it was a sunny january day…

January 23, 2011January 23, 20116 Comments

Yesterday’s “Let’s Draw Davis” Sketchcrawl in Davis was quite an event! We had glorious weather, warm and sunny, and an amazing turnout – I met lots of new sketchers, plus some familiar faces, it was a great sketchcrawl. There were at least twenty-five of us, maybe more. We were even joined by Aggie TV, who filmed us sketching and interviewed me about our sketchcrawls, and that this was part of the 30th worldwide sketchcrawl happening in cities across the planet. We were also joined by ‘Walking Bob’ Schultz, who wrote a piece about us in Davis Life magazine on Friday. You can see that article on DavisLifeMagazine.com. Pretty cool!

We all met at the E Street Plaza at 11, and sketched about the square in clusters, sketching in different styles and sketchbooks. Above are actually three separate sketches which I drew attached to each other. In the middle, the sketcher with the orange hat is Cynthia Sterling, who drove over from Napa. After a while, some of us stopped and went for lunch at a Thai restaurant in Mansion Square, just off E St. I sketched a few fellow sketchers below…

More to come!

let’s sketchcrawl davis!

January 8, 20111 Comment

Saturday January 22 is the 30th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, in which sketchers in cities around the globe will take to the streets and sketch away, as we do. Here in Davis, we’ll be doing the same, so why not join us? We’ll meet at 11:00 by the clock fountain on the E St Plaza (between 2nd and 3rd Sts, opposite Chipotle) and sketch about the downtown until around 3:30pm, when we’ll meet up at the clock fountain again (or in Peet’s Coffee across the road if it’s too cold) to look at each other’s sketchbooks.

Sketchcrawls are fun ways to get out and look at your cities in a new way, and meet other people who like going round drawing stuff. And I love drawing stuff!

If you need any more info, please send me a message, or go to:

All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on! Oh and maybe a scarf. Let’s draw Davis!

let’s draw davis again

November 6, 2010November 5, 2010Leave a comment

Time for another sketchcrawl, I think. If you’re local and fancy coming out for a day of sketching downtown Davis, meet us at 11:00am outside the Davis Amtrak Station (2nd and H Streets). We’ll sketch from there down 2nd Street, with its historic buildings and interesting shops, then turn down E Street, before crossing 1st Street and finishing at Davis Commons, outside Borders (or inside their cafe area if you’re cold). All are welcome! Just bring something to draw with and something to draw on!

If you need any more information, please comment below or send me a message. And if you’re on Flcikr, please join the Flickr group “Let’s Draw Davis!”. And if you’re on Facebook (as so many are), I’ve even set up an event page you can RSVP to.

So come and sketch with us on the 21st! We’ll even sketch if it rains…

we drew davis!

October 19, 2010Leave a comment

Some images from Saturday’s “Let’s Draw Davis!” sketchcrawl. There were ten of us in total, and much was drawn. Above, sketchers Sandra, Mary, Cynthia and Steve busy drawing Cafe Mediterranee. Below left, eating and sketching inside the same place. Below right, Rahman skethcing the carousel in Central Park.

The day ended around 4pm, with lots of tired Davis sketchers. Above left: Anne, Laurel, Clara and Laura show off their work. Above right: Steve and Cynthia with their sketches of Davis Community Church.

And here am I, with my sketchbook. So that was a fun day! I plan to do it again, maybe even next month. If you’re interested in sketchcrawling here in Davis, let me know!

still getting the sketches in

October 18, 2010October 18, 20101 Comment

Unusually on a Sketchcrawl, I stopped and had lunch. Most of the group ate at Cafe Mediterranee on D Street (far less crowded than the eateries around Central Park), and sketched, and talked about sketching. And then, after lunch, I realised that I had never drawn this building, and now was good time to tick that off my ‘to-draw’ list. Very interesting to see everyone’s different interpretations of it!

When I was done (and I found that after going on and on about how wonderful the waterbrush is, I found myself missing my regular brushes – next time I won’t leave them behind!), I got back to practising my people sketching, quickly drawing Steve, Cynthia and Laura. Cynthia (who drove over from Napa; I met her at the USk Symposium in Portland) was talking about ‘ten thousand hours’ I think it was, she hadn’t just dropped her sketchbook…

While eating lunch I sketched on the menu, this was a quick drawing I did of Sandra Torguson, who is a fellow art-blogger from Sacramento. Check out her website, Sandra’s Mixed Bag.

As the Sketchcrawl drew to a close (that pun got old decades ago, by the way) we returned to Central Park, now quiet after the Farmer’s Market had departed, and I sketched the Smooth as silk day spa building (I’d been in there last week for an exhibit in the Davis Art About). I drew small. Very green.

After everyone had gone, I stopped off for a rest in Burgers’n’Brew, and was amazed to discover they had Kwak! My second favourite Belgian beer. After all this time, it’s now in Davis. I have one of those glasses at home, and so it was a nice treat at the end of the day. (Well, even nicer was watching the Giants win in the evening, having already had my beloved Tottenham win in the morning).

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 29

Let’s Draw Davis! Flickr group

sketchcrawling central park, davis

October 17, 20107 Comments

And so (after many fliers and several emails and the odd tweet) the 29th Worldwide Sketchcrawl came to Davis. I met up with several sketchers, some of whom were brand new to Davis (just as I was on my first ‘crawl here at the end of 05), while some were long time locals. We started at the Carousel, davis-mom-central, and when people started arriving I tried my hand at standing and sketching and talking – I’m trying to get the hang of multi-tasking! And sketching people – I figured I’d focus more on that today, hence meeting by the Farmer’s Market.

