normal service resumes

March 29, 2011Leave a comment

The Sun is back (“Spring was taking a break for a little while”, as my toddler son said), so I got out at lunchtime yesterday and sketched downtown. I am going to end up drawing every corner of downtown Davis. I think this is an estate agent’s, or ‘realtor’ as they say here. I wonder if there is such a thing as a ‘surrealtor’? That would be fun. I would watch those shows on HGTV. This by the way is the Middle of the Book, the midway point in Moleskine #7. I had thought I’d be further along by now, but I’ve been a bit lazy/scared of rain/busy, pick an excuse. Oh, and drawing toys and dictators in different sketchbooks. Well I need to get back on track, and sketch some of these lovely leafless trees before the leaves come back (which will be any minute now).

This weather comes at just the right time. This Saturday is the Let’s Draw Davis! Arboretum Sketchcrawl; meet at 11:00am outside Borders, and go down to the Arboretum to sketch ducks and bridges and trees and flowers and Putah Creek. I can’t wait!

they run and hide their heads

March 23, 2011Leave a comment

It has been windy and rainy, to say the least. Oh we’ve had a day or so here where the Sun has been out with his hat on, but no sooner have we said hip-hip-hip-hooray than the storms are back. On Saturday night the wind was so loud I half expected to wake up and find munchkins dancing around outside the house. It was stormy again last night, and I expected today to be a lunchtime inside listening to the news, but I saw that the rain had stopped, and I thought, I’ll have some of that. Out I went, to sketch a cool looking building I’ve had my eye on since it was finished: Tercero South Phase II, as the complex is known (at least on the UC Davis housing website). It’s a brand new set of residence halls. It was still cold, and it was awkward sketching in that wind, and after a while the rain decided to come back and mix it up a bit, but I finished it up, and ran away.

it’s raining; let’s not draw davis…

March 18, 2011Leave a comment

The rain is coming down heavy, and so tomorrow’s sketchcrawl at the arboretum is postponed…

…and rescheduled for Saturday April 2nd, when I am told we will have lovely sunny weather (we can hope!). So if you’re in Davis, join us on April 2nd! Everyone is welcome to sketchcrawl with us, even if you’ve never sketched before and justa want to give it a go. What better time than with others who love to draw? And at the Arboretum in the springtime, there is much to draw.

Of course, I’ll still sketch tomorrow, just at home, in the dry…

but nervous all the same

March 18, 20112 Comments

The sunshine is deceiving, because the rains are back, and in greater numbers. It was sunny yesterday though, on Saint Patrick’s Day, so I cycled downtown at lunchtime and drew a quick-ish one of a house on the corner of 3rd and D, I’d wanted to sketch it for some time. I was hopeful, but not that optimistic that his sunshine would stick around for the weekend, but now it looks very likely that heavy rain will stop play at the scheduled Davis sketchcrawl this Saturday.

the line it is drawn, the curse it is cast

March 12, 20111 Comment

Saturday afternoon, Spring is not only in the air but shining all around; with freshly cut hair I cycled about Davis looking for a perfect building with perfect March afternoon shadows and a decent shaded spot for me to perch without being in the way. I was uninspired however, or overinspired, perhaps they are the same thing. I drew this corner four years ago, interestingly enough, from a little closer up; 5th and J Streets, this cool but kinda scary-looking old house with the enormous telegraph pole towering above it. I rode off and went back to the library after this, to put up a poster about next Saturday’s ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ Sketchcrawl at the Arboretum (See the Flickr group and Facebook event) – if you’re in or around Davis, and like to draw even just a little, come down on Saturday and sketch together with other sketchbookers! If the weather is anything like today, it will be a great afternoon.

‘Spring forward’ tonight folks. Don’t forget to change your clocks. Oh, you already have. Welcome to Summertime…

quiet time in the library

March 11, 2011March 11, 20115 Comments

The Mary L. Stephens public library in Davis reopened a few months ago after a big refurbishment; I popped by last weekend to check it out. I had forgotten just how much I love libraries. I used to spend hours and hours in libraries, searching through the books, letting my imagination go wild in silence. When I was a kid, I would go to Burnt Oak library and spend ages reading books about space and dinosaurs and languages. As I grew up the love of libraries never left me. I spent a lot of time at this library when I first came to Davis. It was nice being back. I think libraries are incredibly important for our societies. In these days of budget cuts and ‘austerity’, I’m more thankful than ever that we have them. It’s amazing, in a way; while record companies vehemently fight tooth and nail to stop illegal downloading of songs and file sharing of copyrighted material, it’s perfectly normal for us to go to a library and borrow for FREE any published book they have. It’s a lesson to those moneygrabbers; free lending libraries have usually helped rather than hurt the publishing industry. Nowadays we have the internet of course, the ‘reliable’ Wikipedias and Googles and other such instant sources if information, on our iPads and iPods and Kindles and Blackberries and Raspberries and other smart-fruits, people might think libraries are less important, just places for people with nowhere to go. I however think that a society which wilfully loses its libraries loses its link to culture, learning and freedom of thought. In Davis, for one, the library seems to be as popular as ever. Long may our libraries last.

february blossom

March 3, 2011March 3, 2011Leave a comment

Though this was technically done last month (it was last week; February is a short month) this is how Davis looks right now. There is pink blossom appearing on many trees, and Spring in the air. I love it when the blossom arrives, it reminds me of Springs when I was a kid. Burnt Oak may be known for graffiti, litter and the odd burnt-out car, but there are lots of trees that blossom in the Springtime, making the world look nice and pretty, if only for a short while. Davis has such trees too. This was outside the bike barn, over at the Silo, during lunchtime when the sun was out.

how does your garden grow

February 14, 2011February 14, 2011Leave a comment

On Friday lunchtime, I sketched inside the Robert Mondavi Institute for food and wine and other stuff, because I needed to get out and sketch and it’s a couple of minutes from where I work. I have drawn inside here before, from a different angle, and they have an incredible garden full of all kinds of plants and herbs and lemons and what not. There’s a nice smell as you sit and sketch. It’s called the Good Life Garden. I’m not making it up; I was expecting Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall to turn up, or at the very least, Neil from the Young Ones.

I used a white gel pen to emphasize the bare trees. This sunny February weather is amazing! I want to do a long sketch of the building from the new vinyards at some point, but I think time of day is importnat. Lunchtime sketching can be a little frustrating – even though the light is still great, it’s better in the early mornings and late afternoons. At least I have this sunlight. Some places are grey and cloudy and drizzly at this time of year.

branches of mathematics

February 4, 2011February 4, 20112 Comments

Outside the Math Sciences Building. This February weather is nice – cold in the mornings, brisk at lunchtimes, but with lots of sun and long shadows and bare trees to sketch. This pretty much sums up the kind of light we are having, though I wish I could sketch in the early morning, or late afternoon, when the light is a rich golden syrup. This was a lunchtime sketch.

reporting the sketchcrawl

February 4, 20112 Comments

I told you that the local UC Davis student media production studio, Aggie TV, were at our last Let’s Draw Davis / Worldwide Sketchcrawl in January, reporting on our day of sketching… well here it is! The report is by Kate Calderazzo, filmed and edited by Todd Kaiser. It’s a really nice piece, two and a half minutes long, that really captured the relaxing feel of the event. Click on the image below to see it (this links to the report on Aggie TV’s facebook page)!