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.