shakespeare’s in the alley

September 14, 2011September 14, 2011Leave a comment

This is actually on the other side of the funky looking ‘Secretariat’ building on G Street that I drew last week. I’ve wanted to draw this alley, just off 4th, for a long time but always forget about it. That balcony area is so unusual; hardly Romeo and Juliet, unless Romeo was an old tomcat or something. I kept in the graffiti. Never understood the whole tagging thing – unless the graffiti artists are old tomcats or something – why do they have to be so illegible? It’s a bit like when you first learn to do a signature, it makes you feel all grown-up, writing your name in a barely legible way.

Another bigger one on Strathmore hot-press paper, latest in the series. Yep, it’s a series, just not in a sketchbook.

delta skelter

September 10, 20115 Comments

I have drawn this place before recently, the Delta of Venus in Davis, but this time I drew it bigger and with a fire hydrant in front of it. I sat behind said hydrant across the street in the shade. Another in my series of slightly larger Davis scenes on loose watercolour sheets.

let’s draw uc davis

September 10, 20111 Comment

Next week, it’s time for another sketchcrawl in Davis! This time on the UC Davis campus, which will be starting to bustle with the incoming new students.

START: 10:30am, Memorial Union bus terminal (by the red phonebox)

FINISH: 3:00pm, at the Eggheads near the Art Building

As always, this is free and everyone is welcome, all ages/levels. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on!

For more info leave a comment below or visit our Facebook event page.

See you there!

god save the queen

September 10, 2011September 10, 20114 Comments

How long have I wanted to draw this building? How many times have I got off the bus outside over the years and said, must sketch that one day? I have drawn the sign, and a fire hydrant nearby, but never the building. I’ve even ended a sketchcrawl there. Last Saturday however I finally went and drew the place, Dairy Queen on 5th Street in Davis. It’s classic Americana. The sign isn’t a modern ‘DQ’, the building isn’t all late-2000s strip-mall fakery, and the food is just what you expect (at least I expect it is, I only had a slurpee type drink, and I don’t eat hamburgers). I learned a funny thing, apparently in other states the Dairy Queens close up in wintertime, because nobody eats ice-cream when it’s snowy, while in California they stay open, because we’re the sunshine state. No, hang on that’s Florida, we’re the golden state. I don’t know if it’s true or not. Either way, these are the sorts of places I like to draw, thought obviously it takes me years to actually do so.

once upon a time…

September 8, 2011September 8, 20113 Comments

It looks a bit like something you’d come across in a fairy-tale forest. This funny looking building is on G St in Davis, and it’s hard to believe I’ve never drawn it before, not from the front anyway. It could be straight out of Hansel and Gretel or something. I drew it one lunchtime last week, finishing off the colour at home. On the way home I left breadcrumbs so that I might find my way back. Always thought that was a bit silly, leaving a breadcrumb trail in a forest where 1) there are birds and mice and other animals who will eat the bread, 2) there are big bad wolves who colud follow the trail to find you, and 3) you’re in a forest with no food except bread, which you’re throwing all over the floor. Sure, there may be a cottage nearby made out of cadbury’s chocolate fingers or a family of bears who cook their porridge at three different temparatures and then decide to go for a walk (Goldilocks, it’s a sting, don’t fall for it girl!). Fairy tales are funny things. When I tell them to my son at bedtime, we always end with “and they all lived happily ever after,” followed by “except for the big bad wolf who had no head,” or “except for the poor giant who was fell from the falling beanstalk and couldn’t get back to his castle, and was left with nowhere to live.”

I think these are offices of some sort. There aren’t any wolves-in-granny’s-clothing here, nor amateur-architect-swine. Safely in the realm of the real world.

she may not look like much but she’s got it where it counts, kid

September 7, 2011September 7, 20113 Comments

I had wanted to draw this train engine, moored on the railroads near the Co-Op, during the last Davis sketchcrawl but it was not there. I went back a week later and there she was. I drew an engine like this (in brown pen on cream paper) as part of my Davis Moleskine (it may have been the same engine, I’m no trainspotter) but really wanted to show its bright, patriotic colours. I sat in the shade and sketched with my uniball signo un-151 pen, which actually does take a wash pretty well, but more importantly it draws like a dream.

Drawn on Strathmore hot press paper. Including colour (added later) it took about two hours, mostly in the on-site drawing. There is the penwork below.

and i swear it is a new day

September 3, 20113 Comments

Old City Hall, yet again. Hot weather is still the name of the game in Davis, though summer is cresting. This was drawn on the last day of August. That’s always a strange time. As a kid it meant summer would soon come to an abrupt end, and school would begin. Now I work for a university in a university town, and though I work all summer it still feels like the days are counting down to when the great hordes will arrive. There are a lot of students here in the summer, with summer classes being so popular nowadays, but in a few weeks it will be Fall and the craziness begins. New students, returning students, returning faculty, bikes and new cyclists everywhere…

Drawn on Strathmore 8 x 10 inch hot press watercolour paper, with the uni-ball signo um-151 which, I am pleased to report, did pretty bloody well with the watercolour wash!

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.

of the people, by the people, for the people

August 30, 2011August 30, 2011Leave a comment

Saturday was another hot day, but another day of sketching in Davis. We held the latest “Let’s Draw Davis” skecthcrawl, this time in old North Davis, outside the Co-Op on G Street. I don’t go to the Co-Op very often (I just don’t get over there, though I used to be a member) but I really like the place, and they have great seating outside for a group of sketchers to converge and start drawing Davis. I took as always the opportunity to draw some of the sketchers before moving on to the more architectural items. There were about twelve of us total, a pretty good showing for what was going to be a hot day (about half braved it all the way to the end, where we met for a cold drink and ice cream outside Dairy Queen, a block away). It was fun chatting to other sketchers about sketching, materials, techniques, and I was excited to report all about Lisbon.

The Davis Food Co-Op is one of those beloved local institutions, fully owned by its shoppers, having grown out of a living room in 1972. Being completely owned by its members, it is another example of the way the Davis community works together, promoting sustainability, healthy living and education. It started out of a living room in the early 1970s, and is now a full-service grocery store. To find out more about the Davis Food co-Op, check out the FAQs on their website.

On the right is the clock that sits outside. There’s fellow Davis sketcher Allan (Numenius) sitting in front, I caught him in the above sketch as well.

Below, the Davis Food Co-op Teaching Kitchen. They offer classes in cooking here to people of all ages (including young kids). It’s right across from the Co-Op on G Street. This in fact is the last page of my eighth watercolour moleskine (though I still have several sketches from that book yet to post). This moley took only two months to complete!! Sketching old north Davis is nice as the leaves start to change colour. It’s still the height of summer, but as we get into autumn it becomes gorgeous around here. Fall is the best season in Davis, with clear sunny days and crisper mornings, but on Saturday it was getting into the big nineties so after spending about an hour sketching below, we went to the Dairy Queen to cool off and check out each other’s sketchbooks. Another great sketching day!

The next Let’s Draw Davis day will be Saturday September 17, on the UC Davis campus. The next after that will be on October 15; I am starting to plan ahead, and I have started a new website for information about the sketchcrawls (it’s still pretty bare, and will be an information site, rather than overloaded with blog posts): http://letsdrawdavis.wordpress.com. Check it out, and I’ll see you at the next one!

Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/letsdrawdavis/

back over old ground

August 26, 2011August 27, 20111 Comment

This is a building I’ve drawn before (that’s a sentence I’ve said before), Davis Lock and Safe on 4th Street. I just had to draw it again. from a slightly different angle. I like this building. It’s small and simple, but has so much character.