the rest of June

October 27, 2025October 27, 20251 Comment

And so, the last batch of Davis sketches from June. I have loads more from July. I wasn’t here at all in August though. These are not all just ‘house with tree in front of it’ sketches. They are however all ‘things I’ve drawn before loads of times’, except for one of them. And there are trees in front of one of the houses. Above is the old City Hall building I have drawn a million times, more properly known as ‘Historic City Hall’. It has been many things, a police station, a fire station, a city hall, a bar, a gallery for a bit if memory serves, a few restaurants, and now it is a not-actually-anything, since the last restaurant (Mamma’s) abruptly closed earlier this year. I think there was a sign on the door to that effect but I didn’t go and read it. I wonder what will go in here next; I worry it it will sit empty for a long time. It was built in 1938 in the Spanish-colonialist style by someone called P.L. Dragon, so it’s a lot younger than the now-demolished East Wing of the White House was. BTW, WTF. Outside is a unicycle sculpture, that being the symbol of the City of Davis.

Next up is another view of the side of the Dresbach-Hunt-Boyer Building, which is on the corner of 2nd and E Streets, and is one of the oldest buildings in Davis, dating from the 1870s (and therefore older than the White House East Wing was). William Dresbach lived here, and he is important because he was the first postmaster of what was then called Davisville, a position of such power that it was he who shortened the name ‘Davisville’ to simply ‘Davis’, presumably to save using bigger envelopes. I wonder if it will shortened even further to just ‘Dave’. I think I have been inside the mansion once, when it was an information or visitor’s centre for Davis and I was in there looking for leaflets to include in our student welcome folders years ago. I used to have to do that, go around trying to get useful leaflets. I remember one year going to the Chamber of Commerce (I think it was) when it was on 3rd Street and they refused to give me more than one copy of some downtown map of local attractions and restaurants. A tall serious man came out and stood in front of me questioning why I needed them, as if asking for five or six copies of a free map to give to prospective students was somehow highly irregular; it was a little intimidating. As I skulked away guiltily with just one map, I remember thinking, I hope you don’t ever need a drawing of Davis at any point because I will probably say no. I was so put off I never bothered asking again and ended up making my own information sheets illustrated with my own sketches, I don’t have those any more though as I do a different job now. Anyway back to this sketch, right outside is the real symbol of Davis, a bicycle drawn so badly that it looks like a piece of modern art. It is a strong contender for the worst bike I have ever drawn. When I joke about not being able to draw them I’m not kidding. Notice how I carefully avoided drawing the wheels on that bit of car as well. Remember that kids song, ‘The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round’? I could never remember the words, because I just don’t like wheels, I can’t draw circles. I don’t even eat Wagon Wheels. I even get annoyed watching Wheel of Fortune, but for completely different reasons, the latest of which is the new host Ryan C. Crest. Anyway, the green buildings on the right of the sketch are called Mansion Square. Almost twenty years ago, before I had my first job in Davis, I went for a job here at the SAT preparation center as someone that would help students get ready for their SAT. Having no experience whatsoever with the SAT I was not really qualified, and I had to take a mock SAT as well which I don’t think I passed, but I did have to do a presentation about any subject and if I recall correctly I went in and told them all about the English ghost legend of Black Shuck. Fascinating, but completely useless information. Back then, there was a massive tree that stood in the middle of the scene above, probably the tallest tree in downtown Davis, and it was leaning quite considerably to the left so they ended up cutting it down and chopping it up (no that’s not a metaphor, behave). I was worried it would fall eventually and I did draw it once, but now it’s just a memory.

This building above is a very new structure, about ten years old, next to the Coldwell Banker real estate building. I remember drawing it while it was being built in 2015 (see here) and also from across the street in May of last year (see here). I liked this angle looking down 2nd Street.

