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.

the urban sketcher’s fear of the pollen count

April 24, 20111 Comment

Lunchtime sketch from this week. I did manage somesketching this week, though not too much – the hay fever is particularly bad right now, it’s totally knocking me out. Me and half of Davis – allergies are pretty bad in this area. Going outside is becoming quite unfun, sneezing so much, I’m the holiest man in Davis, everyone’s blessing me. Still, after all those San Francisco sketches here is one from Davis. The newspaper boxes on E Street.

Happy Easter everyone!

let’s draw davis: farmers market

April 22, 2011April 22, 20111 Comment

Time to announce the next ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawl! If you’re interested in drawing and sketching, why not join us in capturing our little city on paper in pen, pencil, paint or whatever you choose! The event is free and open to everyone, regardless of drawing ability – from the humblest beginner to the humblest master. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on. We’ve had good tur-outs at our previous sketchcrawls, and they are a nice way to meet (and learn from) other people who also like going about drawing stuff all day.

We’ll start off at 10:30 am sketching at the Farmer’s Market, and then sketch in the park and surrounding area all day until about 3:30 pm.

DATE: Saturday, May 14, 2011

START: 10:30 am, entrance to Farmer’s Market (3rd/C St)

FINISH: 3:30 pm, Central Park (by the Carousel)

The Davis ‘Tour de Cluck’ is also that day, so there may be some interesting folk about to sketch. See you on the 14th!

‘Let’s Draw Davis’ Facebook event – ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ Flickr group

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.

and fix upon the pattern on the wall

April 13, 2011April 13, 2011Leave a comment

Friday night, after the gallery event and a trip to the record shop, time to stop off at the pub, Little Prague, for some well-deserved end-of-week beer, coupled as always with even more sketching. I sketch this bar scene every few months or so; improving my bar sketches, that is my excuse anyway. For my other sketches in and of pubs and cafes, see my ‘pubs, etc’ flickr set. I wish I’d had the whole page, because I’d like to try a curvilinear sketch of this bar; I did go for a slight semi-curvilinear, but ran out of page. Up on the screen, Man City beating Sunderland, doing Spurs no favours. Below, bar staff rushing back and forth, and behind, people busy ordering drinks and socializing and dancing. You know those photos they take of city roads where you can’t see the cars, just long streaks of red and white light? That is how I should draw the bar scene. I am drawing what stands still; the rest of the world moves about around me. At this point I’m supposed to say, “oh, that’s how I feel all the time”, but it isn’t in the slightest, so I won’t. Well, perhaps occasionally, but only when I sketch.

Here are the beer pumps. Since I’ve not sketched fire hydrants since the end of November this is the next best thing. I drew this one on a small artist trading card. Useful things for pub sketches, as it turns out. Below, back to the Moleskine, but with a different colour micron pen.

got a lovely gallery

April 12, 2011April 12, 20113 Comments

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to be invited to take part in a show at the Artery, a local gallery in Davis. The show was called “8×8 small is great”, and all of the pieces had to be around 8″x8″. My piece, ‘Miscellaneous Details’, was a drawing I did a couple of years ago (remember?), and is made up of things found around my apartment, like a self-portrait in clutter, stuff. My reaction to all the ‘de-clutter your home’ shows, an invitation to re-clutter, and then draw it and put it on your wall. In the middle, a copy of another drawing i did once, crossed with the words “everything is interesting if you take an interest in it”, which has become my mantra. (See the original here). The interesting thing about this, is that it doesn’t actually matter which way you hang it. If you get bored of it being this way up, just turn it on its side. The way I drew it, ‘Up’ is actually where the viewer is.

Anyway…it sold! And it sold pretty quickly too. That’s what the little red dot means. I was very pleased. I did some sketches at the event, nothing grand, just a few quickies.

Below, a couple of pieces that were in the show, ‘Fiber Hat’ by Pam Berry, which I thought was amazing, and ‘Girl-Bird Dog’ by Aiyana Pearson.

And here are a couple of ceramics I found elsewhere at the Artery that evening, a piggy bank and some other stuff by Heidi Bekebrede, and ‘I love you’ by Rebecca Bresnick Holmes. There’s some great stuff at the Artery, if you’re in Davis, pop down to G Street and have a look!

if you go down to the woods today

April 6, 20113 Comments

The final sketches of the Arboretum sketchcrawl, this is the Redwood Grove. These redwoods are only about fifty years old, tiny little things really, I barely noticed them. It’s quite a peaceful place, the redwood grove,, running along the creek. Redwoods grow naturally in the coastal ranges, not in the Central Valley. Ewoks are nowhere to be seen. You may notice, hidden somewhere in the above picture, that there was a photoshoot going on, with a young woman dressed like Alice (of Wonderland fame).

It was nice to see the Arboretum with so many sketchers dotted around, people stopping and watching us, seeing what we were drawing. Personally, when I see others out drawing, I want to draw things myself, so hopefully it had that same effect on people. Hopefully, someone saw us and decided, I like drawing, I’m going to get a sketchbook and go and draw some of my town myself, maybe even go on the next sketchcrawl? Well, the next Worldwide Sketchcrawl is in just over a week – April 16th. I’ll not be organizing a Davis one on that day (I’ll be joining the San Francisco crawl, in the Mission) but that day is also Picnic Day, so a great excuse for you to bring a sketchbook and sketch Davis’s big annual celebration.

Below, the sketchers who remained till the end: Dick, Tom, Jenny and Marlene. They all produced some great work! We had about thirteen sketchers in total that day, and it was a really nice afternoon. thanks to all those who came along – the next Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl will be in May (likely the 14th), at the Farmers Market. See you next time!

Let’s Draw Davis! Flickr group

crossing bridges

April 6, 2011April 6, 201112 Comments

When I first moved to Davis at the end of 2005, my wife told me about this cool thing she’d read about called ‘Sketchcrawl’, and that it was happening all over the world on the same day, and that there would be one in Davis organized by some local sketchers sketching the ‘Arboretum’ (another word that entered my vocabulary). I shyly met with a group of sketchers all buried in sketchbooks at Mishka’s cafe on a chilly morning and followed them to the Arboretum, by the creek, where evryone panned out and sketched away until it was too cold to do so. It was great, and though I didn’t draw outside for several months afterwards, and didn’t join another sketchcrawl for even longer, it was my first ever sketching day in Davis – the first of a great many. So for this latest Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl I was eager to show other people what a great place the Arboretum is to draw, but also to see for myself how my sketching has changed in the past five and a half years.Below is the same scene as above, sat in almost the same spot, but with my now differing styles.

: the same scene in december 2005

And below, here I am with Moleskine #7. More sketches to come!

drawing davis on a nice spring day

April 4, 2011April 4, 20111 Comment

It was time for another ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawl – our fifth one – this time at the UC Davis Arboretum. There were thirteen sketchers in total, mostly from Davis, but also from Sonoma, Sacramento, Oakland and the foothills. We met at 11 outside Borders, and spent the first hour or so in the little garden right next door, the Arboretum Terrace. That is a nice spot which is often forgotten about, and was a plesant way to start a relaxing day of sketching.The weather was nice, warm, though the wind was kicking up a bit. I drew the scene to the left, with powerlines passing overhead.

Below, sketching the sketchers: this is Sandra and Barbara, with Barbara’s dog Demi. Sandra has been on some of the previous sketchcrawls in Davis, but this was Barbara’s first ever sketchcrawl. Great to see you!

Below, Helen and Scott, sketching away.

More to come!

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!!