as sure as eggs is eggs

April 28, 2024April 27, 2024Leave a comment

Before I show you all my Utah sketches, I’m fast forwarding to this month, which was the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Eggheads by UC Davis professor and renowned sculptor, Robert Arneson, who dies in 1992. The campus has been having special celebrations in honor of Arneson and his beloved Eggheads, which are a series of egg-shaped sculptures all over campus. I’ve drawn the Eggheads before of course, but over the past few weeks I decided to draw all of them again, starting with “Yin and Yang” (above) which is outside Turner Wright Hall, a pair of eggs having a bit of an argument. One of the big parts of the Egghead celebration was a special event at the Manetti Shrem to which I was invited, where Robert Arneson’s widow Sandy Shannonhouse (a renowned artist herself) gave a short talk, and Robert Arneson’s son was there, and the Chancellor Gary May, the L&S Dean Estella Atekwana, and above I sketched the Manetti Shrem’s director Rachel Teagle talking about Arenson’s legacy and his famous Eggheads.

Above, this Egghead is called ‘Stargazer‘. It’s over behind North Hall near Dutton, staring up at the sky. It was installed in May 1994.

Back to the Manetti Shrem event, I sketched people talking, including an MFA Creative Writing candidate Trevor Bashaw who had written a poem dedicated to the Eggheads, I tried to write some down while I sketched. I was sketching in the fountain pen that I had used while sketching people talking in Riverside; for some reason it wasn’t quite coming out so easily, perhaps it was because I was standing (I hold my book in a funny way when I stand) as opposed to sitting at a desk, usually I would use a different type of pen for this sort of thing. Still it was fun enough and I still love that brown ink. The food at the the event was quite nice, I had a nice bowl of ice cream and a glass of wine. I did speak to a few people, some I knew, and the folks who invited me gave me a nice bag of Egghead related goodies. I also bought some big stickers at the little pop-up Egghead shop.

Above is “Bookhead“, I think the earliest installed Egghead, which is located outside of Shields Library. It’s a slightly different colour, being ever so slightly blue around the edges, and the tradition is that students rub or kiss Bookhead for good luck when taking their exams. I haven’t looked at those particular statistics but I am going to guess it has made marginally less difference than actually going into the library to study. This is a fun one though. I think if Arneson had lived he may well have created a new Egghead just staring at a phone.

This one is another fan favourite Egghead, an upside down laughing face with an ominous eye on the back, staring upwards at Mrak Hall. It’s called “Eye on Mrak/Fatal Laff“, an older sketch I did of it recently appeared in Sactown Magazine. In fact I think I even did a sketch of this back in 2005 on that very first sketchcrawl.

Here’s the last sketch from the event at the Manetti Shrem. There was an interesting video being played on loop so I sketched people watching it and mingling. There were media people there and a photographer going round. I was not feeling too well due to those seasonal allergies so I was starting to flag a little, but I had a look around the Deborah Butterfield exhibit “PS These Are Not Horses” which was pretty amazing. I had planned to walk over to the public events celebrating the Eggheads over at shields Library and the MU, which would culminate in the ‘Lighting of the Eggheads’, but my tiredness totally beat me and so I just went home to bed. It was a fun event though and I’m glad I went. You can see the video they played on UC Davis YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/aPmQf-oqnFU?si=UYA2uudwhmbDmzWT. It’s really interesting, and you’ll probably recognize some of the places from my sketches.

The last ones I did were a couple of days ago, on the other side of Mrak Hall outside King Hall. They are two Eggheads called “See No Evil/Hear No Evil“. I do remember they were in a slightly different spot when I first came, outside King Hall, but they were moved into the current spot when King Hall’s new wing was built. I drew all that from the Arboretum years ago, I’ve been here for ages. Anyway, I wanted to draw a few angles of this, so I stood behind one and drew looking out at the other (above), before sitting down right in front of it to capture its bizarre expression. I liked that one, but the sun was shining down on me, and suddenly a big group of schoolkids on an outing arrived and started rolling down the little hillocks the Eggheads are located on, so I got up and went over to the shade, where I grabbed a quick pic of the other Egghead before going back to the office (I actually added the paint while I was in a Zoom presentation, while also taking notes about summer courses). It’s fun drawing small quick sketches.

