those magnificent men with their flying machines

March 19, 2011March 20, 20111 Comment

So, after deliberation and destruction, a UN resolution and no-fly zone was finally ordered for Libya, but despite an apparent declaration of ceasefire, Gaddafi’s forces still pressed on with brutal attacks on the Libyan people, and now we have airstrikes by the West and who knows what next. I just hope it doesn’t mean more suffering, but sadly, it usually does.

I’ve been sketching some of my son’s toys lately in my small WH Smith’s sketchbook, and I started on the ‘air force’ the other day with the small yellow ‘spitfire’ Playmobil plane above. While the rains crashed down outside today (cancelling the Davis sketchcrawl) I sketched some more of the flying machines.

Here’s the toy Duplo fire helicopter. It goes with the previously sketched fire truck. Below, the Playmobil police helicopter – it is a favourite one this. And finally, a yellow toy F-16 jet.

Next: trains…

things that go

February 21, 2011Leave a comment

I like sketching my son’s toys, as it is a good way to capture them for posterity. Here are some of his many vehicles. Above, a taxi cab – very American. I sketched it in my samll WH Smith sketchbook – I rarely use that book these days but it’s really nice, especially for sketches like this.

Here’s a Duplo policeman with his police motorcycle (or ‘motorskykle’ as my son calls it; when he first learned to talk, it was one of the first words he learned and it was always ‘kykle!’) I’ve been trying to find the police car too but no shops seem to carry it. It’s online of course but quite expensive. I’m quite into Duplo and Lego. One of the great things about becoming a father is you get to play with all these cool toys…

And here is one of his Duplo firetrucks. Firetrucks are the big thing. I coloured this one with Staedtler watercolour pencils, I don’t use them often but really like them. They especially have a cool effect when drawing toys.

Next: a fleet of helicopters…

imperial garbage truck

January 28, 2011January 28, 2011Leave a comment

This is my son’s new AT-AT. When he first saw one (its brief appearance in Return of the Jedi) he called it a ‘garbage truck’. It makes perfect sense – it sounds and moves just like one, and to a toddler the connection is obvious. The name has stuck and I’m glad, I always disliked the name AT-AT when I was a kid (but we still said that rather than ‘Imperial Walker’, which is what they’re called in the film, because ‘AT-AT’ is what it said on the box, and Hasbro boxes tell no lies). I remember getting mine for Christmas when I was a kid, it was like the best thing ever, but the little plastic guns kept snapping off. This is the ‘Galactic Heroes’ version, which I must say is really cool (and a lot sturdier). Sketched in blue Micron pen in my WH Smith sketchbook (first sketch in that book in a year and a half).

tractor boys

August 25, 2010August 25, 20102 Comments

I feel like I did this ages ago. There have been so many drawings this month, so much scanning still to get on with. I’m sure I’m not the only Portland-Symposium-participant that feels that. Anyway…this is my son’s toy tractor, a metal green Tonka. Living in the agricultural world of Davis, tractors are inevitable.

Tractor Boys… that’s what they call Ipswich Town supporters, isn’t it. I have family in Norwich, so I should be all anti-Ipswich Town, but I have always quite liked them. They were great back in the days of Bobby Robson, John Wark, and, er, the other guys who were in Escape to Victory. I remember I was in Watford once when they were playing Ipswich, and all these Watford fans were giving Ipswich supporters some stick around town, calling them Tractor Boys and saying oo-arrr, and I wanted to say, Watford? Seriously?

Apologies to American readers, you won’t get any of that. I suppose it’s like people from Nebraska calling people from Oklahoma ‘farm-boys’. Or maybe it’s not. I grew up in London; everyone’s a tractor boy from my point of view. Even me, now.

This little brown sketchbook is in fact finished now. You can see the whole collection of brown sketches, minus a few I didn’t bother scanning, on my flickr site.

brown is the colour

July 27, 2010July 27, 2010Leave a comment

I got this small brown paper sketchbook from the campus bookstore for only 89 cents, and it’s a real find. It has a corrugated cardboard cover and is handbound with a piece of string. These past few days it has become my favourite thing (funny how that happens) and I’ve been scribbling in it whenever I can (starting with the sketches at the Railroad Museum). I tend to sketch more quickly in this book; a drawing will take about ten minutes. Here are some of the things I’ve drawn (all in uniball vision micro pen, for the fellow pen geeks out there).

This is Sudwerk Märzen, a local Davis beer I like. It’s an amber beer, and the Sudwerk brewpub was the first place we visited when we decided to move to Davis. Funny what we may have decided if I hadn’t liked the beer.

This is my son’s toy digger, or rather, one of them (a boy can never have too many construction trucks).

This is Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and part-time firefighter. This is actually my toy. I love Star Wars.

A quick profile sketch of my wonderful wife. I really am trying to draw more faces on the spot and I think this turned out well.

Finally, a quick lunchtime sketch at the corner of A and 3rd streets, Davis. I’ll take this little sketchbook with me to Portland Urban Sketching Symposium I think. I’ve already packed my bag and chosen my materials, I just need a couple more pens (and maybe a new brush) and I am all set.

trash talk

April 30, 2010April 30, 20104 Comments

Toddlers love fire trucks: the shiny red, the bells, the flashing lights. Toddlers love trains, hence the global popularity of Thomas the Tank Engine (who by the way should never be called ‘Thomas the Train’; Ringo will be cross). Toddlers love buses, school-buses, double-decker-buses (and he doesn’t even know about bendy-buses yet). But all of these pale into comparison with what toddlers really love: Garbage Trucks. Rubbish Trucks in the UK, Trash Trucks to others, whatever they are called kids love them. The arrival of the garbage truck can be the highlight of the week, a long awaited and much talked about event even more eagerly anticipated than the World Cup or the General Election (I’m sure some grown-ups will agree with the toddler section there too). The one above is perhaps a current favourite toy in our house. I can’t tell you how many times I have tripped over it. Oh, and if you ever get it for your kid, take the batteries out immediately – it has a way of making funny ‘garbage’ noises in the middle of the night completely of its own accord. Kids don’t care about the noises; they make their own sound effects.

call the engines, call the engines

July 9, 2009July 9, 2009Leave a comment

My wife got me a new small Moleskine diary, and it’s awesome; it’s 18 month so started in July, and fits right in my pocket. I christened it with a drawing of my son’s fire truck, given to him at the weekend by his great-grandma. I might draw in this fairly often, something small to commemorate or represent each week. Maybe.

at my dear land of story books

December 13, 2008December 13, 20089 Comments

Some of my baby son’s toys and books and things. He particularly likes “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?” The large toy at the top is the French one, but his current favourite toy is not pictured: a colourful guitar toy from the backyardigans, whoever they are (apparently they sing a song about the “movers of arabia”, whatever that is).

Drew this in his journal. And this is my entry for Illustration Friday this week, theme “Rambunctious“. I had to ask my wife what that meant, as I think it’s more common a word over here than where I’m from. Full of energy. Babies who are on the verge of walking are certainly that, we are finding.

petescully

postcards of the hanging

Tag: toys