does that star-spangled banner yet wave

February 15, 2010February 15, 2010Leave a comment

First Valentine’s Day, then President’s Day; what next, Pancake Day? (Oh yeah, it is, tomorrow… I promise, this is not a food blog, I won’t post photos of my lovely scrummy proper pancake-day pancakes, they’ll be eaten too quickly)

So anyway, Pres’s Day, I got out into this gorgeous Californian February weather (69 degrees and sunny; how’s that snow, everywhere else?) and cycled about a bit, slowly and aimlessly, before settling on the corner of C and 5th to sketch Newman Chapel (I have drawn it before, a few years ago). there was a flag, as there were on many of the streets, so I added it to the frame. It’s funny, I’m not into the whole flag-waving business, flag-fuelled patriotism, in whichever land, and yet I have always been obsessively interested in flags of all countries. Vexillology is one of my favourite subjects, I can’t get enough of it. That, and football shirts, so I’m already gearing up for the World Cup. Anyway, there I am below, giving the post-sketch analysis with Moley #5. David Devant was on my headphones, though I’d spent most of the sketch listening to Joni Mitchell, and I think it shows.

window olympics

February 12, 2010Leave a comment

The Vancouver Winter Olympics opening ceremony is opening ceremoniously as I type. Well, actually it was three hours ago; even though we are in the same time zone here on the West Coast, we have to watch it at the TV hour that the East Coast dictates (they get to see it live, while we have to avoid twitter feeds). I’d like to go to Vancouver, I hear it is very nice there. In fact every commercial break is another advert for British Columbia to convince me. I’ve always wanted to go to Canada; I lived briefly with a couple of Canadians while in France (one of whom was very good at magic tricks). Well, the place isn’t going anywhere, so for now I’m in California.

None of this has anything to do with the sketch, which I did today at lunchtime, at the Silo. Sometimes, when it’s Friday and you haven’t sketched all week, you just look out of the window and draw.

dome alone

February 9, 2010February 9, 20102 Comments

I’ve been meaning to draw this building for a while, the Islamic Center of Davis; an unusual structure in this town, as it is painted in a very bright sky blue, and it features a striking dome above the entrance (but not actually part of the main building). It was built in 2006. Taking advantage of a sunny Friday lunchtime I cycled up Russell and sketched it. You can see the possibly storm-driven clouds passing in the background. We’ve had some winter weather lately.

really useful engines

February 7, 2010February 7, 20104 Comments

So I had another birthday. I don’t feel a year older though, but I do feel a day older than yesterday. Tomorrow I might feel a day even older. Anyway, I went out on my bike to enjoy the sunny super-bowl Sunday weather, and was attracted (not acttracted per se, but you know what I mean) by the clunkety-clunking noise coming from the railroads down by 2nd street. I don’t know what these things are properly called (which considering my two-year old is an expert on such matters, and an avid Thomas fan), but there were loads of these yellow maintenance railtrucks out, busy at work, rolling slowly down the track, making a good old noise. Some were huge complicated loking engines, others small crane-type machines, like this one, picking up wooden sleepers and doing whatever it was supposed to be doing. I sketched it as it clunkety-clunked by.

from here to fraternity

February 4, 2010February 6, 20102 Comments

One of the many fraternity houses that line Russell Blvd, on the edge of the UC Davis campus. This was drawn over a couple of lunchtimes; I had to cycle back up today to finish off the drawing and add the colour. It was however grey today, so I kept in the fluffy clouds and blue skies from yesterday. And wow, that was some gnarled up tree! This is the Chi Phi frat house. Chi Phi is an old national frat, founded in 1824, but the UC Davis chapter’s been here since 1969. Ok, enough facts. If you’re interested in how it looked after the first lunchtime, the work in progress is on the right there.

And here is the whole spread. Also posted at Urban Sketchers.

three wheels good

January 31, 2010January 31, 20104 Comments

The tricycle. ‘Nuff said. Drawn in purple micron.

long to rain over us

January 22, 2010January 22, 2010Leave a comment

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.

i’ve got a lot of songs but they’re all in my head

January 19, 2010January 19, 20102 Comments

When massive storms are swirling outside, you need to stay in, and draw your home. This corner of the apartment is where we keep the music. Why is it that no matter how many CDs I have I only ever listen to the same few ones? I used to listen to a lot more music than I do now, years ago, or at least it feels like that. Maybe it’s because I don’t spend my weekends jumping about to the crackle of records as I did when I was a teenager, or fall asleep to the repeats of a CD, or commute for an hour plus to the hiss of a tape deck, as I did for too many years in London. I have an mp3 player now, everything on random shuffle. My two-year-old likes music. When we get up together on early weekend mornings we put on some top tunes and rock out with air guitar to our breakfast. He likes ‘Formed a Band’. And ‘Yellow Submarine’. He’s a budding little artist too – that’s one of his finger-paintings on the wall there.

When I was a teenager, it was all about the records, Never Mind The Bollocks, full blast. Not really any feeling quite like it. It’s what teenagers do. If I listen to it now, I swear I can still hear my mum or dad shouting my name up the stairs (not usually to turn it down, funny enough, more often just to come down and make a cup of tea). I guess I have all that to look forward to.

when saturday comes

January 17, 20104 Comments

Last time I drew this bar I mis-spelled the name as Froggies, so I felt I had to draw in there again to rectify my error. It’s actually ‘Froggy’s’. This was the corner of the bar that you couldn’t see in that drawing too.

People were gathered for the American football, the play-offs so I understand. There was ice-hockey going on as well. This is how they spend their Saturdays, and I can certainly understand. I popped into the Soccer shirt shop down the road to watch some Premier League as well; Chelsea were thrashing Sunderland (my own Spurs manged a 0-0 with Hull). This is what Saturday’s are all about, isn’t it? For us men. For so many years, my Saturday’s were about getting what I needed to do done by about 3pm so I could listen to the footy on the radio and watch the scores come in at 4:45 on the BBC videprinter (is that what it was called?). And then late in the evening, Match of the Day, my favourite show. These days, I get my football results as I wake up, via live internet updates on the BBC (and their updater is far more sarky than the man who reads the results at final score). So nowadays my Saturday begins with the footy, and I don’t really care about the other sports (nor the MLS, which is frankly rubbish). So, sometimes, I go sketching instead.

ushers in a drearier day

January 8, 2010January 8, 20103 Comments

It can get pretty foggy in Davis. After long months of summer, then the odd massive rainstorm, and some cold bright winter days, fog is not exactly the most frequent of visitors, but when it comes it comes. It collects on my top as I cycle down the bike path. It soaks the ground like a rainshower. It hangs around all day, sometimes vanishing in the aftenoon like it never existed, other times – like today – lingering like an army of ghosts. Ok, maybe that’s overdoing it. But it was cold today – I know, it’s freezing brass monkey weather in Britain right now, we can’t complain – and I didn’t much fancy drawing. But I decided to go outside and sketch a tree, my first outside sketch in what feels like ages (the last one was in fact this one, just over a month ago in Burnt Oak), and I’m glad I did, I got some fresh air. Or fresh fog, at least.