And so these are Arneson’s Eggheads, happy thirty (or so) years. You can find a tour of the Eggheads at https://www.ucdavis.edu/campus-life/arts-culture/eggheads-tour, and read “The lasting legacy of Arneson’s Eggheads” to find out more about them and about Arneson. Big characters on our campus these, and look! I managed to get through a whole blog post without making a single egg-based pun.

a beer at the shoppe

April 27, 2024April 26, 2024Leave a comment

After that last sketchcrawl, it was raining on and off a lot. My legs were in need of more rest after that 7k run, so I popped into the Davis Beer Shoppe for a nice beer and a sketch, while outside the day flitted between heavy rain and spots of sunshine. We were off to Utah next morning, I was already packed so not really in a hurry. The Beer Shoppe was fairly busy, and on the TV screen they were watching the end of Life of Brian, a film I know word for word pretty much. I found myself mouthing along to it all, “…Swedish separate from Welsh…” “…I’m Brian and so’s my wife…” “…you silly sods…”, it’s been a while since I last saw it but I did watch that film a lot when I was a teenager, that and Holy Grail. I settled into a beer and just started sketching the scene, because I can’t stop drawing for a minute can I. I last sketched inside this bar about ten years ago, a similar view, some of the details on the wall have changed but otherwise it’s not really different. After the film was over some people started playing video games on the big screen, Mario Kart 8 I believe, looked like a fun way to spend the afternoon. The couple nearby me were playing chess. Got me thinking, chess, Mario Kart, Life of Brian, beers… sounds like a typical night with my older brother. If there was a game of pool and a Spurs game on, that would be it.

Here’s that one from before, it was actually August 2013, a long old time ago now. I remember coming in here once and saw that they had it as the screensaver on their computer screen, which was funny. I don’t come in here very often to actually sit and have a beer, I usually only come in to buy from the shop, they have a really good selection of beers. I’ve become a bit unconvinced about beers lately, so many of them just taste very samey, or are getting too silly and gimmicky chasing the craft beer craze with new names and labels every season, it is a bit like the football shirt fashion trends in a way (though I still keep buying those football shirts). I am still sad that Anchor Steam is gone. Still it is nice to come to a local bar that has a good atmosphere and have a two or three pints while it’s raining outside. Shame they didn’t have any of the Holy Grail Ale, that’s a Python-themed beer I used to really like.

sketching a rainy day in davis

April 26, 2024Leave a comment

Last month we held another Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl in downtown Davis, this time on 2nd Street. It was a really rainy day too, but we had a good turnout of sketchers not minding that. I sat beneath the shelter of the Varsity Theatre and sketched the Avid Reader bookstore, a local favourite spot (and where I worked a long long time ago). the rain was really hard, absolutely bucketing down. That was a busy day for me; I had woken up early and taken part in the annual Lucky Run, and this time I ran the 7k distance for the first time ever. Usually I run the 5k, but I wanted a bit more of a challenge. I’ve not been running as much and am definitely heavier, but I smashed that 7k and want to run more. I am aiming to go for the 10k by the Fall, so I had better get back to training, cut back on those milkshakes. Next week, maybe.

I went into Mishka’s Cafe to do a last sketch, and several of the other sketchers were there. I sketched the scene in my brown fountain pen, and had a big fruity smoothie (which took several straws to drink, because their plastic straws are a bit too weak to be used in their smoothies, I must remember to bring my reusable metal straw next time). Then we all got together afterwards to look at each others’ sketchbooks, there were some great styles on display.

I recently posted the next Let’s Draw Davis event which will be on Saturday May the 4th, so I made a Star Wars style logo for this one. Check out details at the Let’s Draw Davis FB page.

another march on campus

April 23, 2024Leave a comment

Here are some sketches drawn around campus last month, all different media, I suppose. Above, that’s the UC Davis water tower as seen from the Arboretum, very close to my office. I drew in brown fountain pen, and there was this little cat on the path. I like this sort of sketch. The redbuds were really glowing then too. I’ve been on this campus eighteen years now, I sometimes look back and think, funny how that happened. That building next to the water tower, the Earth and Physical Sciences Building, wasn’t even there when I first arrived, in fact I was there at the ceremony where they laid the foundation stone, my old manager insisted I come over to witness that. I’m glad I did, but I always regret not sketching the building that was there before, which was knocked down. I do remember sketching the empty space, back in 07 or 08.

There was this one day last month when one of my coworkers announced that there would be llamas on campus, over at the Quad, that people could go and have a look at. This caused great excitement, as it had been a very busy 2024 so far, and everyone needs more llama, less drama. So we all walked over there. I had my llama jokes ready. It was lunchtime so I thought, alpaca lunch. As we got there, it turned out there were no llamas to be found. I guess they hadn’t set their a-llama clock. Disappointed but not despondent, I decided to draw this interesting old tree, and sketched it in pencil before adding some watercolour. I sometimes wish all my sketching looked like this, it felt very free.

