Been on a little drawing hiatus this past week: the sketchbook will be open again soon! All need a break during stressful times. Meanwhile, did this quick sketch while changing buses in Sacramento, waiting to go to the airport to meet my wife and son. That’s the Capitol Park on L street, as the sun sets.
Second Street, Davis; the Varsity Theater. Today was hot and bright; I sat and drew this in the shade of a tree. The Fall quarter began this week, and there are lots of new students milling about in packs, impressing each other. It’s new year’s day in a college town.
I remembered that exactly ten years ago I moved over to Belgium for my year abroad, and it rained constantly for the first couple of weeks that I was there. A million miles from here, with nigh-on 100 degree weather. And another thought: it is exactly four years since I emigrated from the UK to live in America. The first job I got here was in the bookstore on this very street, directly opposite the Varsity. I don’t think I imagined we’d still be here now. Funny how the years go by. I got myself a strawberry lemonade smoothie, and went home.
A very long and busy week, ending with a haircut and a beer, and some thoughts rolling out of my head and onto the page. Trying something else out. #1 in a series of 1.
Summer’s not finished with us yet, though the Fall presses its nose against the window and demands an earlier opening time. It was over a hundred degrees again on 9-11, and I took a lunchbreak from the busy-ness and drew the outside of work, and not for the first time. Purple Micron. The Math Science Building. I still, even after four years in America, feel funny calling it ‘Math’. To me, and other UKsiders, it’s ‘Maths’, or more properly ‘Maffs’.
I went downtown on Thursday, and stopped off for a big beer at little prague, and as always drew a picture, to unwind. I unwound. Felt better for unwinding. This is a lamp-post at the end of the bar. It may lead into Narnia.
It was 9-9-9 a couple of days ago, and passed without much notice (a good thing). I remember when it was 6-6-6 a few years ago. Next year we’ll have 10-10-10 and then 11-11-11 and 12-12-12 and then we can go back to having a normal life and not caring about unusual dates. Today of course is 9-11, and is called so even in the UK (where 9-11 would otherwise be the 9th of November). Here are some newspaper boxes I drew on 9-9-9, on a lunchtime in downtown Davis. No stool, I sat on the sidewalk (oops, I mean the pavement), as people passed by. These things are so American, these newspaper boxes, the make me think of old films, yellow taxis, steam coming out of the street, hot dog stands (that’ll be New York then). This however is just Davis, but it’s still America, small-town America. Small-ish.
Also posted at Urban Sketchers.
“Ah come on Ted, you never know, there might be something in it. Sure it’s no more peculiar than that stuff we learned at the seminary, heaven and hell and everlasting life and all that; you’re not meant to take it seriously!” – Father Dougal Maguire
I’ve wanted to draw this building for quite some time. I don’t know who the Davis Psychic is, or what they do, but if they have half the prognostic track record of Mystic Pete then they can’t be half bad. Mystic Pete, for those who don’t recall, is the famed predictor of football seasons (that year when he said that Newcastle would win the league! And they came 14th), and I am his representative on Earth, etc etc. He’s taking a sabbatical this year (and coincidentally Spurs start playing well). Anyway back to the Davis Psychic. That’s a bold statement, a yellow house with purple trimmings. Who is the Davis Psychic? Perhaps we’ll never know. Here is the page on the Davis Wiki: http://daviswiki.org/Davis_Psychic. The wiki writers seem to think the Davis Psychic is a mystery figure with a Hummer who elusively hangs up the phone whenever they call (or whenever they crank call, by the sound of it). I wonder if they have an assistant called the Davis Sidekick? Maybe a Dougal type of person, in a tank-top? “Well, I’m very cynical as you know…”
It was so warm and sunny on Saturday in the City. We went up to Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill (and like a nob I forgot the camera) to see the Labyrinth, before heading over to Fillmore Street to have lunch and look around the really cool shops they have there. My wife like ‘Seconds to Go’, a cool second hand store that is in the drawing above, and I loved ‘Paper Source’, a great store stuffed wit many different types of paper for all purposes; I bought some cardstock to make some cards of my drawings. They were very friendly in there.
I sat on the pavement outside Crepevine (where we had eaten lunch) and sketched the colourful street ahead of me. It’s a cool part of a very cool town. There are so mnay different neighbourhoods here. I could draw San Francisco for ever.
Also blogged over at Urban Sketchers.
Well, not really obscura. This is my entry for Illustration Friday, theme of ‘Magnify‘. The camera on the table looking at the living room. Not really magnified, but you could if you want to.
We spent the weekend in San Francisco, staying in a suite at the enormous Hyatt beside the Ferry Building. The view from our enormous wide-screen window was incredible, the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero, and we had blazing hot sunshine on Saturday morning. We even saw Robin Williams at the Farmer’s Market. Naturally I chose to draw just a small segment of this view, looking out at the Bridge (above). Sunday morning saw fog roll in and add the familiar cool summer grey to the City, so I drew again, looking down at the perspective lines racing up at me.
Below is a photo I took on the sunny Saturday morning, the best part of the view (I never had time to sketch it), with the Bay Bridge rising above a light blanket of mist. What a stunning city.
petescully 