Another one from the boiler building, which is still standing. I sketched from the back today, this big old window, full of texture and detail. I don’t know when this building is finally going under the sledgehammer, but apparently it is soon. Still standing…
Tag: davis
when the sun shines, they slip into the shade
Lake Spafford, in the Arboretum area of UC Davis, sketched on a lunchtime, a not very interesting lunchtime, one in which I head out on my bike and go, so what am I going to draw? There’s nothing I want to draw today. No, not that, done that, no not that, too much greenery. Actually, no, I will sketch that, I know I ‘only just sketched’ that but that was actually 2007; god I feel like I’ve been in Davis a long time, and these long hot summers are really getting to me. Seriously – you go to San Francisco, less than an hour and a half away, and pass through some sort of invisible force field where it suddenly gets thirty to forty degrees cooler. They should make it illegal, this heat. Oh, it’s just the Sun exercising his right to free speech, the Sun is people too, the Sun has a right to bear UV Rays. Where I’m from we only let the Sun out three or four times a year and even then it has to behave itself. Actually where I am from the Sun listens in on your phone conversations and goes through your bins. So anyway, I sat in the shade, like this fellow here, and sketched away. I’m freckly, I have red hair. I am not anti-Sun, I just believe in traditional weather…
the wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, and then you forget
Another one from the soon-to-be-gone boiler building on the UC Davis campus. This little roof, covering some sort of underground opening, is dilapidated, cobwebbed, glass-broken and dusty, and great as a subject to sketch. Likely still a sketch or two to come from this building, before its eventual demise.
all-star
My young son recently finished playing his first t-ball season, closing off by being picked on the all-star team to play on the proper little league field on July 4th. Proud parents ahoy! I quickly sketched the field during the game, in my Miquelrius notebook below, and also drew his red all-star game baseball cap, above, in the Stillman and Birn alpha book. That is a good drawing book. After the game, when my son had finally stopped running the bases, we went to the little league pancake breakfast with all the other little leaguers, before going to the movies to see Brave. Well done little dude!
scheduled for demolition
I have drawn this building before, but never knew what to call it. It seemed rude to ask its name by that point. The boiler building, by the music building, has long been a favourite of mine for the rusting boilers and pipes that dot its edges, and its general old but warm feel. A slice of the old campus, a cousn of Hart Hall. Here is my previous drawing (which hung on the walls of the Pence in my show last December; it’s now available in my Etsy store). The one above was done a week or so ago, when I was invited to come and sketch it with Catherine Buscaglia, from UC Davis Design and Construction Management, who had emailed me to let me know that finally this old building will sadly be demolished later this month. I have come back a couple of times to draw it again, and may come back to witness its demise.
Here are some of the rusty boilers I was talking about. I have drawn them before, as part of my ‘pipes and hydrants’ series, and you can see them here. I have looked through the broken window, and inside it looks even more interesting for sketchers of metal pipes, though I may be a little too scared of spiders crawling all over me to sketch inside. Below, one more, done from the front side of the building. The ever changing landscape; I wonder how it will look by the time the new academic year begins?
city hall tavern
After a very busy week, I went out on Friday evening to the Art About and did some sketching at the Pence Gallery (haven’t scanned them yet), chatted to some very nice folk, and then strolled around downtown before parking at the City Hall Tavern (in the old City Hall building I tend to draw a lot). I wanted to do a bar sketch so I looked at the massive scene of bottledom and said, yeah ok I’ll give it a go. Those revolving bike wheels on the ceiling were a little challenging but there they are. The Giants were winning, beating the Astros, and there on the right are the black straws again that pop up in all of my bar drawings, everywhere in the world. The beer was nice too, Third Shift Amber Ale, and only $4 a pint. It was pretty quiet when I came in, but got busy by the time I left, with the young Friday night crowd. One guy spoke to me while sketching and recognized me as the guy who drew the bar at De Vere’s. Another guy, a younger Aussie bloke, chatted to me about Iggy Pop. I told him I always liked the song The Passenger because I can’t drive either. He said Iggy Pop was a real rocker, not like Justin Bieber or someone. Perhaps, but in thirty years people might be saying, oh these kids now aint real popstars, not like Bieber, yeh he was a proper rocker. You never know. I saw Iggy Pop supporting the Pistols at Finsbury Park in ’96, and just wanted him to put a shirt on to be honest.
