do some art myself, sketching the above view of the main entrance area looking out toward the Mondavi Centre.

A few days later I came back to sketch outside at lunchtime, and rather than the wide-angle view I focused in on the same entrance area, but from the street looking in. You can see how it is all coming together now. Opens in November…

Here are the previous posts documenting the construction in my sketchbook…

PART SIX – PART FIVE – PART FOUR – PART THREE – PART TWO – PART ONE

fifth street on a sunday morning

July 7, 2016July 7, 20162 Comments

Carrying on the series of street panoramas going from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and now 5th. This is Newman Chapel on Fifth Street, Davis, on the corner of C Street. I have drawn it before, a few times. But it is nice so it is always worth drawing again. If you live in Davis and are at a loss for something to draw, just come and draw Newman Chapel, it’s small and simple but pretty, and the light is usually good. I sat opposite on a nice Sunday morning on Independence Day weekend (it was the 3rd) (by the way I hope you had a fun Independence Day everyone in America! I just want to know, why do you have to have fireworks on a date when the sun goes down so much later than on the rest of the year? Could you not have declared Independence in, I don’t know, mid-October, or some time in April?* Then you can have fireworks at a decent hour and tired kids can get to bed a bit earlier, I’m just saying, it’s just a suggestion America, it’s too late now but any other countries wanting to declare independence should probably consider this. Just think of the children, the sleepy children!) (Actually I bet Jefferson and co did take the daylight thing into consideration, thinking “well, we don’t have electric lights and stuff so let’s have Independence Day on a day when people can celebrate in as much daylight as possible, yes that makes a lot of sense actually, and schools are out so kids can stay up as long as they want, what is a firework anyway,” that’s what Jefferson and co thought. It’s worth pointing out that schools are indeed out over here by this point, unlike in Britain, which I’m sure factored in the whole Independence thing too, “we’ll finish school when we want!” I’m sure the politically powerful Summer Camp Lobby had a say in matters as well, arguing for longer summers. I’m digressing well off topic here but can I just say, summers off school are very long over here and figuring out what to do with the kids all summer can sometimes be a challenge. We watched the fireworks in Davis from the Green Belt with all the other families in our neighbourhood, all the kids running around in the dark with their glow sticks, it was like a rave for very small tired people. The firework display itself was at Community Park, just opposite, but we avoided the throng of people over there who went to listen to live music and a poetry reading by the Davis Poet Laureate before the big firework s went off, staying in our little Green Belt park. It’s a very family atmosphere. Davis is a very family town.

This was sketched in the Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook #4, all ink done on site and coloured in later when I got home (after going for food and drink at some friends’ house).

*I just need to point out that in fact Independence Day should have been in April, it was signed 7/4/1776 right, which technically should be the 7th of April (think of Oliver Stone’s famous film ‘Born of the Seventh of April’), meaning you could have had fireworks after dinner and then got the kids to bed and still had time to watch a movie, but for some reason it isn’t. That’s fine, I totally prefer July anyway.

you know they’re gonna go which way they wanna go

July 2, 20164 Comments

Last Friday, I really needed to go out and sketch away my frustrations with the day’s news by doing a complicated drawing of a bar, and having a few beers while I was at it. I’ve sketched all of Davis’s bars now I think (except ‘Our House’, I’ve never sketched there) and wasn’t sure which one I wanted to draw. I nearly went back to City Hall Tavern again, (they had kindly posted something about my sketches on their Instagram account the day before), but I hadn’t been to Sophia’s bar in quite a while (a year and a half at least) and I always like it in there, the people are nice, so that’s where I went. I go to the attached restaurant pretty regularly, Sophia’s Thai Kitchen. It’s my favourite food in Davis. I have sketched this bar a couple of times before, both while sat further back from the bar and focusing more on the colours and contrasts, but this time I wanted to tackle sketching those bottles. Sophia’s has Brother Thelonious on tap, which is probably my favourite beer in the US, though you can’t drink too much of it. The Giants were on the TV; the Giants are always on the TV when I bar-sketch. You can click on the image for a closer view. I drew this in the Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook (the one I started in Santa Barbara) with the brown-black uni-ball signo um-151 pen, and it took me, I don’t know how long. Three beers I think. I had a couple more for luck. I kept the colour to a minimum but did add a block of blue highlighter for that fish-tank thing. Also blue for the bartender’s hair, you know I can’t resist sketching blue hair. And so, another bar sketch. See my others…

