drawing to a close

30, drawing

#30 of 30, and that’s that. This sketchbook is finished. These are some of my current sketchbooks – the moleskine is in between the big watercolour one and the small wh smith one. I’ve had a pen, or a crayon, in my hands ever since I had hands. I’ve always drawn, always, even if for some years I didn’t really draw all that much. It’s funny though, but I feel it’s just the last few years that I have really come back to it and put myself into it, drawing daily and posting online. It’s like, full circle; I have had many many interests, and things I’ve tried out, and I still do, but drawing was the first thing I did, and it is still what I do.

So the series ends. This was a series of thrity things about me, that you may or may not have known. I specifically chose a mixture of fairly mundane things and fairly interesting things, but these are not necessarily the most important things. Similarly, I’ve drawn different views around the apartment (similar to the How to Save the World series), and kept the words as unkempt and off the cuff as possible.

Here then is the final list. Makes sense when you look at it like this.

I hold my pen in an unusual way

picture book

painting city hall

The late January sunshine has been replaced by early February rain (much needed, considering California is running out of water as well as money), but here are a couple of photos of my sketchbook in the weekend’s sunshine. I’ve nearly finished this one; a new one is on the way…

seeing triple

half the world away

I finished the world-saving sketchbook project back in June, and mailed it off last month in a purple envelope (from paperchase, if you’re wondering), and tomorrow (Fri Aug 22) it will be exhibited with, well not quite 499 others (not all those sent out were finished), but quite a lot of others. The project is run by the arthouse co-op in Atlanta, Georgia (not that Georgia, the other one), and the event will be kicking off at around 7pm eastern time (or 4pm here on the West Coast; that’s midnight to you in London).

saved

And it will be streamed live online at http://www.arthousecoop.com/live/. So Londoners, tune in when you get in from the pub (ok, watch it from the still-open pub on your iPhone, but make sure it doesn’t get nicked by any hoodies or anything), and keep your eyes peeled, maybe you will catch a brief brief glimpse of my little one. Sketchbook, that is.

I have been looking around the information superhighway lately (remember when it was called that?) to see who else has done this project, and compiled the following admittedly short list of fellow world-savers. Didn’t actually find many, so I was pretty pleased to discover two others based in Davis. Most interesting to see all have interpreted the project uniquely; I think I might be the only one however to advocate using a spider-killing aerosol as a means of saving the world, but each to their own I guess…

Karen Blados (Cleveland, OH) 
Blue Bicicletta (Davis, CA)  
Pica (Davis, CA)
Planetmithi (Bristol, UK)
This Chicken (Oxford, UK)
Joseph Tomlinson (WA)  
JT (Cleveland, OH)  
Craig (Cleveland, OH)  
Woman of Color (Atlanta, GA)  
Kirihargie (Portland, OR)
Metrochic (Scottsdale, AZ)

Needless to say, if you too have done this project and have put the pictures somewhere the world you have saved can see them, then I’d like to add your sketchbook to this list . Hope the show goes well; I hear there may even be a book.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthousecoop/
http://arthousecoop.blogspot.com/2008/07/mail-time.html

floating in a most peculiar way

draw stuff
walk more
sketchbook project coverParts 4 and 5 of saving the world, with shoes and sketchbooks. The top one shows three beloved sketchbooks, the first a regular whsmith one used between june 06 and october 07, the second a lovely black material bound whsmith sketchbook, i used between december 06 and may 07, and the bottom is the first watercolour moleskine i used in the second half of last year. I won’t describe all of the shoes in the second drawing (two pairs of adidas though; funny, like most Brits I stress the first syllable of adidas, where Americans stress the second, ie, adeedas)

By the way: it was 105 degrees today in Davis. It has never ever been that hot in England, and believe you me, you don’t want it. I’ll be back in the UK soon to cool down a bit.

we need to talk

something important

The 22nd of the You See, Davis series (see the rest here); this 24-pic davis-themed series will end soon, and has been a little slow in completing lately, but has so far gone from autumn to spring.

If you eat out in America, you may know this feeling. You’re in the middle of a sentence, when “So how is everything today?” inserts itself rudely across the table. You’ve just taken your second large bite of your roast chicken, when “would you like to see the dessert menu today?”. “Can I get you a refill on that?” after two sips of a diet coke. See that’s not good service, good service is knowing when not to butt in.

my baby don’t care for clothes

 baby & bunny part 1baby & bunny part 2

One of my art goals this year is to learn to draw baby. One particular baby. So far I’ve mostly drawn him asleep; only twice have I drawn him awake, both times from a photo. Above are the second attempts; the boy with his easter bunny. I drew in pencil and scanned before adding watercolour; still learning. I tell you what though: the top he’s wearing, I totally want that top in daddy size. It’s damn cool. Luke’s got some cool baby clothes. Of course, he quite likes to stain them.