Saving the world makes you hungry. Even Superman eats noodles (super noodles obviously). Batman must eat bat noodles, Darth Vader must eat dark noodles (he probably sucks them through his breathing mask), and Wonder Woman eats wonder noodles. I went to see that Iron Man film, pretty good, lots of big explosions and confusing scientific gadgetry. One thing I couldn’t get is that in the middle of huge fiery explosions, Iron Man chooses to be walking around in a huge tin can. Does it not get hot in there? I wonder if Iron Man does his own ironing, or gets Pepper Potts to do it.
Tag: micron pen
come on, turn up the sun
When it gets hot in Davis, it gets very very hot. It hit over a hundred degrees today, and we haven’t had rain since oh before you were born. I am not looking forward to July; that’s when the Central Valley simply redefines hot. It is not a fun place to be.
And so I went out in it to draw. There was a breeze, albeit a hot breeze. I had promised myself it would be a drawing day, and so lunchtime I went to the arboretum, found a shady spot, and drew the greenhouse. I’m sure I want to say somehing about the greenhouse effect, but I won’t, I’m too hot.
In other news: I was sad to hear that Celtic legend Tommy Burns had died aged only 51. Gordon Strachan’s tribute was sad too. This a day after their rivals Rangers lost in the UEFA Cup Final. Not a happy time for Scottish football.
tea, california, music: go
So the world-saving-themed sketchbook has started, and the pictures are all from around the home, and the words from all around my head, basically the first thing that comes out. I am hatching like a battery chicken, not always getting what i want, but still life and saving the world is a learning process, for all involved. Am I making it all up as I go? you may as well ask if I’m making up life as I go, or if all of us are. So, part one, make tea. I love my tea. Part two, a bit more drastic, move to california. Hey I did it, the world was nearly saved, obviously a few more steps before it can be completely saved though. Part three, listen to music, that’s easy, you can do it anywhere these days. Just avoid will young.
Sorry the pictures are so small you can’t read the words. I did that on purpose, because I wanted them to fit as three rectangular windows in a line (and because learning the secrets to save the world should not be easy); but with the magic of clicking, you can see the full size, at the flickr site where my pictures are hosted (I paid for it, so I’m using it).
blue, blue, electric blue
Illustration Friday: Electricity
The IF topic this week was more interesting than recently, I think, and I had all these ideas, yet none really turned on the lightbulb, you know? Then I realised that all things in nature resemble each other, and if you had to describe the shape of electricity, frozen electricity, hardened into a solid object, it wouldn’t look a million miles from a bare tree. A Van de Graaf tree. Or, for that, the patterns of a river delta seen from the air. Or the capillaries underneath the skin.
Or maybe I’m barking up the wrong pylon?
you’re gonna be the one that saves me
This week I received a small thin moleskine sketchbook, which I am to fill with drawings etc to the theme of “How to Save the World”. 
It is for the Sketchbook Project, an event organized by the art house in Atlanta, Georgia; they mail out 500 sketchbooks worldwide to people who have signed up, the sketchbooks are filled and returned, and then exhibited all together. It’s a pretty interesting event, though being so far away I’ll not see it.
It reminded me a bit of the 1000 Journals Project; I bought that book last year, and was blown away at the creativity of some people. I’m not sure I’ll be quite as colourful, I will probably just draw as I always do. Except without watercolour, I don’t think the thin paper will be able to handle it.
I decorated the cover already, there it is look. And some of my pens. And, appropriately enough, a super-villain/anti-hero. I may post some of the contents from time to time. It must be finished by the end of July.
stop dreaming of the quiet life
What a great week for british football, what a bad week for the labour party, what a terrible week for London. Now let’s see how many election promises boris can break (banning bendy buses? you are, as they say, avinalarf, intya). My own week started off badly; After a sad rescue attempt, I finally abandoned the bike, being unable to move the back wheel at all. I felt very sad, like I was shooting my horse or something. None of my tools could fix it (yes, I have the odd tool). Then a bird pooed on my new trousers and favourite shirt. I’ve also been off drawing, just haven’t been able to do it, partly just bored with the same trees at lunchtime, partly head interior all fuzzy. Hey, it’s May; funny how that happened so quickly.
This is the back of my building at work, lunchtime today, from a bench. I will draw in colour again, I promise.
tombé en panne
Today was very hot in Davis; not good for allergies, not good if you hate bugs, not good for redheads like pete. After spending the morning playing guitar to the baby I decided to get out on the bike to draw. My bike, however, did not think so. After twenty minutes, on the bike path, it just died; the back wheel refused to spin. I wrestled with it in the heat for an hour, getting filthy, before taking it to a bike shop, where they apparently fixed it by turning a nut with a wrench. Ok, thanks, yes I tried that with my bare hands, that might have been the problem. I cleaned up, and finally got to draw something, choosing a particularly nondescript corner, in fairly nondescript sepia, because I was in a mood.
I then got on my bike to go home. And after ten minutes, the chain went, and then five minutes later the back wheel stopped again, stopped like a french worker in striking season (that’s about this time of year, usually). I had to abandon it, I had no phone with me, there were no payphones, and so I walked home defeated in the heavy heat.
I think the phrase is ‘Bugger’.
sitting in his nowhere land
The last, or the 24th if you prefer, of the You See Davis word/image unrelations. It has been fun. I will do more, similar things of equal unimportance. There may be slight differences. Rounded edges, perhaps.
This could be anywhere.
But it’s the large metallic window-sparse building called the ‘Death Star’ locally. I don’t know why; it’s not round, it has no superlaser, as far as I’m aware it has the ability to process a lot of paperwork but not yet functional to destroy planets, and I think its exhaust pipes are a little better protected. Maybe the locals know something I don’t? Tractor beams? There are a lot of farmers here…
the day breaks, your mind aches
I’m in California, but this is Aix-en-Provence. I spent a year there from 2001 to 2002; I met my wife there, and she met me there too. I drew this last night, Micron Pen 01, and intended to add a wash, possibly in a warm sepia; I still might, but quite like it as it is.
Aix is art country. I did draw a lot while I was there, and paint, but I wish I could go back and draw and paint more, in the way I do nowadays. The light is amazing there – like in California, but possibly better. You have toi watch out for dog-poo though, and dog-people. Et les nains de jardin au parc jourdan, bien sur.
petescully 