Finally, the latest version of that funny looking building on G Street, where the kids clothes shop ‘Bubble Belly’ is found. This highly unusual structure has to be sketched every few years or so by me just to remind me how different it is to everything else in Davis. I mean I like triangles but these are huge. There is a tree in front too but it’s fairly subtle. If ever I get this book of Davis drawings made I would like this building in there. It’s another that I have never been inside, but since it is a store for baby clothes it’s unlikely I ever will. It’s been a long time since my one was a baby. That said, my family in England keeps growing with more babies, and the latest is my great-niece Beatrix who was born a few weeks ago, welcome to the world! I do miss the baby days though, seems like a long time ago now. There was this one shop in Davis called the Mother and Baby source which had a scale for you to weigh your baby if you didn’t want to keep going to the doctors, they were really nice. We had a lovely doctor as well, Dr Keremitsis, who sadly passed away many years ago now. If you visit Kaiser in South Davis there is a tribute to her on the wall, which is actually a series of my drawings of Davis, places she loved. This by the way is another reason I draw, so people can recognize the places they know, and remember their own stories. I have never been inside this building, but I bet there are a lot of people who have with their own personal memories. Ok that’s June out of the way. I do actually have some other sketches from June too but not from Davis so I’ll post those another time.

The Middle Of June

October 26, 2025October 25, 2025Leave a comment

A few more from June 2025, more buildings in Davis with a tree in front, and some without. Above is the restaurant Pizzas and Pints, which I have never eaten (or drank) at, but I have drawn it a few times, including while it was being built. It’s on the corner of B and 3rd opposite the Bicycling Hall of Fame (which I still haven’t visited, except to use their toilets; as previously discussed, I can’t draw circles, so I shy away from drawing bikes. I like trees though. I quite like pizzas, and pints, but obviously not enough. As I drew one of the people who worked there came over the street and asked if I was drawing the building. I think they wanted me to come in and show them when I was done, but I didn’t. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was tired; it was Flag Day and I could feel myself flagging. So I went for a milkshake and rode home. It was Father’s Day the next day, I was tired, in fact I was Dad to the world. Enough Dad jokes. A few days earlier I did a lunchtime sketch a bit further down B Street, this is part of the Aggie Inn hotel. Triangle, tree, view straight across the road, looks like one of my sketches. If I sound repetitive and predictable, it’s because I very much am. Who’d want to be innovative and exciting? Not me. I’m not really a brand. Maybe I should consider being a brand. I don’t wear a distinctive hat, or have a catchy web-name. I wear football shirts a lot. I hold my pen in a funny way, that could be my brand. I don’t want to be ‘The Davis Sketcher’. I’ve never liked when people call themselves “The [Insert place name here] Sketcher” when there are definitely other sketchers who sketch that place too. Maybe call yourself “A [Insert place name here] Sketcher”. Some people probably earn the ‘The‘, sure, but it’s pretty arrogant, so no I’d never call myself ‘The Davis Sketcher’. Saying it like that makes it sound like ‘The Boston Strangler’ or ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’. Maybe ‘The Fire Hydrant Sketcher’, or ‘The House With a Tree In Front Of It Sketcher’. Imagine that book. After about thirty houses with a tree in front of it you’d be thinking, I can’t wait for the fire hydrants book, when is that coming out. Anyway hold onto your hats because here is a building without a tree in front of it. There are a couple of bushes but that isn’t the same thing. This is just at the edge of campus on 1st Street, down the road from the Aggie Inn actually, part of a child development center I think. I liked how the shadow made an interesting shape underneath the awning, and the telegraph pole in the background. This was an after-work sketch I think, judging by the length of the shadows. It’s the shadows that interested me most here, and those are the bits that change the quickest, so I drew those in before much of the other details. I stood next to a bin while sketching this, I remember it was a bit smelly, but I was able to rest my paint set on it. If I ever write a ‘How-To’ guide at the back of my Book of Sketches I’ll point out that if you stand next to a bin you can rest your paints on it, but you might have to hold your nose. Top tips.