This one above was sketched in the UC Davis Silo, on another boring lunchtime. I haven’t drawn the interior of this building from this level for a number of years. I used to come up here all the time, years ago, it feels like something from another time, but it isn’t, it’s just a different end of the same time. I think I would wonder in those days how long we would be in Davis, where we might go next, but we stayed, and I took it upon myself to draw all the changes here over a long period. While it’s not my actual job, it’s kind of become my other job, and I don’t mind that at all.

And finally, a panorama that will remain unfinished. I was cycling across campus one lunchtime when I was hit with the thought of drawing the Chemistry Building, not the side that’s all being built (and which I have drawn a number of times), because the shapes the shadows were making as they hit the inset windows was really quite dramatic, you would have loved it. In the end I said sod it, too much detail, and focused on sketching that wicked blue and cloudy sky, which was pretty spectacular in itself, leaving the Chemistry Building to be nothing more than a big outline left to the imagination. Behind it though is another building called ‘PSEL’, the ‘Physical Science and Engineering Library’, which is not in fact a library any more but has been recently redeveloped to house space for several units, including my own program (in fact I’m on the building committee that manages it); it will see a name change at some point, though I can’t say for sure what that will be. There’s still work being done, and I have drawn the building before, but I’ll do a more proper sketch of it at some point, but I made sure it got into this sketch.

two of the usual

April 20, 2024April 20, 2024Leave a comment

After getting back from southern California, a couple of downtown Davis sketches, familiar looking, white houses with a bit of triangle, a tree casting a shadow, the standard Pete sketch. This is my beans on toast. The top one is on D Street, and the bottom one is on that stretch of 3rd opposite Newsbeat, and has popped up a few times over the years. This is already a month ago, the bigger trees are already a lot leafier. Here we are now in Spring. 2024 has been a bit of a slog already, but I have drawn a lot.

to rest my eyes in shades of green

March 20, 2024March 20, 2024Leave a comment

I sketched this in my small Fabriano sketchbook, I really like using that one, especially with pencil. I have a larger one I might start using at some point. This is that bridge in the Arboretum that I’ve drawn a few times before, but not for a few years. I was heading downtown at lunchtime and it was a day of intermittent sunshine and clouds, just as I like it, but I wanted to stop and draw. I can’t get enough drawing done can I. I like this sort of sketch as I am just working quickly and scribbling, which makes it fun. March came in after a long long February and is already sweeping by fast, It will be April before we know it. And then another Summer, and another Fall, and another year over, until everything stops working. Look at the world while you can. I am still getting used to these new progressive glasses I got, which for the first week or two made me feel super dizzy, but that’s worn off a bit now. The ground is still a bit blurry but I am noticing that less, I suppose. My sketchbook looks clearer when looking down at it in poor light, such as indoors, while giving me a clearer far sight view. But it’s strange, and makes me feel tired. Everything makes me feel a bit more tired nowadays. I hoped that I’d be running a lot more, but I’ve found it hard to motivate myself there. I’ve been sketching a lot. I’ve been creating a lot of snippets of music, a few chords and a tune taped into the Music Memos app on my phone, the app my now-old phone keeps telling me will go away and I should transfer over to Voice Memos, but I like to keep my guitar chords separate from my random voice notes, plus in Music Memos it can generate a bass line or a drum beat behind it. I have a lot of tunes in my head now though, floating around waiting for me to finish them off, but I prefer a sketchbook of unfinished music than an actual thing. It’s not technically good, in any way, I’m not doing like big complicated riffs, more just a few feelings set inside a few chord changes. It’s how I used to do things when I had my little tape recorder, just recording whatever came out, sometimes it might be interesting, a lot of time just random nothing, and all for my ears only.

chemistry latest, almost nearly there

March 7, 2024March 7, 2024Leave a comment

The latest chapter in the construction of the new extension on the UC Davis Chemistry Building, it’s nearly ready. I was going to hold off on sketching it until it was all done, but the light was nice as the sun was going down after work this week, with a properly active sky, I stood up on the ledge at Roessler Hall for a more elevated view. I hope I can get a look around inside once it’s done.

armadillo music

March 4, 2024Leave a comment

Another two-page spread, though I didn’t reach the edge of the right-hand page. I went downtown right after work that day and the light was so nice that I decided to do a sketch, and decided to draw Armadillo Music. You can’t really see the golden pre-sunset light because I didn’t colour in the sky or the trees or any of the shading but I did colour in the record store, and the reflection of old city hall in the window opposite. That said, I wasn’t that happy with how the coloured-in record store turned out, and my initial idea to just colour in a few elements would have been the better choice in this case, but you live and learn. I got a cold drink from Newsbeat and stood drawing as much as I could, but stopped short of drawing more parked cars, I’m so sick of drawing those, they all look exactly the same anyway. The record store by the way is Armadillo Music, one of those proper part-of-the-cultural-fabric spots in Davis. I don’t buy records any more, or even CDs, but the existence of good record shops is vastly more important culturally to any society than yet another chain coffee shop. I don’t go out as much these days, but I really should go down there on evenings when they have live music or other events, they serve beer and get good numbers in. The band of one of my work colleagues has played there a couple of times, but I always seem to be busy. It’s on my wish-list to go and sketch an event there though.

