I’ve been drawing fire hydrants this week, ones I have not drawn before. The taller yellow one below was drawn at the end of last week’s sketchcrawl; the stumpy yellow one above is on the corner of 2nd and University. The other two are drawn on brown envelopes – I work with graduate applications, and recieve mail, transcripts, from all over the world (well, mostly China). I like to recycle the envelopes from time to time for some drawing, and well it’s that time of year. The one above was drawn on an envelope from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China, and is a hydrant from the UC Davis campus (they are white and blue). The one below is drawn on an envelope from Sri Lanka, and is found in the parking lot of Davis Commons. There are still one or two styles of hydrant in Davis that I’ve not yet drawn, I’m sure!
Tag: envelope
missionistas
We went to the Mission district of San Francisco. For those who don’t know, the Mission is historically a large Mexican and Central American area of the
city, full of colourful houses and even more colourful murals. It is one of the oldest parts of thSan Francisco, one with a slightly sketchy reputation, but which is becoming increasingly gentrified and artist-oriented, especially on its western fringes. It’s also where the world famous burrito was invented. I was eager to find a good taco truck, and there was one down at Garfield Square, on the corner of 25th and Harrison, and we both sat and drew it; ‘Goza Goza Goza’ it was called; no relation to Gozer the Gozerian. That’s my friend Simon above, sketched by me on some airmail envelope paper I had in my bag. I badly wanted to show my guest from England a real Mission burrito. I think he was impressed. I think he was more impressed by the fact
the spanish-speaking taco truck guy called him ‘Ese’ (a reference that went over my head, but don’t tell him). I think he was possibly most impressed by Philz Coffee on 24th; he was in there for a good long while, while they carefully constructed his perfect coffee, so I grabbed a sketch while waiting outside. I don’t drink coffee, as I have mentioned in these pages before, so the whole coffee seeking experience is lost on me. Give me a mission burrito and a pint of Anchor Steam any day! That day, in fact; we had much of it that evening. I love San Francisco.
mail on friday
long to rain over us
The massive rainstorms this week have confined me to the inside world. I feel like a hermit. But you’re from London, they protest, you must be used to the rain. Yeah, it got me just as wet there too. So anyway, I’m still using bits of cut up enelopes to make my drawing look a little different. I had a few minutes over lunch to draw out of rain-soaked window, in poor visibility, in brown micron on an envelope that came from London, funny enough.
lunchtime bells
My envelope-filled recycling bin overfloweth; I know how Jimmy Saville must feel now. Well not quite. Anyway the drawing continues, this manila envelope piece, cut out and glued into the moleskine, had three bells on it (pull the other one), the so-called US ‘forever stamps’ (in England they’re all called that, ‘cos it takes forever for your letters to get there). This is of course the Silo at UC Davis, today at lunchtime. It is still gloomy and damp here in California.