Here is a different view downtown, to prove I can mix it up a bit. I stood in a little bit of shade on 3rd St and drew Crepeville across the street. I like Crepeville, they do good food, though I don’t eat here often. I do eat out in Davis, I make it seem like I don’t, I just tend to always go to the same places a lot, I don’t mind being repetitive and predictable. This would have been a Monday, the first Monday of Summer. The First Monday of Summer sounds like a terrible album name. Summers are full of hope and dread. As a kid they were great, no school for six weeks, no homework or playground politics, maybe going away somewhere warm like the seaside, or maybe somewhere cold like the seaside. Staying up all night reading fantasy gamebooks, mostly for the illustrations. Playing outside with the other kids in the street, until parents or big siblings shouted us in for dinner. Eventually you’d have to go back to school and wear the uniform and eventually you get bigger and leave school and do something else with your summers, which for me was travel to other countries as soon as I had any money in my pocket, and eventually I got older, got married, moved to California, got a job and drew everything in Davis in my spare time for twenty years. That about sums it up. Twenty years in America, as of last month, twenty years in Davis as of next month. I feel like I should commemorate it in some way, maybe write a book full of drawings of houses with a tree in front, or a bush, or maybe even a lamp-post.

And finally, Community Church, which sounds like a card from Monopoly but isn’t. I’ve drawn this one a few times too, it’s a good one to come back to from time to time. Another place I’ve never been inside, actually. I’m not a religious person but I do love a bit of church architecture (when I say that I sound like one of those football blokes who says, “I’m not an Arsenal fan, but I bloody loved Dennis Bergkamp, he had the deftest touch I’ve ever seen”, which sounds like “I’m not a Catholic but I bloody loved Pope John Paul II, the had the deftest wave I’ve ever seen”). I really like sketching cathedrals, especially old ones in Europe, I’ve always wanted to do a tour of them, with a big sketchbook and I don’t know, an artist fellowship to pay for all the hotels and a publishing deal. ‘Gothic Cathedrals With a Tree Outside Them’. I was commissioned once to draw a cathedral, and they came back and said it’s great but can we lose the fire hydrant in front, to which I said absolutely not, I’m The Fire Hydrant Sketcher, ain’t I. That would be an Ecumenical Matter. I did actually have a grouping of framed prints of my cathedral sketches going up the stairs at one point, I am getting quite a collection now.

June, know what I mean

October 25, 2025Leave a comment

Before I get posting all the summer travel sketches I suppose I should catch up posting all the Davis sketches from June and July as well. I might mix it up a bit, and bunch them up as I often do. Expect more of the same, more drawings of a house in Davis with a tree in front of it. You can tell it’s me, it’s a drawing of a house with a tree in front of it. Above, the nice little house on the corner of E Street and 3rd Street downtown, I’ve drawn it before; I’ve drawn them all before, but this is what they look like in 2025.

I have draw so much this year, and each time that question keeps jumping back out – what is it for? It probably sounds like I’m asking it in a mid-life crisis kind of way, “what does it all mean?”, and I’ve tried to think about the “why” behind all the sketching. The answer is almost always “because I like drawing”, but it feels a bit glib to say that, so I dress it up with ideas like, “the world is a crazy place, I have no control over world events, but by focusing on this one little bit of world in front of me and drawing it, it gives me a tiny piece of control over a tiny piece of my reality,” stuff like that. Maybe it’s about feeling overwhelmed and unable to get things done, but if I can achieve one thing that I know how to do then that is a start. I draw to record the world around me, that’s another big one. I can look back over sketchbooks and say, yes that was my world then, where I lived, and I drew what I wanted to record. Am I doing it for the town, itself as a record for the City of Davis or for UC Davis as a campus? Maybe, and it’s a fun outcome that I have this record of nearly two decades of sketches from this place, but mostly it’s for me. I draw to improve as well, to exercise the drawing muscles, but I also like the comfort of a certain type of drawing, and I suppose this is that type of drawing. I think about pushing myself more, and look I have some highly detailed cityscapes and bar scenes and all of that, but mostly I’m a lunchtime sketcher, as I have a pretty busy job and it gives me a way to refocus my mind halfway through the day. It’s not for likes, though I post them online as it’s an important part of being an urban sketcher and it was that which encouraged me back in the early days of 2006, 2007, discovering other peoples’ work online, but I don’t really engage on the socials like some of my sketching peers do; I prefer it here in my world, old school. If I ever get to writing this new book maybe I’ll write out the whole explanation and motivation as to why I draw, with the history of when I first picked up a pen and all the drawing I did as a kid to try to block out the noisy world around me, and then I will get out my editorial pen and cut it all down to the very simple “it’s because I just like drawing”. End of the day, that’s what it is.