making a song and dance about things

June 27, 2016June 27, 20167 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I went to the downtown Davis “2nd Friday Art About”, as I had a couple of pieces on display at the Pence Gallery following the Garden Tour (both sold, by the way – hooray!) and so while there was sunlight I stuck around downtown to do a bit of sketching. Inspired by the watercolour sketches of dancers by Kumi Matsukawa from Japan (who wrote chapters in my book Creative Sketching Workshop) I sketched a couple of women dressed in bright Spanish style dresses who were moving from spot to spot, performing a dance to some flamenco style music, and moving on. I also caught them in quick pencil gestures, below. This sort of loose style sketching is useful for people moving quickly, focusing on the gesture and movement rather than going for accurate details. That’s usually how your eye registers things, and your hand works slower than your eye so let it dance with the dancers.

I also sketched a band that was playing in the courtyard of the Pence. They moved around a lot less, but my eyesight sketching from a distance made it hard to pick out too many details, but the red of the middle guitarist’s dress really stood out.

hibbert lumber

June 22, 2016June 23, 20167 Comments

One Saturday afternoon recently I went into downtown Davis to do some sketching because there’s a bit I missed when I spent a decade sketching every inch of this town. I’ve never sketched Hibbert Lumber – I used to catch the bus across the street from here most days, the P bus back to South Davis. I live in North Davis now, it’s like a different country. There are no buses to where I live on a weekend, you have to walk or ride a bike (or drive if you are that way inclined). Well there is the P but it takes ages and totally goes around the houses and stops a couple of blocks away. Sorry, you don’t care about the Davis bus system. By the way that is run by Unitrans, on the UC Davsi campus, and they do a good job, even having some old London buses (pre-Routemaster even) which, yeah, sorry they are actually very uncomfortable to ride. I prefer the newer buses. At least they aren’t Boris buses. Perhaps one day the Boris buses will also end up out here in Davis. I wish we had gotten the Bendy buses, I actually loved those. Remember those, Londoners with short memories? Even though cities across the world (including San Francisco) have used them for decades in narrow city streets, London decided that after a few years of having Bendy buses that they just couldn’t have them any more, because the Evening Standard and Boris Johnson said they were the most pressing important thing for London to deal with. Boris Johnson yes, he has a tendency towards such political tactics to get himself what he wants (by the way, try not to give him what he wants today, Britain, or you’ll end up on a course which ends with him as Prime Monster. #VoteRemain). Yes I loved the Bendy bus, with its greater accessibility than double-deckers, so if there are any going spare and Davis can have them, let’s do it. I did spend a fun afternoon on one once though at New Oxford Street, the bus wasn’t even trying to navigate a corner, just get around some traffic, and it got totally stuck, like a boy with his head in the railings. The driver just got completely stuck in a Gordian knot of traffic and bus. I think in the end they got someone from Bletchley Park to come and unscramble the mess, it was quite the kerfuffle.

Hibbert Lumber is an old established Davis business, family run, located on the corner of 5th Street and G Street. They were founded in 1947 down on 3rd Street and in addition to the lumber yard they are a hardware store. I stood on a hot afternoon sketching from across the street. I went for the simplified colouring option, because I had to go home and pack my bag for a week-long vacation in San Diego – much needed, let me tell you. So Hibberts Lumber, another Davis spot sketched. Next!

theatre of the ab third

June 11, 20162 Comments

This is Third Street. Of course, I know that you know that, because I’ve drawn this before, and you definitely remember, of course. Continuing my theme of drawing the streets of Davis as panoramas but in numerical order, having just done 1st and 2nd, now here is 3rd. I saw “X-Men Apocalypse” lately and Jean Grey said something about “Return of the Jedi” being bad because everyone knows the third movie is always the worst (referring to X-Men: The Last Stand) yet following it up by actually being in a movie (namely “X-Men Apocalypse”) that is not fit to wipe the Ewok’s Feet of “Jedi”. But I’m not going to go into my feelings about comic-book movies (go and see “Civil War” it is amazing! Black Panther is the best!) rather I will talk about my process when drawing a panorama.

