Part two (of two) of the ‘downtown snapshots’ spread of my (almost completed) fifth moley; this is Second Street, Davis, night and day. That’s the cool historic Varsity Theatre there, I have drawn it before, and the Avid Reader right opposite, an independent bookstore I worked at in the first half of my years in Davis. Second Street is probably where the heart of this small college town is.
Saturday was Drawing Day 2010, so I used it as an excuse to do another drawing (even though every day I find some excuse to draw something). I have wanted to sketch this interesting looking building on the corner of 4th and G Streets in Davis for some time now. It’s right next to Little Prague. There are i think several busineses are located in this building, one being the Davis driving academy or something, another being the gingerbread real estate co, or maybe I just imagined that last one. I sat in the shade opposite (90 degree weather has finally returned to this part of the world; 90 and rising).
It has been muggy, the weather. It doesn’t feel quite like a Davis June, more like a London June. Still, summer is on the way; I even played some football at our annual picnic, but got tired quick; I felt so old! (Fortunately, old in a Stanley Matthews way). I did some drawing too; I got out today at lunchtime and sketched a building near my work, Cottonwood Cottage, at the HQ of the UC Davis Arboretum. I decided not to add colour, as I like it the way it was. You can guess the colours anyway. Print it out and use crayons. I like these wooden buildings on campus. There are so many of them; they look similar but have a lot of character.
The Dresbach Hunt-Boyer Mansion on 2nd Street is one of Davis’s historic old buildings, flanked on its left by an old tank-house in a little orange-tree yard – hang on, er, flanked on its right. It has been physically moved. I had heard that the local cafe Mishka’s was going to build a new space between the Mansion and the Varsity Theatre, which would mean bye-bye tank-house. Well, the tank-house has been moved, and is now plonked, literally plonked, right on the other side, looking a little awkward and not un-carbuncle-like. So while moocing downtown, I felt I had to sketch it, having forgotten to do so before. It’s not the first time it’s been moved, though; apparently it was relocated to the spot it just left some time in the 70s, from a bit further away. The magical moving tank-house. I don’t know if it will stay where it currently is.
The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center, at UC Davis, is a huge performing arts venue. It’s a pretty spectacular looking building, but I’ve not been inside to check out any performances. One day I will. It’s on the same square at the edge of campus as this building and this building.Years ago, when I did a degree in drama at Queen Mary in London, I took an enjoyable course in places of performance (taught by Dr. Schoch, who would call me ‘Scully’), studying theatre spaces through the centuries, how they allow audiences to relate to the plays or shows, the urban semiotics of the building and how it fits in with its community. Visited at Shakespeare’s Globe, looked at Greek theatres, explored East-End music-halls; it was interesting stuff. I was personally into theatres-in-the-round, and by extension football stadia – I subsequently wrote a piece about the old (and soon to be demolished) Wembley Stadium, but from what I remember it was a fairly tired and so-last-century piece of writing. In my defence, it was the last century at the time, and I probably was tired. I did learn a lot though, reading Marvin Carlson and co, and in fact I still think of what that course taught me when I’m out sketching urban buildings here and there, because I’m always thinking about how each building is a performace unto itself, speaking to and defining its environment, and how each sketch puts that building or that scene into centre stage. Just in case you’re wondering about what goes through my head when deciding how to compose a picture.
Oh yeah… I have changed the layout theme of my sketchblog. New header, wider space for pictures, different colours, and easier to find those categorized things (though some much-needed reorganization still to be done). I like it. It’s long overdue.
The Amgen Tour of California, the state’s biggest cycle race, is currently wheeling around the Golden State to much fanfare. I didn’t see any fanfare when the Tour came to Davis – starting one section here and ending in Santa Rosa – just a few TV vans left over on my way home.
But as I was having dinner downtown anyway, I decided I would draw the latest national tourist attraction to appear in Davis: the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, which occupies this building on B and 3rd. I haven’t been in, but I’m sure it is enormous fun. I imagine it’s like the Guinness World of Records, with exhibits such as the Cyclist Who Could Text and Cycle for Three Whole Miles Without Getting Into an Accident (lots of people try for this record in Davis), or the Completely Invisible Stop Sign (actually most of them are, apparently), or the Severed Head of Whoever it is Who Thinks Stealing the Light off your Bike is Funny (seriously, what low-life nicks a cheap bikelight?). If I ever go in, and find out that it’s not like that, I’ll be seriously disappointed.
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.
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…
The 27th Worldwide Sketchcrawl continued. Naturally I drew California from Davis (that is, Davis Street). You don’t get hills like that in Davis. You don’t get hills at all in Davis. It does remind me though of the hills I used to slog up in Highgate, though the ones in San Francisco are slightly steeper and a tad more dramatic (but completely lacking in Dick Whittington tales). After quickly sketching the bike first, its owner was kind enough to move it out of the way. You gotta be quick.
From there it was time to explore within the Financial District, around all those lovely big corporate banks and their big tall shiny buildings. It’s not a good time in history to be a big corporate bank. Well, that is, if you value public opinion more than making millions of dollars, which let’s face it, they don’t. So I’ll rephrase that. No, actually I can’t be bothered. As back home in London, many shops and things tend to be closed in the financial areas at weekends; funny that. One German hofbrau that I’ve been to before (and on weekends, I add, though it was closed on this day) is Schroeders, on Front St, an interesting old gaff that has been there forever and just begs to be sketched. I finally did so. The street was smelly though, and stank of wee and beggars and booze and spit, not of dimes or dollars or hedge funds.
More sketchcrawl to come…
I took the Amtrak down to San Francisco to join the popular SF crawl. It was an early start for me, the 7:55 Amtrak that I’ve taken many times before. Naturally I just had to draw a quick sketch on the train, while reading the excellent graphic novel Preacher. I wonder if there’s a Saint of Sketchers?
The crawl officially began at around 10:30 by the Ferry Building. Enrico, the Sketchcrawl founder, came by to say the end spot would be Union Square, not Vesuvio – a good decision as there was quite a crowd. (I wished I had an iphone to update the forum, in case latecomers went there). It was a grey and foggy morning; no need for the colourful paints just yet!
There were a few familiar faces there, and I sketched while munching a chocolate walnut brownie bought from the Farmer’s Market (oh man they’re good). An annoying clarinetist provided ‘entertainment’, but seemed unable to ever get past the first bar or so of ‘old macdonald’ before calling out to passing tourists. He was incredibly irritating.
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As sketchcrawlers started to disperse, I headed off, accompanied by fellow sketchers Jana Bouc and Sonia. I wanted to go into the Hyatt and go up to look out of one of the high-up windows. We cheekily managed to get to the members-only top floor regency club, where the staff very nicely allowed us to sketch from their 360-degree window. The view was incredible, and the sun was burning the fog and bringing out the colour.
More to come!
petescully 