As I post, it’s early in the morning. Not as early as when I started writing all that, the sun is coming up now (well, the fog is coming up, that time of year is finally here) and I’m getting ready to go for my morning run, I have a 10k in just under a month that I am trying to prepare for. I’ve had funny dreams lately, and last night I dreamed of old friends I have not seen in years, I was standing behind them in a queue and was trying to decide whether to run for it or tap them on the shoulder, and in the end I think I made a funny noise to make them turn around, and then realized they might not recognize me, the ravages of time, and then realized it might not be them at all. But it turns out it was them and we went for a beer. I must point out, nobody’s dreams are interesting, and it’s always extremely boring when someone tells you what happened in their dreams, because sure they may have felt real and meaningful to the dreamer but are absolutely not to anyone else. It’s like someone telling you about their Fantasy Football team, it’s like, mate, please. However I did have another dream where I was at my Mum’s house in Burnt Oak, and I had to try and save family members from a vampire that had somehow gotten in and was in the loft. It had managed to turn my cat into a vampire, though nobody thought it was any different. Anyway vampires are really hard to beat and it felt like it was a hopeless situation, no matter what we do the vampire just keeps on going making everything dark and miserable. Then I remembered that my Mum has some Holy Water in the shed (she actually does, she brought it back from Lourdes in the 90s), so I put some in a spray bottle and went hunting for the vampire with that, and it must have worked because I woke up and the vampire was gone, vanquished, but then I looked on Instagram and things were still shit.

That has nothing to do with the drawings, sorry. That sketch was on E Street outside the Hunt Boyer Dresbach Mansion, some ditch cleaning machine that I decided to sketch. I still can’t draw circles as is evident by the wheels. If I had to draw a magic circle to protect from demons or ghosts, I’d ask someone else to do it, I’d be too embarrassed. The next sketch above is a sorority house or something on D Street. I’ve drawn that before too. Another big house with a tree in front. I didn’t even bother drawing the wheels on the car, no point. The Greek letters look like magical symbols, or maybe it means ‘Ax Omega’ which I think is the name of a spray-on deodorant. You can’t use that against vampires by the way, that just do an evil laugh and say something funny like “I don’t sweat you!” It’s nearly Halloween, I have vampires on the mind.

This sketch above was on campus, not a house with a tree but the other water tower, the one near the football field, as sketched next to the funny old building that houses the University Honors program. I had been drawing a lot of flowers during the spring so they popped up again here. It was June the 6th, D Day, 81 years on. The Spring quarter was nearly finished. I like that moment at the start of summer, especially when there are summer plans, but it was still a long way before travelling and the long hot summers we get here feel like a drag. It didn’t end up being as ridiculously hot this year as usual, but hot enough.

Finally, I’ve meant to draw this gateway for a long time, down on D Street outside the Cole Building (on the other side of the road from the Cloud Forest Cafe). That shop The Wardrobe is based in here now. I drew at lunchtime but then finished it off and coloured it in later. I am glad that I captured it like this, because I came back a few months later and it looks really different! It has now been painted with a big colourful blue mural on it, it looks pretty good too. Several of the buildings down here have seen wildly colourful makeovers recently (such as the restaurant on the corner which is now a rather wild pink). This I suppose is why I sketch, to capture a moment in time, just before it changes. It probably won’t look like this again now, and I’ve captured it at the right time. I like drawing.

