Tag: silo

let me put you in the picture, let me show you what i mean

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the silo oct 2011

Yes, keen eyes will notice that I have drawn this thing before, the UC Davis Silo, place of many a lunchtime sketch. In fact I drew from this very angle just a few weeks ago, sat by the bins eating lunch, as you do. I thought, now that’s a nice angle, with some nice colours, I’ll draw that again, but bigger, on a standalone piece of paper that I can maybe frame and put in an upcoming exhibition. I spent a couple of lunchtimes on this, listening to a couple of podcasts (one being David Crystal’s talk about Evolving English at the British Library, the other being the Guardian’s Football Weekly. Footy and Language History, my two favourite subjects), finishing off at home. The big furry rocketship. One change in the past few eeeks since that last drawing, and it’s a colour change (that doesn’t involve turning leaves), the big yellow umbrellas are gone, replaced with skimpier green Starbucks-infused ones. Did it smell sitting by the bin? I would be lying if I said it didn’t, but only when the person who empties the bins took it out and sat it next to me. Man those things smell bad. If that’s what Artoo-Detoo smells like on the inside no wonder C-3PO is always mad at him. The big Recycle sign, well that complements the Silo’s tower of course, but it’s also very Davis, the city of the environmentally conscious.

the wizard’s tower

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the silo

As I said before, lunchtimes are more crowded now that the students are back in town (such exciting daily reporting from Davis, California! Tune in tomorrow when I tell you whether there were any chocolate croissants at the coffee shop or not) Anyway, seating being limited I sat out in the shade with a different view of the Silo, and one that I could not resist putting into the sketchbook. Yes, that’s ivy covering the Silo tower. With a few more windows that would be a brilliant place for a fantasy-story wizard to live. The Wizard of the Silo, sounds like a mystery novel already. Well, NaNoWriMo is coming up, why not write it? Here’s the plot: in the hot, hot valley there lived an old wizard, who despite the heat always dressed in a long thick robe, and wove ivy into his long flowing beard. (I know what you’re thinking, ‘another bloody hippy’, but let’s carry on with the story). Anyway, this wizard had grown tired of all his magic and all his crows (that’s a thing, there used to be loads of crows in Davis but you don’t see them any more, where are they all? Sorry, back to the story) and … actually you can finish the rest, I’m bored of this epic tale already. Never mind NaNoWriMo, I’ve given up before it’s even October. Well, I have a lot of drawing to do for my December show…

meet the new boss, same as the old boss

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view from bainer uc davis

I sketch this every six months, once in the winter, once in the summer. It’s been a routine since about 2007. Sometimes I do a lot of detail and it takes me a couple of lunchtimes, and other times I go quickly and do the lot in one fifty-minute sitting. Above is one of the latter. I did it last week using a green micron 02 pen and a black micron 05, colouring in watercolour as always.

To see the one I did in January, with all of the previous ones in the same post, have a look here.

shah thing

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halal truck at uc davis silo

There is a truck outside the Silo at UC Davis these days that produces the most incredible lunchtime aroma of middle-eastern food, Shah’s Halal Food. I don’t eat there very much, because the line is always really, really long. One time I ate there too, there was a bone in my chicken. But let me tell you – it’s the tastiest and I mean tastiest food on campus. Yes, it beats the Thai soup, just about. Anyway, though I didn’t have the patience to wait in line to eat there last Friday, I did sit outside and sketch the truck as hungry patrons waited patiently.

lunch on

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in the silo

Another lunch-place sketch. Every day this week I have sketched a different place I’ve been eating lunch (all with a fountain diet coke in the foreground). This is in the Silo. I had Taco Bell. I don’t usually sit downstairs on the big long tables with the other people. Ok, it’s because of the overheard conversations. I left out the chattering folk in this one. Thankfully Silent Bob was at the end of the table. Or is it Silo Bob? Where will my lunchtime adventures take me tomorrow..?

february blossom

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february blossom

Though this was technically done last month (it was last week; February is a short month) this is how Davis looks right now. There is pink blossom appearing on many trees, and Spring in the air. I love it when the blossom arrives, it reminds me of Springs when I was a kid. Burnt Oak may be known for graffiti, litter and the odd burnt-out car, but there are lots of trees that blossom in the Springtime, making the world look nice and pretty, if only for a short while. Davis has such trees too. This was outside the bike barn, over at the Silo, during lunchtime when the sun was out.

breathe in, breathe out

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south silo uc davis

This is the South Silo, UC Davis, as sketched from the steps of Bainer Hall. I sketch this scene every six months (with leaves, without leaves, breathe in, breathe out) and have done so since about 2007. It was a pretty chilly day, last week (sunny, but not as warm as later in the week). I like this time of year; you get leafless trees, and the shadows they produce.

Here are the previous ones…

uc davis trees encoreno leaves for yousmoky and the bikebarnlunchtime sketch by the hog barnrainy rainy daybike barn from bainerbikebarn from bainer (yet again)the view from bainer, again

roll out the map, and mark it with a pin

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the silo

This drawing of the Silo at UC Davis, done yesterday lunchtime. I’m trying something out. This is drawn in dark brown Pitt pen, in a regular moleskine sketchbook – the same one I started exactly four years ago and abandoned due to my dislike of the paper (my micron pens couldn’t get the hang of it, and it absolutely hates watercolour). But I have a new project, a Davis drawing project, that I want to put into my Urban Sketchers moleskine, the one I got at the Symposium in Portland. It will be a series in the same format as the above, more or less. Should be fun!

the great outdoors

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outdoor adventures, uc davis

Going outdoors is an adventure for me these days; it is high pollen season, and means itchy eyes and runny noses. I did some of this outside and the rest inside. Outdoor Adventures, the other half of the oft-drawn Bike Barn, at the oft-drawn Silo complex of UC Davis. The clouds really were plentiful and fast-moving. They are making the most of the Californian spring, before migrating north or south or wherever they go for the summer. They don’t let clouds into the central valley during the summer, just in case they lower the temperatures below a hundred for a few minutes. I’m not looking forward to the Davis summer heat. It will be my fifth unbearably hot valley summer. You’d think I would learn.

assumed by arts unknown

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back to the pens

I’ve been having a little sketching break – I don’t know if I meant to or not, but my mind has been under important things – but managed to draw on tuesday lunchtime. It’s not a good drawing, and is just of the Silo once again, but even during these periods it is important to at least exercise the fingers (in fact I brought two end-of-life micron 01s to a shuddering end with this particular sketch). I feel as though this drawing is like a few words spoken in the middle of the night, before going back to sleep. I’ll be back drawing again, I know it.

I like October, the month of changes. I don’t know if I like this October in particular much, but at least the air is cooler, crisp and inviting.