super troopers

March 15, 2012March 15, 2012Leave a comment

My son has the coolest shoes. I always knew this of course, because I have drawn a picture of every single one of them in a single book, chronologically, in black pen. These new ones however are my favourite yet. Based on the Clone Troopers from Star Wars (the forefathers of the Stormtroopers), they even flash blue. And I totally want some myself!! Except I don’t think adults can realistically wear such footwear in public. Perhaps Boba Fett ones? I liked them so much I drew this shoe twice. The one from the ‘official’ series is below, copic pen in a moleskine cahier. The second one I drew was on the first page of my brand new Stillman & Birn ‘Alpha’ series sketchbook (thanks Stillman & Birn for sending me that!), and it took me a couple of hours, mostly in copic multiliner (size 0.1) but with a little bit of uniball vision micro, and watercolours to colour it in. I’m pleased with the result, and the paper is nice to draw on, not as smooth as the Moleskine Cahier or Volant, smoother than the Moleskine watercolour though and it takes a watercolour wash pretty well.

They are cool shoes. But, alas, if I wore them I would be constantly worried that one day, they would turn on me, Order 66 style.

scattered showers

March 14, 2012March 14, 20123 Comments

I must admit I am really happy it is raining in Davis. We need it, for sure, but i just like the feel of the rain. It feels comforting, feels like home. Oh, it can bugger off again soon enough for sure (I didn’t move to California to get rained on, I can do that in north London) but it’s nice while it’s here. I did a qucik rainy sketch from the window of the Silo at lunchtime yesterday.

black place shoe

March 13, 2012March 13, 20122 Comments

Continuing the long series of sketching all of my son’s shoes in chronological order (though there is some overlap which I’m uncertain about), this is the black ‘Place’ shoe (Place is the name of the brand; no, I don’t know them either). I don’t know how often he ever wears these, because they competed for time with the Lightning McQueen shoes (as a three-four year old which would you choose?) and so are in pretty good shape.

You can see all of his shoes in this one series here. Feet just keep getting bigger…

let’s draw the arboretum!

March 12, 20125 Comments

Yesterday was our latest “Let’s Draw Davis!” sketchcrawl, this time at the UC Davis Arboretum. Eleven of us met at Wyatt Deck, which turned out to be a great place to meet for a sketchcrawl. I think I chatted more than I sketched, so I was slow starting (pretty typical on Davis sketchcrawls for me), but it was good sketching conversation, and I learned a lot from speaking with others. I sketched in my Stillman and Birn (gamma) sketchbook).

And the redbuds are blooming right now, so whole stretches of the Arboretum are bathed in deep pink. This is different from the pink blossom on many trees (though my sketch doesn’t really show that distinction!). The last sketch I did was the one at the top. I enjoyed that one the most.

The next Let’s Draw Davis will be on April 14th (a week before the Worldwide Sketchcrawl, which is the same day as Picnic Day), and will be on G Street. More ‘urban’ than here! But I must say I always enjoy the Arboretum Sketchcrawls, it is such a pleasant spot to sketch.

will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

March 10, 20123 Comments

These student housing halls over by Tercero on the UC Davis campus, Pierce Halls, are currently being demolished. I was kindly informed about this last week so raced over this week to capture them before they vanished. I found a quiet spot up a stairwell outside the demolition zone, and listened to the “football weekly extra” podcast (who seemed convinced that Spurs season was also under demolition). I’m glad the big digger stayed still for me, parked like a big mechanical yellow dinosaur awaiting its prey. I can imagine all the student tales from all the years that students lived here. When I was at university I didn’t live in the halls, and while one part of me felt I was missing out, I’m glad I didn’t. I did spend a year living in the student halls while teaching in Charleroi (la Vigie), which was noisy to say the least. I have no idea about American halls though, other than in the movies. Anyway, whatever the hidden histories, they’re all being knocked down now and buried in the rubble.

ce n’est pas facile d’être bleu

March 9, 20122 Comments

Chimay Bleu, a very popular Trappist beer in Belgium. When I spent a year there I only had it the once, it wasn’t really my thing, very dark, but the Charleroi locals loved it, king of the Trappists. I like the glass, and brought my Chimay glass with me to America, it’s nice to eat ice cream or trifle out of. Anyway, my wife got me one recently so I had it tonight while watching the telly, and of course I had to draw it in the brown paper beer book.