I’ll post more soon, right now I’m off for that morning run.

pacific heights

October 24, 20252 Comments

Here are a couple more from the end of May, we went to San Francisco for an overnighter, staying in Pacific Heights where I’d not really been before. I sketched the Vogue theatre on Sacramento Street before we went out for a nice dinner at Garibaldi’s. We were up here to visit the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio, where we went to a really interesting exhibit on Mary Blair, the renowened Disney illustrator who created a lot of the classic Disney artwork from the 40s, 50s and 60s, including the It’s a Small World designs for the Disneyland park. Afterwards we went down the Presidio over to the new park they built on the bluffs overlooking the Bay, some amazing views up there. I did a quick sketch but it was very sunny, I don’t like sketching in the sun. The next day, we visited the De Young Museum to see the Paul McCartney photography exhibit, ‘The Eye of the Storm’, full of his very personal photos of the early years of the Beatles on tour. That was absolutely incredible, one of the best things I have seen in ages. I got a large print photo of John Lennon with his acoustic guitar which I have framed on my wall, and a few other postcard size ones I will also put up on the wall. We enjoyed that exhibit a lot, and then had a longer look around the De Young itself, I’d never been there before. I like art museums, though ones like the De Young can be expensive to visit so it’s not something we’d do often. We did visit the SF MoMA earlier this year, first time in ages. They have the best gift shop. I do wish we’d had time to visit one of the big ones in New York like the Met, but another time perhaps.

mid October already

October 23, 2025October 23, 2025Leave a comment

It’s mid-October (well, nearly late October), and I have finally finished scanning and editing all the sketches from the summer and the start of Fall, and there were a lot. more than in any other year. In fact I would go so far as to say that it’s possible, no it’s absolutely certain, I draw too much. I can’t actually stop. It’s not like I’m not totally busy everywhere else in life because I am, sketching is the outlet, what I do when I try to make sense of the world. This year has been a year, every day it’s ten things after another. I’ve been reading more as well this year, probably in an attempt to get away from the phone or the iPad, not that it’s helped much. One thing I’ve not been doing as much is writing, I suppose I have to actually coordinate my thoughts when I do that. I used to keep a diary years ago but stopped. I kept a journal while I was travelling this summer for a couple of weeks, just so I remember everything at the end of the day, maybe it helped. Anyway, the weight of scanning all those sketchbooks is away with, and I will post them all here bit by bit, my summer travels to London, Poland, Berlin, etc and so on. Fall has started busily with meetings, work, trips to look at colleges, and a fun new thing I’m doing on campus which is a weekly sketching group for first year students, going to a different part of campus. I have also finally restarted monthly sketchcrawls in Davis (spurred on by this new thing) and am hoping that will be continuing (the next one is on Nov 15). I am also preparing for (with some nervousness) the 10k Turkey Trot run in November. For now though, a nice relaxing view of Community Park, sketched on a Friday afternoon after cycling back home from work, having been out sick with a cold for most of the week. The trees this week are now starting to turn autumnal colours, but there is still a lot of green. California looks beautiful at this time of year. I wonder if next year I will draw less? Maybe finally consider working on that book I’ve been thinking about. Next month will be twenty years since moving to Davis. I’m turning another big number next year. Anyway, here is the park near where I live. I’m just waiting for the sun to come up so I can go and have a run around here before work.

Another May in Davis

July 24, 2025Leave a comment

Time to start catching up on posting my sketches, so here’s a few more from the month of the May. In the grand story of this blog, which effectively is my diary of living in Davis for all to see, it’s good to have things in order as much as possible, though the dates may not always follow one another directly. I’m not trying to tell a story out of sequence, this isn’t Pulp Fiction, though I do use a lot of Pulp Fiction references in my daily life, especially to my wife who gets them, as opposed to my teenager who definitely doesn’t. You have to be from the 90s. The 90s is My favourite version of Pulp Fiction though is the one I saw on TV in America many years ago, which had some additional scenes not in the original release, and also hilariously replaced as much of the swearing as possible, because American TV doesn’t like a swear word. Not simply muting the odd f or sh but literally replacing the words with something else. I remember they changed the odd “mf” to “my friend” or even “mama sucker” (!), but the best bit was that famous scene in the diner at the end, where Jules is yelling at Tim Roth “Tell that funky babe to chill! Chill that funky babe out! Say Babe Be Cool!” Speaking of diners, here’s one that we would swear by. This is the Black Bear Diner on the corner of B and 2nd. I drew this one lunchtime while walking back to campus, and I was taken by that sky. I stood under a tree for a bit of shade. We would go there for breakfast after doing the Turkey Trot or other runs. We’d take our son here when he was little for pancakes. I like their breakfasts (though I don’t eat bacon, ‘cos I don’t dig on swine. I wouldn’t eat the filthy mama sucker). I love their cinnamon roll french toast, covered in lashings of warm maple syrup, enough calories to last you through the winter.

