shah thing

May 23, 2011May 23, 2011Leave a comment

There is a truck outside the Silo at UC Davis these days that produces the most incredible lunchtime aroma of middle-eastern food, Shah’s Halal Food. I don’t eat there very much, because the line is always really, really long. One time I ate there too, there was a bone in my chicken. But let me tell you – it’s the tastiest and I mean tastiest food on campus. Yes, it beats the Thai soup, just about. Anyway, though I didn’t have the patience to wait in line to eat there last Friday, I did sit outside and sketch the truck as hungry patrons waited patiently.

thank goodness for speed sketching

May 18, 2011May 18, 20115 Comments

Last week was the annual UC Davis “Thank Goodness For Staff” lunch event. It is always scheduled on a windy/sunny day in early May, so that it can coincide with my allergies being at their worst. Mine, and everyone else’s. I took my sketchbook with me this year, as my colleague Erica was going to perform another of her excellent self-penned songs (she’s an amazing singer). It was an exercise in speed-sketching; there were only about three minutes from start to finish to capture her, and subsequently it doesn’t look that much like her, but we learn by trying. I also tried to sketch the UC Davis chancellor, Linda Katehi, addressing staff and thanking goodness for them. Again, doesn’t look like her but you get the idea. she was actually on the stage, but I drew a close up, over the picture of the stage that I was drawing when the other performers were playing.

I sketched some others which were even briefer (didn’t bother scanning), and then two dancers took the stage in colourful Latin American costume. Cuban dancing, it was and they started to move about at a whirlwind pace. My wife said, you won’t be able to draw these. Challenge accepted – and I’m pleased with the result, because this is pretty much exactly as it looked to me, colourful, fast-paced and a lot of fun! anda again, only aboutthree minutes to do the whole thing. Must do more drawings like that…

and if you know your history…

May 17, 2011May 17, 2011Leave a comment

The remaining sketches from Saturday’s sketchcrawl in Davis, the last one first: the Hattie Weber Museum of Davis, above. It’s a former library (it’s named after Davis’s first paid librarian), built in 1911 – it’s a hundred years old! But it used to be on F Street – buildings tend to move about in Davis. I was in there a few weeks ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a print of one of my drawings on the wall. The drawing of old City Hall, from central park garden, davis my ArtAbout event in January (it’s one of my favourites). So that’s pretty nice, I’m in a museum!

After sketching sketchers sketching at the market, I had a nice lunch at Crepeville with Napa-based designer Cynthia and her son Nathan. I sketched the interior (see bottom sketch) and had a huge-normous scrambled egg thing.

After lunch, it was back to the park. I was actually a little unsure what to draw next, so I chose to head for the gardens, and sketched the large mosaic-covered urn feature called “Flutter and Hum”.

After sketching the Museum, it was getting a bit cold. Of thirteen who came, only three of us ended up finishing at the end for the show and tell, and having been up very early to watch the FA Cup Final I was knackered! (Speaking of the FA Cup Final, I don’t like it when other matches are played on Cup Final day, it should be about that game alone, and that shoudl be the season closer. I’m no great fan of Man City’s millions, but they won their first trophy in 35 years, only to have their day overshadowed by overacheiving neighbours Man United winning a record 19th league title. But back to sketching…

It was another nice sketchcrawl in Davis though and I look forward to the next one – some time in June, date and place to be decided…

Let’s Draw Davis Flickr Group

sketchbooks out…

May 13, 2011May 13, 2011Leave a comment

Just a reminder… tomorrow will be the next Let’s Draw Davis! sketchcrawl… 10:30am at the Farmer’s Market, finish 3:30 at the Carousel in Central Park… hope to see you there Davis sketchers!

the answer my friend is blowing in the wind

May 10, 2011Leave a comment

I had to draw today. Being afraid of the outside world is getting me down. How come allergy season is lasting so long?? Wrap it up, folks, please. Anyway I braved it, itchy eyes and runny nose, and did pretty well sketching this frat house, Sigma Phi Epsilon. I had to do the colour later on though, because just to annoy me, a pair of leafblowers came along to blow all the leaves about and make things worse. I abandonded ship, but I had done enough and I might even go back and do another, to match it.