it’s not easy being blue

March 8, 2012March 8, 20122 Comments

You have to laugh at Chelsea. It would be easy to say their managerial office has a revolving door, but it’s more like a revolving cashpoint. It reminds me of the Crystal Maze, that bit at the end where you are in that air cupboard and have a minute to grab as many bits of rapidly flying silvery paper as possible before your time is up. Actually it’s not like that in the slightest but I like the image. Longer serving managers like Ferguson, Wenger, Moyes (that’s it, by the way) must look at Chelsea in the same way that oak trees look at human beings, with their fleeting brief lifespans, but still strong enough to cut them down from time to time. The fabulous wealth that their Russian owner brought them means that instant success is an absolute (which basically means winning every trophy in your first couple of weeks or you’re fired). Even Ancelotti, who won them their second double, was booted out less than a year later. The double used to be really really hard to win, and double-winning managers were revered for decades later (Nicholson, Mee, Dalglish). Now it’s like, well you couldn’t even win the Champion’s League too? You’re useless! All of which hiring and firing becomes very expensive for Chelsea. This is Andres Villas-Boas, who lasted about two thirds of a season. He’s only 34, look at him. He was a manager for one year before coming to Chelsea, winning a load of stuff at Porto before shifting to the Bridge for a ton of Siberian cash. Now he’s out the door also with a ton of cash, and while part of me feels bad for the guy – he’s young, still learning, and needed to be given time to change that aging cliquey team around – but really I think he’s not been harmed too much by this whole affair, he has full pockets now, and when even top-drawer managers with very successful careers can get axed at Chelsea (Ancelotti, Mourinho, Scolari) it doesn’t hurt his reputation as much as you’d think. Andre, I hope you to either a smaller club, or even back to Portugal, and spend a few years really working on a project, making it successful, building up a bank of respect and a catalogue of trophies, and then when Chelsea, many more managers and revolving doors and millions of pounds and failed players down the line, will look back up at you and shout “save us!” you will whisper, “no…”

bridge over the creek

March 7, 20122 Comments

It’s so windy here in Davis! This morning I was getting blown off my bike, so I gave up. Yesterday was even worse, but I really wanted to sketch at lunchtime, so I popped into the Arboretum and did a quick one of this bridge, using that calligraphy pen. It was so windy I thought I’d end up in the Creek! I’ve decided I really don’t like the wind.

Hey speaking of the Arboretum…don’t forget, this Sunday, sketchcrawl in the Arboretum, meet at 11am at Wyatt Deck. Let’s sketch some greenery! And the redbuds are blooming now…

you’re mitt, and you know you are

March 7, 2012March 7, 20122 Comments

Yesterday was Super Tuesday. I’m not sure why it was so Super, it didn’t exactly fly by. A really Super Tuesday would be one where the next day turns out to be Saturday or something. That is the epithet they give to the day when lots of presidential primaries – in this case, for the Republican candidate – happen at once, therefore making the eventual nominee appear that little bit more clearly. The eventual nominee (Mitt Romney, above) has not emerged very clearly as the eventual nominee (though he will be), with the race still very much open for Rick Santorum (yeah it won’t be him) and Newt Gingrich (no, no it won’t be him either). Ron Paul is still in it too, apparently, though he really looks like Magneto. Personally I think they’re all nuts, and not very Super. Less-than-Fantastic Four? Mitt has a bit of Reed Richards going on with those grey bits, and he’s certainly the most elastic of all of them. Santorum I suppose could be the Preacher (except Jesse Custer is the epitome of cool while Santorum is clearly off his trolley). Newt, well he already sounds like a sinister twisted mutant super-villain (not his name Newt, just his, you know, personality and politics).

So it’s going to be Mitt Romney, isn’t it. At least we can look forward to such headlines as “Romney You Plonker” (well, maybe in the English papers). Now seemed to be the best time to draw Romney though, if only to capture that hair, because after November I would either have to wait another four years for him to run again, or he’ll get elected President and be completely grey by June.

HB Pencil in the Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook.

at the corner of third and e

March 5, 20122 Comments

The trees are starting to bud already, so to draw the buildings in Davis while you can actually see them, you gotta be quick. This builidng, on the corner of 3rd and E Streets in Davis, is home to several things (Davis Chamber of Commerce, a family dentist’s, a bicycling clothes store), in the heart of the downtown. It sits directly opposite that other house at 3rd & E which I drew before. I was commissioned to draw it by the owners of the building (I hope they like it!). I started it last Saturday, the day after my talk at the bookstore, and there were a fair few people who stopped to say hello while I drew, sat on my little sketching stool by the lamp-post. The sun was getting in my eyes though (I didn’t bring my hat), so aftre doing a great deal of the linework (including those pesky trees) I gave up and took it home to finish, which I finally got around to doing a couple of days ago.

Let me tell you, the weather we are having these days feels more like May or June than February or March. That is, May or June where I’m from, not the century-hitting ones you get here. It’s warm and very pleasant, more so than usual for the time of year. Nice for being outside drawing…though beware, Davis sketchers, for pollen is in the air, and the season of the sneezing is soon to be upon us…