This is next to Cloud Forest Cafe, with the Mustard Seed in the background. I was drawing this at lunchtime, drawn in by all that red, contrasted against all the green leaves, which you just have to imagine as being green here. In fact letting yourself imagine all the green rather than paint it in makes the red stand out a lot more. Red and green are not great next to each other (especially for those with colour vision deficiency). That said, the main reason I didn’t paint the rest is that I ran out of lunchtime and had to get back to the office. One man who had been sitting outside the cafe watching me did say to me that I should draw the building across the street, which I had actually never sketched (but have done so since). This is a more interesting view though. The red phone box is away to my right just off the page. I’ve drawn that a few times.

This one at the corner of E and 4th I did colour in. I sketched after work, it was a hot afternoon but times are stressful (work, politics, the endless news and noise cycle) and I really needed to sketch. I always need to sketch but these days more than ever. In fact I have done a lot more sketching in 2025 than in 2024. On the chart I keep I’m up to about where I was in mid-October, and it’s only mid-July, and I have a full sketching trip still planned. Almost like I need to draw to keep my mind safe. As I sketched, a man walked past wearing one of those hats, you know. He also wore a bum-bag (they call them fanny-packs here but I can’t call them that because it means something else where I’m from) made out of an American flag, so clearly going for a certain look. I don’t remember what the t-shirt said, probably something to ‘own the libs’ or whatever. No, I wasn’t gonna sketch him. I focused on listening to my audiobook instead and tried to catch the different greens on the trees. I was using a new sketchbook by this point of the month, a Hahnemuhle watercolour book, 200 gsm, I had never used one before. I like it, it’s slightly slower on the pen but not by much (I notice it when I am trying to do lots of scribbles, seems to feel like more of an effort than in the Moleskine), and it takes the watercolour really well like the Moleskine does, and more comfortable than painting in the Seawhites. That store on the corner, “Why Not Boba” is one of many boba shops that apparently the world needs so many of these days. I remember it used be where ‘Mathnasium’ was, I can’t remember what they did there but used to imagine it was a place to do mental gymnastics, but half the world are experts in mental gymnastics these days. I have never had boba tea, it’s probably nice but I won’t try new things. I’d probably make some poor Boba Fett joke that has been done a million times and walk out ashamed.

This scene is just a block away, corner of 3rd and E, looking up towards Chase Bank which is right next to Why Not Boba. I kept thinking of jokes about Bank Bobas, “hands up this is a bobbery”, but none of them were very good so kept them in my head. I decided not to colour this in, the decision was based on the fact I couldn’t be bothered. Or boba’d. The bank sign has the ‘E’ obscured, so it just says Chas. This reminded me of Chas’n’Dave. That made me think, Chas’n’Davis. I could come up with Cockney Chas’n’Davis style songs about Davis. I started with a new version of the classic ‘Rabbit’, but with ‘Boba’. “Boba-boba-boba-boba-boba-boba-boba-boba…” “You got more Boba than Nugget…” but none of it really made sense. I tried the Margate song. “Daaaaahn to Davis, you can keep yer Farmers Market, I tell that that I’d rather have a pint of boba tea down Davis in the rain.” That works slightly better, the old Courage Best words coming in, but it doesn’t rain much in Davis. I tried one of the Spurs songs. “Ossie’s goin’ to Picnic Day, His Doxie’s in the Derby,” yeah that doesn’t work. So I gave up on the whole Chas’n’Davis idea, it was rubbish. Can’t mix Cockney culture with Davis culture. Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner. That’ll do, more Davis sketches to be posted soon. I can’t stop drawing.

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petescully

postcards of the hanging

Tag: hahnemuhle