oh wow, the whole earth? that’s like, so heavy, man

May 7, 20113 Comments

Hippies and Davis go together like Strawberries and Wimbledon, and every year all the hippies come together for the annual Whole Earth Festival on the UC Davis campus. Day two is happening as I sit at home writing; I popped by the Quad yesterday lunchtime to check out what was going on. I didn’t fancy an eggplant and lentil wrap or organic lemonade, so grabbed a turkey sandwich at the MU and sat and watched the band that was playing. They were very jam-band/acid-jazz-ish, or at least what I consider to be such things (I’m not very good at categories), had several saxophones and one female back-up vocalist who kept singing “Yo-ho-ho-ho”, but I don’t think the song was about pirates. I tried to keep up with the main singer’s lyrics, it wasn’t exactly The Streets but I did make out the words “teeny-tiny tidy-whitie”, which I think is some sort of underpant. Perhaps it was tie-die whitie. There were a lot of tie-die t-shirts around, and a fair few sandals. No sign of Neil from the Young Ones, but I bet he was around somewhere.

lunch on

May 4, 2011Leave a comment

Another lunch-place sketch. Every day this week I have sketched a different place I’ve been eating lunch (all with a fountain diet coke in the foreground). This is in the Silo. I had Taco Bell. I don’t usually sit downstairs on the big long tables with the other people. Ok, it’s because of the overheard conversations. I left out the chattering folk in this one. Thankfully Silent Bob was at the end of the table. Or is it Silo Bob? Where will my lunchtime adventures take me tomorrow..?

right up your street

April 30, 2011

This is a drawing of the house of a colleague, Jean, which I did last month. Back then, the leaves were not on the trees and long wintery shadows crept across Davis; now the leaves are back, the pollen is in the air and my nose is practising for marathons.

Anyway, I thought it a good time to tell you again that if you fancy a drawing of your house, or apartment, or shop, etc, let me know! I generally draw at about 5″x7″, ink and watercolour (but I prefer not to draw people). Let’s talk!

I still have some original drawings on my Etsy store, and will be adding more in the coming weeks. I am raising money to go to the 2nd Worldwide Urban Sketching Symposium in Lisbon this summer by selling drawings, and every bit helps! I can even draw trees with leaves on…

boo to the business world

April 27, 2011April 27, 2011Leave a comment

In case you didn’t know, I occasionally sell some drawings on my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/petescully. I’ve actually had the store for a while but not really added much to it, but lately I’ve been adding some more and plan to add more original drawings (and prints) in the coming weeks. If you’re interested, please visit my Etsy shop…

Above: the Varsity theatre on 2nd St, Davis; see the Etsy listing here. It’s a nice view of the old theatre before they put the new Mishka’s cafe next door. That would look nice in a frame on your wall; something to remember Davis by.

So anyway… I would really like to go to the Lisbon Urban Sketching Symposium this year, and so I’m planning to raise the money by selling some drawings. I’m also open to commissions; I don’t really draw people, but if you’d like a nice drawing of your house or shop, or of somewhere particular in Davis or London or anywhere else, let me know! Etsy even has a ‘request custom item’ feature.

Cheers!

in the belly of the beast

April 26, 2011April 26, 20112 Comments

The Death Star, or ‘Social Sciences and Humanities Building’ as some pedantic people call it, is one of UC Davis’s most loved/hated/bloody annoying buildings. I’m not a fan myself, having been lost and confused in there on too many occasions, making me late for meetings. It’s like being lost in an Escher painting. I am glad it’s there though, it’s such an oddity. It’s so complicated you would need two R2-D2s to hold its schematics. Even the maddest 1960s British council estate designers wouldn’t come up with something so utterly mental. I sketched it last week while braving the pollen and the dark side (notice how doorways are big here, so stormtroopers can’t bang their heads), and you can sort of see how I hold my pen as well.