This whole sketch took almost two hours, starting from right to left. It was done with a Micron Pigma 02 pen, with a bit of uniball vision micro for some of the thicker lines and shading.
where the creek is green
Since coming back from London (and I still have a few more sketches to post) I have done very little sketching. Next to none, in fact, bar the odd thing here or there. I realised however that it was high time to get back out there, now that the weather is not in the ‘phew-what-a-scorcher’s, and went out at lunchtime yesterday to sketch a familiar scene. I sketch this view every summer at around this time, since 2007, and the view changes every year. When I first sketched it in 2007 the building at the front, King Hall, was not even there, and you could see all of Mrak Hall in the distance without interuption. Preparation for the law school extension began a year later, followed by slow construction, and I charted its progress until last year’s sketch showed completion. Now there is no change from last year to this, so this may be the last time I sketch the view. Still, it’s a peaceful little spot, right beside Putah Creek, which is increasingly green at this time of year.
down at the bottom of the garden
Here are the last ones from the Garden Tour last week. Just to clarify I didn’t do any actual touring, I was in the one garden all day. The first thing I was attracted to was the row of birdhouses, and below was a little statue of a fisherboy. He didn’t mind me drawing him, and stayed still the entire time. This was a very peaceful part of the garden, though at one point I was distracted by a massive bee the size of a small bird who had no interest in me, but I kept my distance all the same. I’m very pro-bee (but rather anti-wasp) and wish they weren’t disappearing at the rate that they are, because they basically help keep us in existence. This thing was like the Mountain that Buzzes. I spent a bit more time looking around at the various yard ornaments and garden furniture, sketching them below on one page. Along the lawn where metal silhouettes of fairies, reminding me of the Cottingley fairies. Sketching that garden was fun.
the bar at the end of the sketchbook
The last page of moleskine #9!
This is the bar of Sophia’s Thai kitchen in Davis, where I went on Friday evening for a couple of beers and a bit of sketching. Actually I was going to see The Avengers, but the lines were so long – a lot of people really wanted to see it too apparently. I missed the 7:30 show, all tickets sold by the time i reached the front of the line (at 7:45) so chose the 10pm show, and came over here to pass the time. Good way to pass the time, on a hot evening. I’ve never spent time inside here, sketched on the deck a couple of times but not in the bar. It’s nice! I sketched this by washing the page in warm watercolours, plus a little bit of splattered paint while it was wet, and then drawing over it in uni-ball signo pen, with white gel pen for the highlights. This was a really fun one to draw, and after a testing week, drawing this put me in a good mood.
And the Avengers was a lot of fun too! I want to go and watch ‘Thor’ and ‘Captain America’ again now though. And fight bad guys.
all you need is music, sweet music
On Wednesday, after all the various rehearsals, it was time for the Dance Dance Davis flashmob. It was hot low 90s weather, Picnic in the Park was in full swing, alongside the Farmer’s Market, and Jenny Lynn and her Real gone Daddies were providing upbeat 1950s rockabilly music. I stood to draw them (above) as the crowd of people on the green in front of them grew bigger and bigger… at 6:15pm, Jenny asked if everyone was ready to Dance Dance Davis, and then started their “Bang Bang” song, as a couple of hundred people fell onto their backs and started doing an upside down bike ride dance, before launching into the main routine itself. Over the space of about three minutes I tried to capture the crowd below; not easy!! It was quite the spectacle, and even though I think many of the non-dancers were expecting it, it was fun watching the surprise on the faces of those who were not.
Here are a couple of good videos of the event:
I See Davis: “Surprise for Davis” (see if you can spot me sketching)
Davis Enterprise: “Dance Dance Davis Flash Mob”
Well done to Shelly Gilbride and Public Dance Acts for realizing this event! It was fun to sketch.
petescully 