It was a nice warm day – not like the mid-90s weather we’ve had all week, but still not feeling autumnal in the slightest. I sketched the Kettle Korn stall while people ambled past – I even met and spoke briefly with Michael Corbett, who I had sketched the week before at his book talk.

This is Rahman Azari, a colleague of mine and great artist (I went to see his work exhibited a few weeks ago at the Stonegate ArtFest), trying out the Koi waterbrush and paint set that I had recommended. I also tried a portrait of another sketcher, Mary Hook, who told me about the Davis Civic Arts Foundation (I think they are called) – something for me to check out.

And here are some Mormons, who (with quite a few others) were playing music in the park. They were very pleased to see the quick sketch I’d done of them, so I gave them a sketchcrawl leaflet and told them to check us out. Actually I quite liked the blue guitar, and I am specifically trying to sketch musicians these days.

More to come!!!

See more from around the world: 29th Worldwide Sketchcrawl Forum

sketchcrawl in the morning…

October 15, 2010Leave a comment

Just a reminder… sketchcrawl #29 tomorrow, all over the world (but especially in Davis). We’ll be meeting at 10:30am by the Carousel in Central Park, sketching all day (together or off on your own), maybe stopping for lunch, and then reconvening at 4:00pm back at the Carousel. If you’re in or around Davis and fancy doing some sketching, come by! Juts bring something to draw on and something to draw with, everybody is welcome, and it’s happening all over the world… http://www.sketchcrawl.com

on october 16, let’s all draw davis!

September 17, 2010September 17, 20104 Comments

Here’s an announcement: next month, on October 16th, I am planning a Sketchcrawl in Davis as part of the 29th Worldwide sketchcrawl. We will begin at 10:30am at Central Park (by the Carousel, near the Farmer’s Market), go around Davis sketching things all day, and then reconvene at 4:30pm at the starting point in Central Park to share each other’s sketches. For those who have never sketchcrawled, it’s a fun event which is open to all regardless of age or ability, where you can explore and draw our town in your own personal way, and meet others who also love to draw. All this in the knowledge that hundreds perhaps thousands of people all over the world are doing exactly the same.

Even if you don’t draw, but fancy giving it a go, please come along! Everybody is welcome.

If you are in or near Davis and would like to come sketching with me and others, please join us on October 16. You can contact me for more information, leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you. I’d really like to encourage location sketching around Davis, not just because it’s great fun, but also because a city or town or village is richer for having more artists. So let’s all draw Davis!

sc27: epilogue

May 19, 20101 Comment

After the Sketchcrawl, I popped down to 2nd and Minna to a place I like to visit each time I go to the city: Eddie Rickenbacker’s, a cool pub which has many antique motorbikes hanging from the wall. They also have an enormous cat called Mr. Higgins. Last time I was there, I played several games of chess against my friend Simon,while he discovered that shots of whiskey in California are much bigger than in England! Coming in to warm up and relax, I just had to get one more sketch in, and drew one of the bikes on the ceiling above the bar. It was a 1919 Triumph.

I like the Sketchcrawls. The next one will be at the end of July, when I will be at the Urban Sketching Symposium in Portland. Anyway, here is a map of where I drew last Saturday.

And to see everyone else’s results from San Francisco, visit the Sketchcrawl Forum! There are some really cool sketches there. It was a great creative mixer.

sc27: joined in the race to the rainbow’s end

May 19, 20104 Comments

Keep on ‘crawling.the meeting end-point was at Union Square, but that was many blocks away from the Financial District where I was. I really had to draw some newspaper boxes. Being from the UK these boxes seem so ‘America’ to me. I don’t mean the ones where you get the free paper, like the ones in London that stock all those Aussie magazines like TNT (do they even still have them?), but the ones where you put in your money and take a single newspaper (even though any thief could just nick the lot). I think of Superman, with Clark Kent getting his tie caught. But with newspapers closing nationwide, these things could very well be a historical relic (like the phonebox…)

Something else you don’t see much in American cities these days are streetcar cables, hanging over the traffic. San Francisco still has lots of them; I drew some on the corner of Post and Kearny. These cables remind me of Europe, but not London, where we haven’t had them for donkey’s years (incidentally, if you ever buy a donkey calendar they are incredibly good value because donkey’s years are very long. Never, ever buy a dog calendar though.)

Fire hydrants however will never go out of fashion (at least I don’t think so). I love them, another reminder of ‘America’ (and possibly a Superman film again). We don’t have them like this in the UK. Did you know it’s illegal (or at the very least a bad idea) to park in front of one? If you do, fireman can smash your windows to run the hose through it, I am told. Seems like a bit of an effort, while rushing to put out a fire, threading the hose through the car, squeezing over the seat, meanwhile buildings are burning down. Think about that before parking there next time.

And so the final meet-up in Union Square. I ambled in, saw the sketchers plotted about in clusters, didn’t see anyone I recognized, so sat and drew Union Square’s palm trees. Eventually sketchbooks were passed around and I spoke to some other sketchers, including Enrico Casarosa (Sketchcrawl’s founder), and met fellow Urban Sketchers correspondents Gary Amaro and Marc Taro Holmes, among other very interesting artists. It’s always a big learning experience to meet other sketchers all with very individual styles.

It got cold, as the fog was rolling in, and so after a little while I called it a day. Well nearly a day, still had just a little more sketching to do before going home. More to come…