It was the day after the hottest day of the year, and this time it was overcast, but still very hot, and very, very muggy. Sweat dripped from my brow, but I toiled on, I just had to draw 3rd Street, it is the next chapter, ok it may not be as good as 1st Street or 2nd Street but it has its own qualities, it’s doing its own thing. So, when I do a panorama, I first use a pencil to block out where the road will be, and then main lines of perspective, as they curve left and right. When standing with sweat dripping onto the page you do the best you can. Actually the first thing I do is wander about until I hit just the right spot, usually the spot in the shade, one with the least foliage in the way of what I’m drawing. Then when I’ve blocked in a few lines in pencil (not too many, mind, no point drawing the whole thing twice), I do the actual drawing with the pen, usually ignoring some or sometimes all of my guidelines, holding my sketchbook in that awkward looking way that I do. I was sent a tweet recently on the Twitter, which said “are you the urban sketcher who holds his pen in a strange way?” Is this a thing now, is that my thing? Is this how I am known now? I’m kidding – that’s always how I’ve been known, ever since I was in primary school, it’s nothing new. People would ask me, “you hold your pen in a funny way, are you left handed? “Only if you can’t tell left and right I am,” I would reply, before running away very fast. At school they tried to change me, telling me as my hands got bigger I would never write or draw as fast as my classmates, and I would suffer academically. I wish I could go back in time and thank the teacher who effectively set me that challenge, but I wouldn’t thank them, I’d say hey, I’m Pete, remember me, my funny hands are bigger now, let’s have a writing and drawing race, see who is fastest! No, no I wouldn’t say that. I’d be all respectful and reserved and shy. I do wish they had told me back then that I also hold my book funny s well, I only discovered that a few years ago, when I first saw photos of me out and about urban sketching. I sometimes draw upside down as well when I get to the far right of the page, easiest to hold, plus I like subverting the far right, bloody fascists.

Anyway, the next step is to draw the whole thing. I don’t really do the thing where I draw outlines of everything and fill in the gaps, rather I draw small details from point one. If there is signage I draw that first, because I enjoy it the most. Cars…occupational hazard. If there are cars parked I will avoid drawing them until I absolutely have to. For example one was parked in front of the middle house for ages, but it left so I quickly drew in the bits previously obscured. No other car ended up parking there (oh there’s nowhere to park downtown on a Saturday, boo, um actually yes there bloody is) meaning I could draw to my leisure. The building to the left had lots of “No on A!” election signs. I don’t see why they don’t like A, it is the first letter of the alphabet, without it there would carnage, etc etc and so on. So then comes the paint. If I have time I will do it all on site, and with a panorama it takes that bit longer. Often though I will use the extra time getting the drawing right, doing some of the colour on site, and finishing off the rest at home (or a nearby pub which has tables and beer). For this I coloured in a few main details and then did the obvious stuff (trees, road, rooftops) later on. Then I scanned it, scanning both sides and using Photoshop to stitch them together. Then I save it in both 300dpi (for printing) and 72dpi (for posting online – smaller file size, easier to appear on the website, gets all pixelated when people try to print it out themselves – ha ha). Then, I post the sketch to Flickr, which is a good place to host your drawings, as you can organize them into handy folders – a nice online portfolio. I’ve used it for nearly ten years now. Then I post it on my blog, and – this is important – I like to keep the writing to a normal, readable size which makes total sense and doesn’t ramble off in all sorts of nonsensical directions. And then I spend about three hours thinking up a title which might come from a song lyric or a famous poetic quote, I add the tags, I press publish, and I go to bed listening to the Football Weekly podcast and playing Scrabble on my iPod. This, my dear sketching friends, is the whole process. And if you have read this far, I thank you for your staying power, and urge you to pick up a pen and go out and draw your city streets too. It’s fun!

(Coming next – 4th street, aka “The 4th Awakens”)

celebration time

June 10, 2016Leave a comment

Here in the world of academia, this week is graduation week. Thousands of students undergrad and graduate receive their hard-earned degrees this week and step out into the world. In our department at UC Davis we held a special awards and graduation ceremony a week before the official commencement, honoring our young statisticians and biostatisticians. I did a couple of sketches at the event, but mostly got award certificates ready and took photos and applauded enthusiastically. Great job, everyone!

And a few days later, on by far the hottest day of the year, we held our annual Spring Picnic, and I did this one sketch below. The banner is part of a poster I had made to advertise the event. It was really, really hot, but we had a good turnout, and it was a nice way to round off the year. And so, on towards summer…