Armadillo’s old location was a couple of doors down F Street, and that’s where I first discovered it (back when I was still buying music), and in fact it’s where my first ever art show in Davis was held back in early 2011 (during the monthly ArtAbout), before even my solo show at the Pence. They were super nice in there, and really supportive of local artists and I’ll always appreciate the boost that show gave to my confidence. It was an exhibit of prints of my drawings, with the real sketchbooks displayed on the night, and there was also a live show by local musician Rita Hosking, who had just been touring in Britain and other places, she was pretty well-known, so there was a good crowd in the small store that evening. I had quite a few come to see me though, as well as a bunch of students from our grad program coming out to show their support. Here is a picture from that night:

Here’s the sketch I did of Rita Hosking and her band (it was January 2011 not 2010, I am useless with getting the year right when it’s January):

And here is a sketch I did of Armadillo back in 2013, the old location (opening a new sketchbook, so I decided to to put the big “DAVIS, CA” lettering there for some reason):

And finally, another one in 2017 of the current location, the only time I’ve drawn it:

positively tired on fourth street

March 3, 20242 Comments

More sketching downtown on the last weekend in February. This was done on 4th Street, and I guess I’ve drawn this panorama before several years ago, just from a little bit further down. This was done a few hours after I had run the Davis Stampede 5k, my third time doing that, so my legs felt a little bit cream-crackered after standing for a while with my sketchbook. I’m still well interested in all these winter trees, the shapes and the textures. My run went pretty well, considering I haven’t really had enough time to train since the food-and-drink-tastic Christmas break, with work being so busy and things just being a bit stressful, but I did alright and really enjoyed the run, though it was a few minutes slower than my last 5k. In fact since last weekend I’ve done another three 5k runs, and while I’ve still not cut out the junk food yet, I’m feeling like I can keep going to try and do the (gulp) 7k Lucky Run later this month. I’ve never run that distance before so I’m building myself up to it, and then I will work on getting to the 10k distance. Easy does it, I’m not going for marathons, but I am enjoying it while I can do it. Anyway, after getting as far as I could with this, most of the penwork except all those scribbles for the background trees and some of the colouring, I headed off to a local brewpub to rest those legs with a beer (the beer wasn’t very good though). I have quite a few panoramas in this sketchbook already, though I’m hoping to finish it this month and finally start landscape sketchbook #50.

the very hart of campus

March 2, 2024Leave a comment

Last weekend we held another meet-up of local sketchers as part of the monthly ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawls, this time in the very heart of the UC Davis campus, meeting up outside the immense Shields Library. I had worried it would be a pretty wet day, but in the end we had lovely sunshine. It was a short sketchcrawl at just two hours, enough for a couple of decent drawings for me; above, Hart Hall, one of my favourite buildings to draw at UC Davis, especially on a bright day like last Saturday. I was terrorised by a squirrel while drawing this (in so much as a squirrel can be a terrorist, it might be a bit of a reach to say that coming up to me occasionally saying “yeah come on then” in squirrel language amounts to terrorism, or just normal squirrel behaviour whenever someone sits next to their favourite tree). We share this campus with the squirrels, and as I know too well we are all competing for our little bit of space. I sympathized with the squirrel to be honest.

We had quite a turnout, a lot of students, local sketchers, sketchers from out of town. I drew my second in front of Shields Library, you can see one of Robert Arneson’s Eggheads there. Some sketchers are dotted around. It was a nicely bustling kind of Saturday afternoon on campus, not too busy but not quiet either. At the end we all gathered in a circle outside and did a show-and-tell of our sketches, some really nice diverse styles on show. I was however criticized in front of the whole group by one sketcher from out of town who complained to me that I’d chosen such an “inconvenient” location (“the middle of nowhere” they said) for a sketchcrawl, because it was far from the parking lot they’d parked at. It’s the heart of the campus, the main library, very much “the middle of somewhere”. I was a bit stunned. Oh well. Anyway the next Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl will be on March 23rd in the afternoon, this one will be downtown at Mishka’s cafe on 2nd street, easy enough to find. Though I will have just done the Lucky Run 7k race that morning, so I will probably be a little bit shattered, but still sketching.